"Into the Woods" Singers Knock 'Em Outa the Park

Posted by Bruce Miller

The Musical Theatre Cabaret that cast members from Into the Woods performed this past Saturday night at midnight (and will trot out again this Tuesday evening, Aug 7, at 8pm) is nothing short of fantastic. The lively, 2-hour show is presented on the lobby stage at Barksdale Willow Lawn, with the audience sitting at tables and enjoying unbelievably delicious homemade baked goods from the kitchen of Zak Resnick’s mom, and spirited libations from mix master Russell Rowland at the cash bar.

All proceeds go to support the Richmond Theatre Artists Fund, which is a good and important cause. The Fund exists to provide immediate financial relief to members of our theatre community if and when severe illness or accident places them in a financially untenable position. Over the past 15 or so years, I can remember at least four times when beloved theatre artists found themselves in desperate situations through no cause of their own. In each instance, the whole community jumped in to help with thousands of dollars of life-saving support.

Some of us old timers started the fund, which is administered by RAPT and managed by the Community Foundation. But in this instance, it’s the young Turks who have decided to lend their voices, literally, to get us one step closer to raising our ultimate goal of $200,000—enough to pay out about $10 K per year without dipping into the principal. I know, I know, it may take 15 years to reach our goal, but Rome wasn’t built in a day.

Tickets are $25, or $20 for Barksdale and Theatre IV subscribers, or $10 for cast members from other shows. Or if you can’t afford the $25 or the $20 and you want to come, I’m sure no one will object terribly if you pick a show that you’d like to be in and ask for the $10 rate. But come hungry. Proceeds from the scrumptious desserts also go to the Fund.

The high wattage cast includes Zak Resnick (who headed the whole thing up and is a Broadway star in the making if ever there was one), Amy Hruska, Jackie Jones, Katrinah Lewis, Rita Markova, Kim Reuter, Drew Siegla, Craig Smith and Hannah Zold. Robyn O’Neill makes a great cameo appearance, and Rachel Abrams is a high hoot as host. Best of all is the incomparable Sandy Dacus, making the piano sing during every number.
Every number is a high point, but if I had to pick out a few to highlight, I could not resist praising:

Opening – The New World from Songs for a New World by Jason Robert Brown, sung by the entire cast;

Unusual Way from Nine by Arthur Kopit & Maury Yeston, sung by Rita Markova;

Run Away with Me from The Unauthorized Autobiography of Samantha Brown by Kerrigan and Lowdermilk, sung by Zak Resnick;

Way Back to Paradise from Marie Christine by Michael John LaChiusa, sung by Katrinah Lewis;

Captain Piggle Wiggle from The Magic Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle by Chad Henry, sung by Jackie Jones; and

Run, Freedom, Run! from Urinetown by Greg Kotis & Mark Hollman, sung by the entire cast. (And don't forget, Urinetown opens soon at the Mill and it should be really great!)

All in all, it’s a glorious night at the theatre. Please call for tickets today at 282-2620.

--Bruce Miller

"Into the Woods" Gives Back

As if doing a full length Sondheim weren’t enough, several of the rising young stars of Into the Woods, now playing on our Signature Season at Willow Lawn, are joining forces to produce and present a Musical Theatre Cabaret as a benefit for Richmond's Theatre Artist Fund.

Zak Resnick (one of our charming Princes, pictured to the left), Rita Markova (our lovely Cinderella) and Drew Seigla (Jack of “fee fi fo” fame) will be joined by Amy Hruska, Jackie Jones, Katrinah Lewis, Robyn O’Neill, Kim Reuter, Craig Smith and Hannah Zold as ten of Virginia’s finest theatre voices come together to present a harmonious evening of musical magic.

There will be two performances of the Cabaret on the lobby stage at Barksdale Willow Lawn. Performance dates and times are Saturday, August 4, 12 midnight (following the Saturday evening Into the Woods performance) and Tuesday, August 7, 8 pm. Patrons will sit at tables, cabaret style, and the house and cash bar will be open 30 minutes prior to curtain.

Tickets are $25 ($20 for Barksdale and Theatre IV subscribers and anyone holding Into the Woods tickets for August 4, $10 for our young company members from Disney’s High School Musical). All but $10 of each ticket price is tax deductible. Everybody who’s anybody in the theatre community will be there, and it’s going to be FUN. So call the Barksdale box office to make your reservations today – 282-2620.

All ticket proceeds will be donated to the Richmond Theatre Artists Fund, a program of the Richmond Alliance for Professional Theatres (RAPT) and the Community Foundation. The Richmond Theatre Artists Fund helps with the emergency needs of metro Richmond theatre artists who are confronted by insurmountable financial challenges due to major illness or some other tragedy beyond their control.

