INTO THE WOODS Cast Struts the Red Carpet on Opening Night

Hello, I'm Richard Ridge for Broadway World

Following a critically acclaimed sold-out run at City Centress famed Encores, director Lear de Bessonet's glorious new production of Stephen Sondheim and James Lepine's musical classic

Into the Woods has come to Broadway's St. James Theater, and we're here on opening night to celebrate with the company

New, Milky White, solidarity. It's like food people didn't know they needed, you know

It's the material. All of that is, I think, really baked into..

the material and the timelessness and the poignancy of, you know, community and loss and

and people making mistakes and I, it's a really, it's just such tremendous timeless material

To be outside at a show opening with you, seeing you, being in this space, it's a beautiful night

It's emotional because we have been, we've been shut up and I don't know about you, but I didn't know if this would, I didn't know if this would happen again

I didn't know people would feel safer, comfortable to sit in the theater, and I'm so glad that we all are, that we're back

It's been really special. It's been a milestone. It's like one of those big career moments where you get to check it off your list to be in a Sondheim show on Broadway

I mean, it's such a dream, quite frankly, and to be in it at this time with this group of people

I think it's a show that really is quite healing, and so it's nice to feel like you're a part of something that is

you know, premi back to you as much as you're giving to it

I got the opportunity to play the witch at the Hollywood Bowl, and I remember that performance It was only three but God that where I fell in love with the witch and her and what she was about and just the music of this show And it stuck with me all through the pandemic And then to have another moment to recreate some of that and to go deeper with an amazing past I was so elated and just so excited to come back like this

So magical beyond my wildest dreams. This has been my favorite show since seventh grade

and I've been off book for it since seventh grade, so I can't even begin to tell you how much of a dream come true this is

My heart is fluttering and there's a knot in my stomach, but it's like the best feeling in the world

And this is, you know, I could have never dreamt up this sort of Broadway debut

And I am so grateful and so excited and just beaming with joy

It feels like we're in a sandbox, especially with Gavin, who's my main scene partner

It's so much fun all the time, and we continually find different ways to tweak the comedy and just to experiment

And that's what you want to do as an artist on stage. I mean, it's never set

You want to keep playing, keep growing, and keep exploring into the woods. We're very relieved that we're opening

I love your glasses. Sorry, I'm like obsessed with you right now a little bit. No, but we're so thrilled

We're thrilled to be bringing this show to the stage again. I mean, it's so pertinent right now, right

We need it. I think it's the perfect show this summer for everyone to just come together and laugh and heal

It's beautiful. I'm so excited to be a part of it. Living in the world of Steven Sondheim and James the Pine

It like the old days man It like the old days I was in the original Sunday in the park with George And then not too long after that which you may not know I did a workshop of Into the Woods

I played Rapunzel and like Lucinda or Florinda, and I can't remember which

But yeah, so this all means a lot to me. Well, I've never done a Sondheim before, you know

so it really was a breakthrough for me to understand exactly why he's so great

I knew it was great, but not personally. Now I know personally. They created such a fantastical world, specifically in Into the Woods

That's just so much fun to be a part of. I love that it's not constricted to just like our reality

So many things can take place, and they're all so real and make so much sense within this world

I'm just so grateful that I get to be a part of it. Well, I don't know what I did right, but I've gotten to do Sunday in the Park with George twice

and now I'm doing Into the Woods on Broadway, and it's one of those things you just have to remember

if I told my teenage self when I played the Baker at Ridgewood High School

and still couldn't sing, by the way, still can't, that I would be doing this, and we're doing an album

it's a pinch me, it's a pinch me moment, and it's such a great group. Usually companies are either good or happy

and this is good and happy. It's a fairy tale, honestly. I feel like a princess, move over Cinderella

and it's just a dream come true. And it's such a blessing after Stephen's passing

and I just know that he's smiling down on us with this incredible innovative production

I just feel so grateful and so blessed. I feel very lucky to be able to see people in the audience who look like us seeing fairy tale characters come to life who look like them Because as far as I know there never been such a diverse professional productions ever

And so to be a part of that is beyond meaningful for me

We have an incredible diversity, equity, and inclusion director, Nicole, and also Gavin

They have this idea to invite people who would never get to go

to an opening night on Broadway. I reached out to her and I said, you know, we get given opening night tickets as cast members

And I said, what if people are willing to donate some of those back to underserved communities

who might not be able to come to a Broadway opening? And that's a way we can change the experience and say, you're included at every step of the way

Everybody deserves a seat in this opening night so you can have an experience that can hopefully grow a new theater producer, a new theater director, a new theater owner someday

And we have 55 students that are going to be in the audience tonight, and I think they're going to be in the front two rows and in the mezzanine, and they've been getting glammed up all night, they've walked the red carpet

It's all Nicole Johnson and the Harriet Tubman Effect Institute. It is an amazing organization that is only two years old, and it keeps growing and finding ways to eradicate white supremacy and systemic racism in our industry, and we're all working together to make it happen

As a kid, theater was a lifesaver for me. So for all of those people out there getting to discover it to enjoy kind of the misfit toys that find their way to the theater industry and to be storytellers for a living is, I think it's life-saving

It's life-changing, certainly. And for many people, it will truly allow them to find themselves here on Earth