BELLOWS FALLS — Next Stage Arts presents a Wild Goose Players production of “Into the Woods” at the Bellows Falls Opera House.
The Wild Goose Players present Stephen Sondheim’s musical on April 22, 23, 29, 30 at 7:30 p.m. and April 23, 24, 30, and May 1 at 2 p.m.
Featuring haunting music, fantastical sets and costumes, giants and witches and more, this show will keep you spellbound from start to finish. The production includes the creative team and company that brought “Chicago,” “Sweeney Todd” and “Jesus Christ Superstar” to the Opera House Stage.
David Stern, the director of the play, was excited to be back, bringing a show to the opera house after having to cancel “Cabaret” three days before it was to open because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We have been at it for eight weeks. It’s our big return to the opera house after a few-year hiatus,” Stern said.
Cast members from “Into the Woods” go through rehearsals at the Bellows Falls Opera House on Thursday, April 7, 2022.
Cast members from “Into the Woods” go through rehearsals at the Bellows Falls Opera House on Thursday, April 7, 2022.
Cast members from “Into the Woods” go through rehearsals at the Bellows Falls Opera House on Thursday, April 7, 2022.
Cast members from “Into the Woods” go through rehearsals at the Bellows Falls Opera House on Thursday, April 7, 2022.
Cast members from “Into the Woods” go through rehearsals at the Bellows Falls Opera House on Thursday, April 7, 2022.
Cast members from “Into the Woods” go through rehearsals at the Bellows Falls Opera House on Thursday, April 7, 2022.
Cast members from “Into the Woods” go through rehearsals at the Bellows Falls Opera House on Thursday, April 7, 2022.
PURCHASE PHOTOS
Nominated for 10 Tony Awards (and winning three), this epic musical adaptation of Grimms’ Fairy Tales covers multiple themes: growing up, parents and children, accepting responsibility, morality, and finally, wish-fulfillment and its consequences. Time Magazine reviewers wrote that the play’s “basic insight … is that at heart, most fairy tales are about the loving yet embattled relationship between parents and children. Almost everything that goes wrong — which is to say, almost everything that can — arises from a failure of parental or filial duty, despite the best intentions.”
Stephen Holden wrote that the themes of the show include parent-child relationships and the individual’s responsibility to the community.
James Lapine said that the most unpleasant person (the Witch) would have the truest things to say and the “nicer” people would be less honest. In the Witch’s words: “I’m not good; I’m not nice; I’m just right.”