Prior to the establishment of the endowed fund, the theatre community raised emergency funds on a case by case basis. Over the past dozen or so years, theatre artists have raised tens of thousands of dollars to:
provide new housing for an actor with AIDS who lost his job and was thrown out onto the street when his condition was disclosed,

make mortgage payments for a lifelong theatre administrator who was about to lose her home as her husband (a theatre tech director) struggled for more than a year with brain cancer, and

pay for critical medications for a cherished actress fighting against terminal cancer.

So why not support a GREAT cause and enjoy a wonderful evening’s entertainment at the same time? Three cheers to Zak and company for this wonderful gift to our community. I hope to see you there.

--Bruce Miller

Meet the Cast of "Into the Woods" – Part II

Every few months, someone will step forward to complain that Barksdale and Theatre IV keep casting the same people over and over, and that new people may as well not audition, because Richmond’s theatres run closed shops.

It is completely true that Barksdale and Theatre IV benefit greatly from an informal company of national caliber/Richmond-based actors who, if we’re lucky, perform once or twice a year on our stages. We believe this practice serves both audiences and artists well.

However, it is completely untrue to say that newcomers don’t stand a chance. During the Signature Season that is now concluding at Willow Lawn, we cast 62 different roles in five productions. The great news is that 31 of the actors who performed those roles were performing at Barksdale Willow Lawn for the first time since we assumed leadership in 2001.

Three of these exceptional “newcomers” are playing leads in our hit summer musical, Stephen Sondheim’s Into the Woods. All three attended high school in Greater Richmond, and have since moved on to larger markets to pursue their careers. All three are performing with Barksdale for the first time.

Rita Markova is doing an absolutely magnificent job as Cinderella. She’s beautiful, as anyone can see in an earlier blog entry, and acts and moves with intelligence and assurance. But it’s her voice, an exceptional lyric soprano, that simply knocks me off my feet. Rita recently played Maria in West Side Story at the Arts Center of Coastal Carolina and New Jersey Concert Opera. She also appeared in Cats at Northern Stage, Titanic at Media Theatre, and Godspell, A Chorus Line and Grease at Shawnee Playhouse. Coincidentally, Rita originated the title role in the world premiere workshop of Rumpelstiltskin’s Daughter at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Theatre IV will be presenting the official World Premiere of the finished script during our 07-08 Season.

Rita attended Godwin High School during several of her student years, and is a graduate of New York University with a Bachelor of Music degree in Vocal Performance.
Visit Rita's website

Zak Resnick cuts a dashing figure as Rapunzel’s Prince and a second Wolf. Again, I refer you to the photo that appears in a previous blog entry. A rising junior at Carnegie Mellon, Zak is truly someone to watch. Last summer, Zak vaulted to the big time when he was cast in Broadway and Beyond with the legendary Ann Reinking and Ben Vereen. Shortly thereafter, Zak made his NYC debut in Scott Alan’s prestigious Monday Night’s New Voices series.

But Richmond audiences are not unfamiliar with Zak’s many talents. At the Firehouse, he appeared in Bat Boy and starred in The Last Five Years. He also saved our necks once a couple of years back. Due to some difficulty I can no longer recall, we were forced to cancel a performance of one of our Willow Lawn productions—it may have been Anything Goes. As fate would have it, the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts had booked a large number of seats for the cancelled performance on behalf of a group of supporters who were coming in from out-of-town. We couldn’t bring the group in to see our show, so, at the last minute, faithful friend Stephen Rudlin put together a full evening’s cabaret performance to take to the Museum, and Zak agreed to perform. Not only was he terrific, he helped us fulfill a major responsibility and defuse a potentially explosive situation.

The third “newcomer,” at least to us, is Drew Seigla, who is charming everyone’s socks off as Jack (of Fee Fi Fo Fum fame). Drew is studying classic voice as an undergrad at Juilliard in NYC (probably the most prestigious performance training program in the nation). He made his opera debut with Le Nooze di Figaro in Rome two summers ago. Last summer, he was an apprentice at Flat Rock Playhouse, the State Theatre of North Carolina. One earlier summer during his Richmond high school years, he appeared with SPARC in Footloose at Theatre IV’s Empire Theatre.

Referring back to Part I in this Meet the Cast series, if anyone can give Ford Flannagan a run for his money in the physically fit competition, Drew is probably the man to do it.

