Video: Meet the New Cast of INTO THE WOODS on Broadway!

Hello, I'm Richard Ridge for Broadway World

We're at the St. James Theatre to catch up with the new stars who have just joined the company of Director Lear de Bessonet's

stunning production of Into the Woods. So here we are in the lobby of the St. James, Into the Woods

How excited are you? I'm so excited! It's the best, best thing ever

It's crazy. It's a little bit heady and the more I think about it

the worse it gets, so I just try not to. But that first day that we were all together

for the first time. I walked in and Stephanie was in the middle of singing moments in the woods

and I really just stood there being like, what am I doing here

But they're really wonderful, kind people that I really enjoy knowing. I don't

quite know what to say. It has been a dream. It's been a world win. It's all of the emotions because

it's the holy grail of musical theater. And it's impossible to pretend like we haven't lived

through the last couple years of our lives, right? So to almost be plucked out of that malaise and plopped into this extraordinary show

and this particularly extraordinary production with these unbelievable artists with your wife

playing, you know, playing together. It's truly the dream of lifetime. And I don't mean that to sound trite

It doesn't happen like this. So we are savoring every moment of this experience and just trying to be in that moment

so that we can honor the peace and what this will mean for the rest of our lifetimes

It's wild. I mean, you know, we call COVID the great parentheses. It's been a while

And so to come back to Broadway with this show with the hubs telling this story that is so beautiful and artful and important I couldn have curated a better way to come back to Broadway

It's been a true gift. There's a line in the show that says opportunity is not a lengthy visitor

So when he and I got this call, our life wasn't necessarily set up to just come back to New York

A lot of moving parts had to happen. But you don't say no to this opportunity

You say yes. And so we moved mountains to be here, and we're so grateful

and we're sucking the marrow out of every second that we get to share this story together

You know, if you're in a pandemic and you don't understand this show

it's like you're not a human. You know what I mean? It's all about love and loss and the importance of community

and staying together and taking care of each other. And, honey, that's what this show does

It's like we, the curtain, you know, the curtain goes up. Everybody explodes

We haven't done anything yet. Not a note, not a word. And, like, they're just so excited to be here

And it's so wonderful to be able to give this show back to them, really

I was surprised with the audience, really. It was like a rock concert when we came out on stage

Every single character that they cheered for as soon as they showed up was amazing

I think it's because this show means so much to so many people, including myself

I saw the show and did the same thing. I applauded for everybody. I knew sort of what was coming

story that we were about to embark on, and I couldn't wait, and I needed to applaud

and I needed to scream, and I needed to yell. And by the end of the show, everybody's just

having such a good time. Okay, so favorite part of Into the Woods that you love in this show

that you don't do? That's like you hear from backstage or whatever. Oh, my gosh. I think hearing

Stephanie J Block sing justify the beans those exact lyrics every night it just satisfies I literally missed my entrance in the put because I was watching my wife sing

Moment in the Woods. And, you know, I will freely admit that. I'm sorry, I'm a fan

Well, you know, it's hard. Like, the whole point of it is that it's hard

And that's the hardest thing you'll ever do. The hardest shows you'll ever do are Sondheim shows, which I know, because I've done them

And this one is particularly rough. You know, it's a lot of counting

and, you know, whatever. But it's also so amazing when you get it right

Which I've not yet done. It's hard. Hot take, it's hard. But again, it's rewarding

It's like anything that is difficult that once you then get it

it's the feeling there's nothing like it. You know, when you finally get that weird interval right

you're just like, I can do anything now. I like to say everybody wants to do into the woods

not everybody wants to learn into the woods. She's a complicated beast, you know

And with this particular show and the way Lear de Bassinet decided to mount it at City Center

with just those handful of days of rehearsal, she wanted to follow suit with the Broadway company

and with the replacement company. And there's something wildly beautiful about trusting yourself, trusting each other

with just those handful of days to learn it, not giving yourself enough time to get in your

own way or to self-sabotage, right, with fear or whatever noise happens in your head

And when we jumped that Tuesday, it was a real feat of trust. But the story speaks for itself

And if you give it your heart and you are where your feet are when you telling the story you going to tell the truth And I think that really what taking liberties here But that what I think Steve Sondheim and James Lepine would want with this is tell the truth

And another thing that I love is that when that curtain goes up

and we're not actors yet, we're just people, I think that's the key

is like, I'm standing here, I see you, I see you, see me

let's do the next three hours together. That's the magic stuff that allows this storytelling

and this fairy-telling. and this fairy tale to take on a different life because we get to meet them first as people

and then embody as an interpreter or a storyteller and then go on that whole journey with them

Yeah, that particular moment, that design, that idea that Lear had to just sort of step forward and be storytellers

before were these characters and just commune for a moment. We know why you're here

You know what we're about to do. Let's do this together. I think it is sort of the magic

that starts us off on this fairy tale. You know, she tells us to meet the fairy tale

And I think that 20 to 30 seconds or so where we all kind of just look at each other

they see us, we see them, I think it sets us off on a beautiful path

because we all know what we're about to get into, right? And there is something magical around this production

There is a synergy. I don't think I could put my finger on it

except to say that it's fair to say that everybody in that building knows how grateful they are to be there

how special this experience is, and how it doesn't happen like this

And I am savoring every last second of it, I can tell you, truly from the bottom of my heart

this is the experience of a lifetime that I will be thinking about for all of my days