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 have. 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 a

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. You know

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 been a true gift You know there 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, you know? A lot of moving parts had to happen

but you don't say no to this opportunity. You say yes. And so we moved Mao

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

the 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 Inch of 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're 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 very, 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 we're 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, where 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