Once Upon a Time.........
Familiar fairytales. Familiar songs. A familiar venue. The Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis might be winding down its 2022-2023 season, but it has brought some fresh faces to town for a popular, Tony-award winning musical.
For most of the cast of "Into the Woods", this is their first appearance at the Guthrie, including Kym Chambers Otto. She plays Cinderella's stepmother in this tale that weaves some of our most beloved fairy tales together, all the while exploring what it means to go into the woods.
"That can mean several different things, going into the darkness, going into hardships, going into experiences that are not easy and coming out of the woods with a different understanding of perspective of life," explains Otto to WCCO's Laura Oakes.
"Into the Woods" is the Guthrie's first piece of musical theater since 2019. Otto, who is also an accomplished singer and music teacher, says she was drawn to the complexity and depth of renowned composer Stephen Sondheim's work.
"The text is smart, the layers that you can peel away," Otto says. "So it's not surface material. It's not something that somebody may just catch a hooky tune and be able to hum it and sing along with it. But the more you dive into the artistry of how he writes, the more satisfying it is."
The original "Into the Woods" debuted in 1987 based on the music of Sondheim and the book by James Lapine. The musical intertwines the plots of several Brothers Grimm fairy tales, exploring the consequences of the characters' wishes and quests. A Disney film adaptation, directed by Rob Marshall, was released in 2014. The film grossed over $213 million worldwide, and received three nominations at both the Academy Awards and the Golden Globe Awards.
"Into the Woods" is at the Guthrie through August 13th.
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