Into The Woods

Buffalo, NY – The University at Buffalo Department of Theatre & Dance will present a new production of Into The Woods from Wednesday, April 20 through Sunday, May 1, 2016 in the Drama Theatre, located at the Center for the Arts, North Campus. Tickets are $20, Students (any school) & Seniors $10. Performances will be held on April 20, 21, 23 at 7:30pm; April 24 at 2:00pm; April 28-29 at 7:30pm; April 30 at 2:00pm & 7:30pm; May 1 at 2:00pm.

This UB production will feature a live orchestra and include newly designed and executed sets, lights, and costumes. The musical, Into The Woods, with music and lyrics by Sondheim and book by James Lapine is one of the world’s most loved musicals. The show opened on Broadway in 1987 and won three Tony Awards including Best Original Score. Since then, Into The Woods has continued to play worldwide. The show was made into a feature film in 2014 and received three Academy Award nominations.

The director and music director for the UB production is Nathan R. Matthews. UB Dance senior, Juliana Willey, is the choreographer. Into The Woods follows well-loved fairy tale characters as they seek their happy endings and continues their adventures beyond the expected ending, “and they lived happily ever after.” UB’s production of Into The Woods will explore the fairy tale of the American dream and take a journey into the late 1950s and early 1960s in the USA. This was the “once upon a time” of “Camelot,” the Kennedy presidency, when anyone could accomplish anything, and America’s icons included Jack and Jackie, Marilyn Monroe, James Dean, and Elizabeth Taylor.

Nathan R. Matthews, UB Associate Professor of Music Theatre and Director of Music Theatre, is a contributing author to The Oxford Handbook of Sondheim Studies. Matthews is the founding Producing Artistic Director of New York’s Riverside Opera Ensemble where he has developed and produced new works of music theatre and has helmed events with the participation of Leonard Bernstein, Rosemary Harris and Harolyn Blackwell. He served on the music staff of the Santa Fe Opera and has worked on Broadway, across North America and abroad with internationally acclaimed artists such as Dixie Carter, Mellissa Errico, Malcolm Gets, Mark Hamill and Anne Hathaway. In western New York, Matthews has music directed/conducted at UB, the Irish Classical Theatre Company (A Man of No Importance), the Kavinoky Theatre (Glorious!), Musicalfare Theatre (Sweeney Todd) and at Artpark (Smokey Joe’s Café). He also serves on the Advisory Board of the Amas Musical Theatre Company in New York City, a company celebrated for the development of new musicals.

The cast and designers for Into The Woods are students from the UB Department of Theatre & Dance and include Buffalo and Rochester area students Leah Berst, Selina Iozzo, Tommy MacDonnell, Megan McNiffe, Ashley Moulin, Sean Ryan, Paul E. Urriola.

The UB Department of Theatre & Dance 2015-16 season takes inspiration from one of the five named UB 2020 themes, Justice.

Tickets: Center for the Arts Box Office (Mon-Fri 10 am-6 pm) and tickets.com.  To charge tickets call 1-888-223-6000.  For more information call 716-645-2787 or visit www.ubcfa.org or www.theatredance.buffalo.edu.