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“My name’s at the top of the cast list. When I saw that, I freaked out,” the OHS senior said.
But the way Geyer talks it’s clear she’d be happy taking any role in the show, first produced in 1986.
“I love this musical so much. Act II is just the best,” Geyer said. “(Sondheim) is a genius. He really is.”
Sondheim populates “Into the Woods” with famous fairy tale characters, including Cinderella and her stepfamily, Jack and his mother (of beanstalk/giant fame), Little Red Riding hood and her lupine nemesis, Rapunzel and her prince, Snow White and Sleeping Beauty.
Their stories interweave so intricately and ingeniously that it would take too much time to recap the plot. But it basically breaks down into two neat halves, the first half in which the characters get the things they need to be happy and the second half in which reality intrudes and everybody discovers there’s no such thing as happily ever after. Everybody always wants more than they got or aren’t happy with the things they thought they wanted so badly.
John Reimler said he and his wife and co-director, Lisa Reimler, picked “Into the Woods” because it was a new and formidable challenge, not only for the students but for them as directors. Neither one has directed a Sondheim musical before, although Lisa has twice acted in “Into the Woods” — as the witch and Cinderella.
“Into the Woods” and Sondheim in general is a challenge, Reimler explained, because the songs are so lyrically dense and the song melodies require great skill to pull off, especially because the orchestra arrangements usually don’t give the singers a tune to hitch a ride on.
“In musical theater, Sondheim’s about as close to Shakespeare as you can get,” Reimler said. “With the depth of the lyrics, it does work on so many different levels, like Shakespeare. ... There are a lot of words, but the lyrics are so awesome.”
Senior Jake Hollnagel plays the baker, a lead character who yearns for a son but is under a curse that leaves him childless. It’s Hollnagel’s sixth show at OHS and his last musical. He’ll miss the camaraderie that happens as a show comes together, especially the summer musical which goes from casting to the stage in a matter of weeks.
“As cliched as it sounds, we really do come together as a family,” Hollnagel said.
The show features more than the usual number of freshmen and Hollnagel said they’ve progressed amazingly in the course of rehearsals. “It’s fun to watch the young ones come in and grow,” he said.
Juniors Taylor Hoeft, who plays the baker’s wife, and Robin Earlywine, who plays Cinderella, are relative newcomers to the OHS stage. Both had relatively small roles in last year’s musical, “Seussical,” and Hoeft had a small part in “Nicholas Nickleby,” but leaped into leading roles because they put so much onto the stage as minor characters.
“I think it’s important to make the most of whatever part you’ve got,” Reimler said. “This is a really good cast. I have no complaints about their work ethic, that’s for sure.”
AT A GLANCE
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