Regional NewsKlea Blackhurst Will Lead Opera North's Into the Woods
Evan Pappas will direct the Tony-nominated Stephen Sondheim-James Lapine musical.
By
Andrew Gans
July 19, 2024
Casting is set for Opera North's upcoming staging of Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s Into the Woods, which will play the company’s summer home at Blow-Me-Down Farm in Cornish, New Hampshire, August 1-4.
Directed by Evan Pappas, the cast will feature Klea Blackhurst as the Witch, Maureen Brennan as Jack’s Mother and Cinderella’s Mother, Noah Rogers as the Baker, Ilanna Starr as the Baker's Wife,
Erica Fletcher as Little Red Riding Hood, Nathan Savant as the
Wolf, Sergio Manzo as Cinderella’s Prince, Abby Brodnick as Rapunzel,
Joanna Kim as Cinderella, Simon Brea as Jack, Siyi Yan as Florinda, Carlyle
Quinn as Lucinda, Alexandra Burkot as Cinderella’s Stepmother, and
Seth-Emmanuel Clarke as Narrator/Mysterious Man.
Into the Woods—with a score by Sondheim and a book by Lapine—opened on Broadway in 1987 for a nearly
two-year run. The musical was nominated for 10 Tony Awards and won
three, including Best Original Score. The recent Broadway revival was
nominated for six Tony Awards, including Best Revival of a Musical.
The limited engagement will also have musical direction by Artistic Director Louis Burkot, set design by
Nate Bertone, lighting design by John Bartenstein, costume design by
Rebecca Ming, and sound design by James McCartney.
The new trailer showcases the scale of the production design, as well as a first listen to the power ballad "Waiting on a Wish," one of the new original songs by Pasek and Paul.