The Carleton Musical Theatre Society (CMTS) will be returning to the stage with its production of Into the Woods from March 22 to 25 at the Carleton Dominion Chalmers Centre.
For the cast and production team, the show has been three years in the making. Opening night was originally scheduled for March 18, 2020, but due to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the executive team made the decision to postpone the production indefinitely.
“[It was] obviously a difficult decision, but the right one,” cast member Jaime Sadgrove said.
CMTS attempted to remount the production in January 2022, but had to postpone once again due to the emerging Omicron variant.
On the third try, artistic director Troy Arsenian said the cast and production team are excited to bring this production to the stage.
“It’s really exciting to finally get to put the show on stage and get to show it to an audience,” Arsenian said. “We’ve been working on this a lot.”
Into the Woods is a musical retelling of popular fairy tales, such as Jack and the Beanstalk, Rapunzel, and Cinderella, as their characters and stories intertwine. In the second act, the show goes further to imagine what happens after the ‘happily ever after’ fairytale ending.
Many members of the cast were not able to return for this version of the production following its three-year hiatus, due to full-time employment obligations or having relocated.
The director, stage manager, choreographer as well as three members of the cast have remained involved in the show since the beginning. The rest of the cast and production team were brought on for its second or third iterations.
Alana Malanga, who has been involved in the show since she was originally cast in December 2019, said it will provide her a sense of closure.
“[For] some people, it’s their first time auditioning for something in Ottawa, and for others, it’s a closure thing,” she said. “It’s really cool to see us all unite with some different intentions but with the same goal of just finally making this show happen.”
Malanga was cast in the role of Rapunzel when she initially auditioned for the production, and in December 2021, she was recast into the role of Jack’s mother.
Malanga was 18 when she was first cast as Rapunzel. Now 22, she said transitioning into the new role has been an indicator of her growing maturity during the last three years.
“I took the direction of Jack’s mother as almost the polar opposite to playing a princess,” she said. “Jack’s mother is a lot more of a grounded and honest woman whereas I had to play [Rapunzel] as very timid, very innocent. Character-wise, that was a huge transition.”
As the Baker, Sadgrove has also been part of the production since 2019. After graduating from Carleton with a bachelor of communications and media studies in 2020, they said they “jumped at the chance” to come back and be part of this production.
In the show, the Baker navigates a curse a witch places on his family after his father stole vegetables from her garden. Sadgrove said they have been getting to know their character for the past three years and is excited to bring the Baker and the messages he promotes to a live audience.
“He goes on a really interesting journey of coming to understand what happened with his parents and making sure that he doesn’t make those mistakes himself,” Sadgrove said.
Opening night will be a special performance for the cast and production team, as it is taking place on the show’s composer and co-writer, Stephen Sondheim’s birthday. The famous American playwright and composer died in November 2021—between when CMTS first launched this production and when they’re now getting to perform.
“It just adds to the emotion to open on his birthday,” Arsenian said.
Sadgrove added the members of the cast are honoured to pay homage to Sondheim on opening night.
“It’s very special to get to perform the show and doing it on his birthday adds a little cherry on top,” they said.
Tickets are available online.
Featured image provided by Jaime Sadgrove.
