DILLARD, Ga. — Well…Cinderella, Rapunzel, Little Red Riding Hood, and Jack and the Beanstalk are all there, but the musical “Into the Woods” is not exactly typical children’s fare.
The sophisticated Stephen Sondheim show, which will run for three weekends in September and October at North Georgia Community Players in Dillard, takes these characters from Grimm’s and other fairy tales, lets them sing and emote, and each gets his or her wish fulfilled. And that’s just in Act I.
In Act II, considered the darker half of the show, the old proverb “be careful what you wish for” comes to life, as the characters learn just what can go wrong with their earlier dreams. It is not for those aching for a Disneyesque happy ending, but the music and turmoil will intrigue seasoned theatergoers, and many regard the Sondheim score—and the script, by James Lapine—as simply unforgettable.
Sondheim, who died five years ago, was called “one of Broadway history’s songwriting titans, whose music and lyrics raised and reset the artistic standard for the American stage musical,” in his New York Times obituary.
Songs to remember
The composer’s most celebrated numbers in this show are “No One is Alone”—sung by four principal characters, singing:
“Sometimes people leave you
Halfway through the wood
Others may deceive you
You decide what’s good
You decide alone
But no one is alone”
Two other hits are “Giants in the Sky” (that would be Beanstalk Jack’s song), and “Agony,” a comic duet between the princely suitors of Cinderella and Rapunzel.
The story of a baker and his wife frame the show, and Sondheim has them take us through the title woods and into the destinies and desires of the others, as they try to fulfill their own wish of having a child.
The score’s songs are so plentiful that musical director Amy Smith calls it “practically an operetta” and she noted that it’s by far the hardest of the three consecutive NGCP musicals—the previous ones were “The Sound of Music” last year and “Fiddler on the Roof” earlier this year—in which she’s directed the music. Those previous two shows’ memorable tunes give singers plenty to do, but “Into the Woods” makes musical demands—as Sondheim’s music typically does—that boldly test actors’ limits.
“Every time I told people what show I was doing, their reaction was the same,” says Smith, “’Oh…that’s hard.’”
She’s since seen why: there are musical phrases that surface repeatedly in the score, “so you’re often wondering, ‘Am I in the right spot in the song?’”
A struggle behind the scenes
As is often the case in community theater, there is a bit of drama behind the scenes in Dillard as well. Director Rebecca Bilbrey learned during the rehearsal run of “Fiddler” in the spring that her husband, Ryan, has glioblastoma, a pernicious type of brain cancer.
“Fiddler” actors thought the diagnosis and early treatments—most of them at Duke University Medical Center in North Carolina—would end Bilbrey’s direction of the show. Instead, with her blessing of her husband of 20 years, she soldiered on and tackled both her directorial and spousal responsibilities.
“It’s amazing how everyone has come together to support us,” Bilbrey said, her eyes tearing up. A friend threw a fundraiser for the family in Franklin, N.C., in July—they live nearby in Otto—to help with the six-figure costs of Ryan’s treatments, including some experimental therapies they hope he can join in Tübingen, Germany.
Rebecca plunged into the current show, and brought their talented daughter, Rilyn, along for the ride. The 13-year-old, an 8th grader and veteran actress at Rabun Gap-Nacoochee School, will share the role of Little Red Riding Hood with her friend, Lillie Wood.
“In part, it’s about families, and especially about parents and children…what they expect, and what they get,” chuckled the director.
Newcomer up front
Chelsea Miller, an accomplished actress who studied at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, is a fresh face on the Dillard stage. She plays the Baker’s Wife.
Miller took an eight-year break from acting, both to become a mother herself, and because her “day job” as an E.R. nurse, which she began to help out with the Covid epidemic, often filled her nights. Now, she works in hospice care with somewhat more predictable hours, and was able to return to the spotlight, though it was not the spotlight she was initially seeking.
She explained that her daughter, Chloe, loves the show, and dragged her mother in to audition. The elder Miller first told director Rebecca Bilbrey, “I just want to play Tree #3.” Instead, she was cast in the principal role that ties the whole story together, and she says she’s enjoying the process immensely.
“I’m not a singer,” she insists (her co-star begs to differ).
“It’s a challenge,” she said, “and I love it.”
A veteran returns
The other senior role in the cast went to Peyton Wood, who appears regularly in both Dillard and Clarkesville, though this is his first leading role. Wood played the “good husband” in NGCP’s “9 to 5,” the Baron and the Admiral in “The Sound of Music,” Earthworm in Habersham Community Theater’s “James and the Giant Peach,” and Col. Mustard in “Clue,” also at Habersham. He is rarely away from the stage for long, even as he studies to teach school in an education program at Western Carolina University in Cullowhee, N.C.
Wood says he loves how Sondheim’s music and lyrics drive the plot and emotional direction of the show—particularly in his big number, “No One is Alone.”
“It’s such a pivotal moment,” he says. “Cinderella and I comfort others, who have lost loved ones.”
Dannyale Willams, most recently seen as Hodel in Dillard’s “Fiddler on the Roof,” plays the beslippered princess.
Director Bilbrey has become an NGCP institution; she’s directed every one of the company’s musicals since performances resumed after the COVID shutdown. Before “Fiddler” and “Sound of Music,” these included “Little Shop of Horrors,” “9 to 5,” “I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change,” “Bye Bye Birdie,” and “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.”
Other company regulars in “Woods” include:
Amy Smith as Cinderella’s mother, alongside her musical directing duties; Sean Mulholland as the Narrator; Quashona Antoine as The Witch; Rilyn Bilbrey and Lillie Wood , sharing the role of Little Red Riding Hood; Sam Warren as Jack, Zeke Smith as Cinderella’s Prince; Sara Jones as Rapunzel; Noah Assaf as her prince; Atha Thomas as The Wolf, the Mysterious Man, and Cinderella’s father; Jen Noda as The Stepmother; Hayley Nickels as the Grandmother; Lisa Hubbard as Little Red’s mother; Ryn Mulholland as Peter Pan, and Hunter Sorgeloos as Tinker Bell.
“Into the Woods” runs September 18-20th and 25th to 27th and October 2-4.
Friday and Saturday shows are at 7, and the Sundays are 3 p.m. matinees.
To purchase tickets, go to the theater website or call 732-492-2222.
Don’t miss what everyone in town is talking about.
Join 4,000+ locals and choose our free newsletter covering news, events and the stories shaping our region.
