Maple Place Students Venture 'Into the Woods'

I have to confess something right up front: I have seen Into the Woods three times on Broadway over the years, so to say that I'm not partial to this musical would be like saying Jules on Cougartown doesn't like red wine.

But I wondered as I drove over to Thursday afternoon how middle school students would handle the linguistic acrobatics of all of Sondheim's words, words, words.

My fears were quickly put aside as I watched Eliza Howard, who plays the Witch, glide through some tricky word play and then saw the whole ensemble march through the musical's theme song. By the time Gabby Scerbo and Alex Dunn performed "Hello Little Girl," as Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf, I had a huge smile on my face.

Check out the video clip from Thursday's dress rehearsal and look for Patch at one of the three performances this weekend (Friday and Saturday at 7 p.m. and a Sunday matinee at 2 p.m.).

Editor's Note: While I'm sure Lily Anderson is fabulous as one of the musical's narrators, I inadvertendly wrote in an earlier version of this article that she played the role of the Withch. Seventh grader Eliza Howard plays the part of the Witch, and beautifully at that.