One of the best features of the Into the Woods cast is that the supporting roles are filled by new and veteran talents who are just as amazing as the leads. Amy Hruska (Cinderella’s Mother, Granny, Giantess, Sleeping Beauty) was our hard-working music director and pianist for Annie Get Your Gun, James Joyce’s The Dead, Olympus on my Mind, They’re Playing Our Song and Where’s Charley?, but she hasn’t acted on Barksdale’s stage since appearing as one of the sisters and the cousins and the aunts in Gilbert and Sullivan’s H.M.S. Pinafore at Barksdale Hanover Tavern way back in 1981.

Jackie Jones, on the other hand, is back as Jack’s Mother in Into the Woods, but she works so steadily in Richmond’s theatres that it’s hard to think of her as “back.” Jackie recently brought down the house as Letitia Peabody Primrose in Henrico Theatre Company’s On the Twentieth Century, somehow shoehorning that star turn in after two consecutive gigs at Barksdale Hanover Tavern in Over the River and Through the Woods and Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap, which immediately followed her critically acclaimed turn at Swift Creek in Steel Magnolias. As busy as she is beloved, Jackie is a true charmer.Visit Jackie's website

Katrinah Carol Lewis (Lucinda) is back after performing so beautifully in Intimate Apparel.




Kim Reuter (Rapunzel) lends her magnificent voice to Into the Woods after completing a year of touring with Theatre IV.





Craig Smith (Cinderella’s Father) is sharing his talents with us at Willow Lawn while simultaneously sharing his theatre with us at Steward School. All right, the state-of-the-art Kramer Center is not exactly his theatre, but it’s where he teaches Acting and English and heads the theatre program during the school year. And Steward School will be sharing the Kramer Center with us for the second incarnation of the Greater Richmond High School All Star Musical, which opens in July.

Harriet Traylor (Cinderella’s Stepmother) is truly a Barksdale favorite, having graced our stage as Regina in The Little Foxes and Miss Maudie in To Kill a Mockingbird.




Eric Williams (Steward) is being all aristocratic now, but a few months ago he brought tears to every eye as the brother recently released from prison in Smoke on the Mountain at Barksdale Hanover Tavern.



Completing our cast of 17 is Hannah Zold (Florinda), who is fast becoming a Barksdale and Theatre IV musical mainstay. She recently turned in wonderful performances in The Wizard of Oz, Mame and The Full Monty.



Richmond theatre is blessed to have so many talented artists working in its midst. I hope you’ll catch their inspired performances this summer in Into the Woods.

--Bruce Miller

"Into the Woods" Earns Rave from T-D

The first critic has spoken, and declared Into the Woods to be a “MAGICAL” summer hit! Susan Haubenstock’s assessment appeared in Monday morning’s Times-Dispatch (April 18), and the review’s headline and sub-headline said it all: “Barksdale gets Ambitious, Scores” and “Work on Sondheim Classic is Dazzling in All of its Facets.”

Stephen Sondheim is almost universally recognized as the greatest Broadway composer and lyricist of the final third of the 20th Century. Described by Frank Rich in the The New York Times as "the greatest and perhaps best-known artist in the American musical theater," he is one of the few people to win an Academy Award, multiple Tony Awards (seven, more that any other composer), multiple Grammy Awards, and a Pulitzer Prize. His most famous scores include (as composer/lyricist) A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Company, A Little Night Music (my favorite musical), Follies, Sweeney Todd, Sunday in the Park with George, and Into the Woods, as well as the lyrics for West Side Story and Gypsy (probably my second and third favorite musicals).

The stellar cast we have assembled for Into the Woods is second to none. “The performers are a true ensemble,” writes Haubenstock, “with Steve Perigard’s low-key baker and Rachel Abrams as his spunky wife perhaps at the center. Robyn O’Neill is vibrant as the witch, and Rita Markova makes a lovely Cinderella. Russell Rowland and Zak Resnick are both hilarious as lascivious wolves and roving-eyed princes; Ford Flannagan’s narrator reminds one of Joel Grey with his lightness and grace. Drew Seigla plays Jack (of beanstalk fame) as naive but lovable, and Jacqueline Jones is his brash, exasperated mother.”

“But the scene-stealer here is Audra Honaker as Little Red Riding Hood, who earns a laugh with every line and applause with every exit. The character is written funny, to be sure, but Honaker’s deadpan performance ratchets every gag up from chuckle to guffaw.” Haubenstock goes on to praise our brilliant director and choreographer (Robin Arthur), our music director (Jimmy Hicks) and our designers (set – Mercedes Schaum, costumes – Terry Snyder, and lights – Lynne Hartman). To those well deserved kudos, I’d like to add a special thanks to our indefatigable production crew, led by my greatly respected and invaluable colleagues: Bruce Rennie, Tech Director; Richard Koch, Production Manager; and Ginnie Willard, Production Stage Manager.

