Olympia High School’s Into the Woods musical opened last Thursday at 7 p.m. The musical was 2 hours and 15 minutes, with a brief intermission at the halfway mark. 

Stage manager El de Jesus commented about how tech week had been a stress for the cast and crew but he had full confidence that everything would come together in time. “It’s very stressful with all the things you sort of have to add in…in tech week because you can’t before[hand],” de Jesus explained, and “you’re trying to make 30 different things happen at once.” It’s obvious the musical required lots of attention to detail, many times performers were dancing and singing around, on top of, and in sync with each other.

When asked about the work that went into the musical de Jesus laughed and said “there’s a lot of it.” It’s evident the cast mates dedicated a lot of time and effort to coordinate the musical parts. De Jesus recognized “as much as we can be hard on ourselves…everyone in the cast and the crew should be proud of themselves for the work that they’ve done.”

Reese Neal, who plays Little Red Riding Hood, agrees with de Jesus about the preparation of tech weeks and its casualties; Neal stated she felt prepared and proud of the cast and crew. Neal, a freshman, has a big role in the musical as one of the main leads. She was a bit nervous, as it was the “most difficult musical [she’d] done”, but was without a doubt excited about opening night. She stated she enjoyed the production, the cast, and her character. “I like how…straightforward she is,” Neal remarked, “she doesn’t really care about what anyone thinks about her, I think it’s pretty cool.”

The musical was full of refreshing and young humor as the cast did an outstanding job of bringing lightheartedness to a story with darker undertones. Audience member and junior at OHS Sophrina Hank thought it was “pretty sarcastic” and “quite funny.” Hank commented that she liked the song “Agony” performed by Cinderella’s prince and Rapunzel’s prince, played by Ben Jaudon and Joshua Kuo, respectfully. The princes sang about their “struggles,” such as not being able to comfortably be with the woman they selfishly and shallowly desire. The exaggerated and over-the-top performances in the song are a perfect example of how the cast creates a fun and humorous musical. If you haven’t already, come see the show this Thursday or Saturday.