Northern Ireland Opera has announced the full casting for its first musical production of 2022, staged at the Lyric, Belfast from 3 to 27 February. The 18 strong line-up, hailing predominantly from Northern Ireland, includes major West-End performers as well as stalwarts across Theatre, Musical Theatre, and Opera genres.
Wendy Ferguson, who has appeared in major Musical Theatre shows in the West-End throughout her 25-year career including Phantom of The Opera (HER MAJESTY’S THEATRE), OLIVER! (THEATRE ROYAL, DRURY LANE) and Mary Poppins (International Tour) will play Jack’s Mother and this marks her first production back in her native country. Well-known Northern Irish actor Sean Kearns who has also appeared in a variety of West-End roles including Comedy About A Bank Robbery (CRITERION); Wicked (APOLLO), The Commitments (PALACE), Billy Elliot (VICTORIA PALACE), and the 39 Steps (CRITERION) is the Narrator and leads a talented cast which also includes Alistair Brookshaw (Caroline or Change, PLAYHOUSE/HAMPSTEAD THEATRE, Sweeney Todd, ENO) and Sinéad O’Kelly (Michael Gallen’s Elsewhere, Glenarm Festival of Voice winner 2013) who have been cast as the Baker and Baker’s wife respectively. A surprise Cameo role will be announced shortly.
This new epic production of Stephen Sondheim’s and James Lapine’s Into The Woods, one of the most iconic and popular shows in the musical theatre canon, richly laden with symbolism, magic, and metaphor, will be directed by NI Opera’s Artistic Director Cameron Menzies. His critically-acclaimed career spans the world of opera, theatre, musical theatre, film, and cabaret.
Musicals performed at the Lyric by NI Opera, an award-winning national opera company, have become a cultural highlight of the season and Into The Woods follows on from three previous sell out NI Opera shows staged there – The Threepenny Opera in 2018, Sweeney Todd in 2019 and Kiss Me Kate in 2020.
Cameron will draw on his expansive skills and influences across the performing arts to create a showstopper, spotlighting the best of Northern Irish music and creative talent including Enniskillen-born designer Niall McKeever, who will be leading on a spectacular set and costume design. Musical direction will be by Peter Mitchell (Snow White, Dick Whittington, LONDON PALLADIUM, Sister Act Tour, 42nd Street Tour) and movement direction by Jennifer Rooney.
Cameron describes Into the Woods as the ultimate ‘quest’ musical and says: “It’s a wonderfully intriguing story that brings together and intertwines some of the beloved Brother’s Grimm fairy tales such as Little Red Riding Hood, Cinderella, Jack, and the Beanstalk and Rapunzel to ask what might have happened before ‘Once upon a time’ and after ‘Happily ever after’. We are thrilled to be introducing Belfast to some wonderful local talent, while also showcasing some of the West End’s finest performers, some originally from Northern Ireland making their long-awaited debut performances back home. We will endeavor to create a wonderful tribute to one of the greatest musical theatre composers/lyricists of all time. There is truly now a Giant in the Sky.”
Into The Woods will be Cameron’s second live production since he took the helm at NI Opera mid-pandemic in 2020. His first show was a critically-acclaimed staging of Puccini’s La Bohéme (“Opera at its Finest” Opera Now Magazine, Dec 2021) in Belfast’s Carlisle Memorial Church in September 2021 and he also produced the acclaimed cinematic experience Old Friends And Other Days which was selected for the Belfast Film Festival, the London International Short Film Festival and is a Finalist in The British Short Films Awards 2021.
Into The Woods runs at The Lyric Theatre from 3 – 27 February 2022, more details and booking info can be found here