As Haubenstock suggests, Into the Woods is a hugely ambitious production for a theatre of our size. Phil and I feel privileged to be producing such a rewarding show, and to have the opportunity to work with such talented theatre artists.

For the full review of Into the Woods, go to: Richmond Times-Dispatch review

FOLLOWUP-Read another rave from Richmond.com, go to: Richmond.com review

To puchase tickets, call our Box Office today at 282-2620. I know you’ll enjoy this glorious production.

Special thanks to the Title Sponsor of Into the Woods, Village Bank, who helped make this production possible.

--Bruce Miller

"Into the Woods" for a Wonderful Summer

It was so much fun to attend the exhilarating Opening Night of our ’07 Summer Musical, Stephen Sondheim’s glorious Into the Woods. Joining in Friday evening’s celebration of Director/Choreographer Robin Arthur’s magnificent production were past and present Board leaders (and spouses) Rhona Arenstein, Roy Burgess, Kevin and Jeannie Kilgore, Charlotte and Andy McCutcheon, and Sara Belle and Neil November. Bifocals All-Stars Tom and Carlene Bass, John and Mary Jane Board, Vaughan Gary and Lyde Longacre lent enthusiastic support, as did Richmond theatre luminary Suzanne Pollard, who was beaming ear to ear throughout intermission.

The irresistible Essie Simms, who, legend has it, hasn’t missed a Barksdale production since the founding in 1953, brought Connie Sarvay, former Program Director at Westminster-Canterbury. Melinda Scott, Theatre Coordinator at Westminster, came as a special guest of the Novembers. Isabella Witt, who has been irreplaceable in the Barksdale family for decades, joined them for the evening’s festivities.

Also raising a glass to the new production were steadfast volunteer Jean Hartley, and dedicated staff members Sara Marsden, Andy Boothby, Joy Corbin, Judi Crenshaw, Catherine Dudley, Jackie Gann, Sarah Grady, Amy Sullivan, Wendy Vandergrift and Jennings Whiteway (who staged the tantalizing post-show reception).

Chase Kniffen, director of this summer’s Disney’s High School Musical, escorted his sister, Mary Carter Kniffen, in celebration of her high school graduation earlier this week. High School Musical cast members Gray Crenshaw, Hannah Miller and Andrea Ross eagerly soaked in the performances, anticipating their rehearsals that begin on Monday.

Several of Central Virginia’s most talented theatre artists were particularly enthused to realize that this was Barksdale’s first Sondheim since Sweeney Todd in 1982. Sandy Dacus, Paul Deiss, Tony Foley, Richard Koch, Dee Lynch, Jennifer Massey, Vickie McLeod, Joseph Papa, Melissa Johnston Price, Jim Smith-Parham, Linda Snyder, Jill Bari Steinberg, Erin Thomas, Robert Throckmorton, Lynn West, Donna Whiteway and Joy Williams enhanced the evening with their presence.

To whomever I’m leaving out, please forgive me. It was a busy night.

Director and Choreographer Robin Arthur, Musical Director Jimmy Hicks, Lighting Designer Lynne Hartmann, Costume Designer Terry Snyder, Props Master Jay Dempsey, Light Op Lynwood Guyton, and deck crewmates Virginia Varland and Jason Weinbarger all graciously accepted kudos as the audience waited for the actors to transform from witches, wolves etc. and join the party. Stage Manager Ginnie Willard, Assistant Stage Manager Rick Brandt, and Sound Op Wendy Vandergrift worked diligently to address various technical issues that needed their attention.

When at last they appeared, the 17 actors who make up our amazing cast were greeted with praise and admiration. The multi-talented ensemble includes Rachel Abrams, Ford Flannagan, Audra Honaker, Amy Hruska, Jackie Jones, Katrinah Lewis, Rita Markova, Robyn O’Neill, Steve Perigard, Zak Resnick, Kim Reuter, Russell Rowland, Drew Seigla, Craig Smith, Harriett Traylor, Eric Williams and Hannah Zold.

Appreciation was also showered upon our gifted orchestra, including musicians named above plus Claire Archer, Taylor Barnett, Jay Calabro, Bentley Cobb, Sarah Davis, Susan Davis, Doug Draucker, Rusty Farmer, Damian Muller, Roxanne O’Brien, Robert Quallich and Alex Samawicz.
As always, I will leave it to others to critique the show. But Phil Whiteway and I are thrilled with the production and proud of all the talented artists involved. We look forward to a long and glorious run of this enchanting American musical.

If you love great theatre, don’t miss this funny, soaring masterpiece from the foremost Broadway composer and lyricist of the last forty years.

Richmond Times-Dispatch review

Special thanks to the Title Sponsor of Into the Woods, Village Bank, who helped make this production possible.

--Bruce Miller