OKLAHOMA CITY UNIVERSITY PRESENTS

INTO THE WOODS



Jillian Gottlieb is the Witch and Keslie Ward is
Little Red Ridinghood in "Into the Woods"
Photo provided



Stephen Sondheim’s Tony-winning musical “Into the Woods” will make its Oklahoma City University debut April 26 through 28.  Performances are 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, with a 3 p.m. Sunday matinee on the historic Kirkpatrick stage of OCU’s Bass School of Music at N.W. 23rd and Blackwelder. 

Tickets ($12-25) are available from www.okcu.edu/tickets or (405) 208-5227. There will be a free pre-show talk 45 minutes before curtain at each performance.

The irreverent comedy is a Brothers Grimm mash-up featuring an ambivalent Cinderella, a blood-thirsty Little Red Riding Hood, a Prince Charming with a wandering eye, a cursed baker and his wife.

Director Karen Coe Miller calls her production “funny and moving...a modern fairy tale that examines the way we construct the stories of our lives and pass those stories on to our children, often with unforeseen consequences.”

“While many musicals focus on one or two main characters, ‘Into the Woods’ is a true ensemble piece and a great vehicle to display the enormous scope of our student talent on the stage and in the orchestra pit,” said Matthew Mailman, musical director of the 27-piece orchestra and cast of 19. He cited the “genius writing of Stephen Sondheim and the expert orchestrations of our newest alumnus, Dr. Jonathan Tunick.” The Tony-, Grammy-, Emmy- and Oscar-winning orchestrator, Tunick, received an honorary degree Tuesday from Oklahoma City University.

“Into the Woods” premiered on Broadway in 1987 and in London’s West End in 1990, and has since been revived and featured abroad and in national tours. A film adaption is in the works featuring Meryl Streep as the witch. It will be directed by Gary Marshall.

For more information on upcoming OCU performances, visit  www.okcu.edu/music  or  www.facebook.com/bassschoolofmusic.

From the press release