After the success of Shakespeare’s “The Tempest,” Arlington High School is excited to present their rendition of Stephen Sondheim’s Into the Woods musical which is set to open February 28 at the Byrnes Performing Arts Center. 

Sondheim’s musical is an old, dark comedic tale starring five exceedingly well known fairy tale stories written by the Grimm brothers and seeing the starred characters accomplish their goal to receive their happy ever afters and the consequences that come with their achievement followed by the crude dark humor to accompany the tragedy.

This is a bigger production with two casts due to there being 80 auditions for a cast of 20. Everybody involved has had to put extra work to prepare for their roles and the set production has had a budget expansion because directors are planning to have a flying set which they’ll achieve by using rigging systems to fly their handmade trees onto the stage for a more realistic feel of wandering through the woods, which will be a newer feature for the crew to manage.

“I expect our set to be kind of an issue because most of our set is being flown in. It’s not a physical set…We use our rigging system to fly in and out. So I think that will be a fairly large learning curve for the actors and crew members,” Kaylee Preder (12), stage manager, said.

“We have, gosh, 40 really hard working actors. We’re gonna have 20 more instrumentalists… We have a big crew of people that want to be appreciated” Mr. Hanson, the main director, said. “Set costumes and everything in between for this show is around $20,000.”

“Personally, as the baker, I work at a bakery to help prepare for the role. Also I need to study what it’s like to be a father. So I’ve talked to my dad about being a father because the baker wants to be a father” said Kohl Hubbard (12), who’ll be playing The Baker. “We have three or four different directors helping.”

Many people behind the production of Into the Woods believe that it’ll make more profit from tickets than The Tempest due to the much higher appeal of musicals and because of Sondheim’s bigger fanbase.

“Musicals always perform better at Arlington. They’re just more popular. Also, Shakespeare tends to scare off some audience members, whereas Sondheim has some stronger fans” said Hanson.

“Shakespeare is hard to sell in general because a lot of people aren’t able to understand what the heck is being written,” said Preder.

Audience members should be advised beforehand that even though the characters featured in the show are from childhood tales, the musical itself isn’t as cheerful as you may expect.

“Even though it’s a play about fairy tales, maybe avoid bringing the younger side of kids because it’s a more darker take on these tales,” said Hubbard.

“There are some things that you’re probably going to have to prepare for…  It’s funny, but it’s also sad. It’s all over the place,” said Hanson.

Despite all the dark aspects and events that occur in the show, there is a moral to be conveyed to the audience, and to the others behind the scenes.

“There is darkness and tragedy and that it is going to hurt. But nonetheless, you need to embrace it a little bit and keep moving forward… The second act is particularly dark. So I hope the audience can draw a sort of gain a sense of hope in dark times” said Hubbard.

“Being a part of this show means belonging in a community. Theater is a very strong community. Whether you’re in cast, crew, or pit, it is very much a strong community that you create really special bonds with,” said Preder.