By Kathryn McElfresh
The time has come for the Season Selection Committee to start their debates for the productions of the 2025-2026 academic year. Next year includes both Shakespeare and a musical. The last musicals done at Roanoke College were Cabaret (2023), and Into the Woods (2021).
“Cabaret”, a Kander and Ebb production, opened on Broadway in 1966 starring Joel Grey as the Emcee. The show is loosely based on true events that happened in Weimar, Germany during the Golden Twenties. For those unfamiliar with the show, songs such as “Willkommen” and “Money Money” are used in many different contexts. “Willkommen” is both the opener and closer of the show and known for greeting the audience in German, English, and French. Cabaret is seen as a problematic show due to its themes of rising Nazism and blatant antisemitism, but it is popular enough to have many revivals, a movie, and is currently playing on both Broadway and the West End.
“Into the Woods” is a Stephen Sondheim show referencing the book by James Lapine. It opened on Broadway in 1987 starring Bernadette Peters as the Witch, and Chip Zien & Joanna Gleason as the Baker and his Wife. The story is a combination of Grimm fairy tales where the characters of Cinderella, Rapunzel, Red Riding Hood, and Jack and the Beanstalk must go into the woods for their stories to play out and mix. The Baker and his Wife have three days to reverse their curse to be able to have a child, leading to the songs each midnight. The culmination comes in the immensely complicated “Your Fault/Last Midnight” where each character sings fast and over each other to blame others for the misfortunes that befell them when Jack returned from the place with “Giants in the Sky.” Each character has gone through revelations where they learn that “wishes come true, not free” and be grateful for what they have. Into the Woods has had many revivals since the original and two movie adaptations.
What will the next musical be? It is unknown right now, but the season selection committee is hard at work to pick a good one. I, for one, cannot wait to find out.
