BWW Interviews: Timing is Perfect for Otterbein's INTO THE WOODS

Kevin Thiel doesn't see any particular challenge in performing Otterbein University's INTO THE WOODS four months after Hollywood released the musical as a feature film.

"Actually, the timing is just great," says the junior from Perrysburg, Ohio who plays the baker. "It's going to bring more main audiences into the theater. Hopefully the movie will bring more people out to see our show. That's a great thing."

The musical is set to open 7:30 p.m. April 9th at Cowan Hall's Fritsche Theatre (30 S. Grove St. in Westerville).

Otterbein took a similar chance last year, performing LES MISERABLES less than a year after a big budget motion picture was released. That production was warmly received with large crowds and critical acclaim.

Thiel is hoping the same thing will happen with the Otterbein's version of INTO THE WOODS.

"We came into the rehearsal process thinking we aren't going to try to repeat exactly what they did in the movie," he says. "We're going to do our own show."

It took more than 25 years for the Stephen Sondheim musical to go from its Broadway debut to the big screen. The musical, which won Tonys for best musical score, best book and best actress in a musical in 1988, incorporates the lives of several Brother's Grimm fairy tales as they meet in an enchanted forest.

Anchoring the musical are Thiel, Jenna Miller (Baker's Wife), Erin Ulman (Witch), Jordan Donica (Wolf/Cinderella's Prince), Tommy Betz (Jack), Alex Armesto (Mysterious Man), Monica Brown (Little Red), Melanie Sierra (Cinderella), Natalie Szczerba (Rapunzel's Prince) and Aubree Tally (Jack's Mother).

Other characters include J.T. Wood (Steward), Quinn Lazenby (Milky Milk), Christopher Marth (Cinderella's father), Lottie Prenevost (Granny/Cinderella's Mother), Caroline Kane (Snow White), Leah Windahl (Sleeping Beauty), Alison Schiller (Stepmother), Dana Cullinane (Lucinda) and Lauren Kent (Florinda).

Each character has their own list of wants and needs - Cinderella wants to go the ball, Prince Charming wants a princess to call his own, the Baker and his wife want a child, and Jack wants his cow to give some milk. Those who have their wishes granted in the first act have to live with the consequences of it in the second act.

"I'd say INTO THE WOODS is a complex story about many people's journeys," Thiel says. "It's about wishes and what it takes to get your wishes and at what cost do your wishes come."

Miller says the characters in the play aren't like the animated, Disney friendly fairy tales many grew up on.

"You're trying to put on three or four stories at once and that has been one of the cohesive challenges is taking everything on as a whole," Miller says. "(The Baker's Wife) definitely driven and has desires like any person. In the woods, she comes upon princes, princesses, spells and just has a great time."

The Baker is one of Thiel's dream roles.

"I think The Baker is the epitome of a man who is up against the whole world," says Thiel, who played Malcom in Otterbein's production of THE FULLY MONTY and Benjamin in the university's production of YELLOW BONES. "All he wants is very simple: he wants to have a good life. In order to have that good life, you have to go into the woods and in pursuing that good life you are going to run into all these obstacles."

INTO THE WOODS opens 7:30 p.m. April 9 at Fritsche Theatre at Cowan Hall (30 S. Grove St.) The show will be performed 8 p.m. April 10-11 and 16-18. It will also have a 2 p.m. matinee on April 12 and a 10 a.m. matinee April 15 for high school students.

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