By: Dean Vaglia | Macomb Chronicle | Published November 10, 2025
MACOMB TOWNSHIP — Grab your coats and get ready for a witch’s scavenger hunt, as L’Anse Creuse High School-North is putting on Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s iconic musical “Into the Woods” this November.
First staged on Broadway in 1987, “Into the Woods” sees Lapine and Sondheim combine the fairy tales of “Little Red Riding Hood,” “Jack and the Beanstalk,” “Rapunzel” and “Cinderella” with the story of a baker and wife looking to have a child. All the couple has to do is bring a cow as white as milk, a cape as red as blood, hair as yellow as corn and a slipper as pure as gold to their witch neighbor within three midnights. That’s how the couple intersects with the classic tales and creates a new story from their collective encounters.
“We thought ‘Into the Woods’ would be a fun production because we have a lot of really talented students and it offered a lot of great opportunities singing-wise and acting-wise,” said Leah Sanders, a L’Anse Creuse High School-North teacher and the Crusader Nation’s theatre director. “It gave a challenge to our students because Stephen Sondheim is a very difficult composer and musician, and we just thought it would be something entertaining to our audience. It’s the fairy tales you know and love but with a little bit of a dark twist to it.”
Along with the famed first act of the show, which plays the stories straight and sees the Baker couple on their scavenger hunt, Sanders and the Crusader Nation Theatre team are performing the whole show. Many youth productions omit the second act.
“I believe that a lot of schools cut (the second act) out because it’s a very long show in general, but if we’re going to take all this time to have the students learn the roles and perform, then we’re going to have them do it all-out and make it worth their while and worth their time,” Sanders said.
While the students in the show have a varied familiarity with “Into the Woods,” senior Jada O’Neal, performing as the Witch, was excited at the news that Crusader Nation Theatre would stage the Sondheim show.
“I’ve been wanting to do ‘Into the Woods’ for a while and (Mitch Osadchuk, the school’s former music director) kind of surprised us last year when he was revealing the shows,” O’Neal said. “It feels good to be in it and it feels good to have such a strong part … I watched the movie a lot and I know that Sondheim is a popular music writer, so being able to put this on finally is really cool.”
Sanders says one reason behind selecting the show was the challenge Sondheim’s music presents for the young actors, and there have been plenty of challenges actors have had to face. O’Neal’s role of the Witch is the first female-oriented role the senior has played (O’Neal originally auditioned expecting the role of Jack, which went to sophomore Sarah Murphy) and presents a new vocal range to work in and the need to build the confidence to perform in that range. Freshman Alayna Cooke, a newcomer to the program playing Granny in the production, is getting to grips with the feeling of being an actor.
“I’m not very comfortable actually acting in front of all these people that I don’t know that well,” Cooke said. “I always feel really awkward when I’m going up to do my part in the play. I’m hoping that I’ll get better over time, but right now … I’m going to try my best.”
Even with the challenges of being new, Cooke has found the experience of working through “Into the Woods” with the rest of the Crusader Nation cast to be an interesting experience.
“I noticed that everybody is so not afraid to share ideas when it comes to adding things onto the play,” Cooke said. “For example, my favorite scene in the play is when the Baker and the Baker’s Wife and Jack are all switching between each other. The Baker (junior Rylie Ellis) actually suggested that. That was something that stuck with me because I didn’t think anybody … to open up like that and give out an idea like that. I wasn’t expecting that, and I was like, ‘Aw, that’s sweet. That’s a good idea.’ Everybody is just really comfortable here.”
The atmosphere of comfort and collaboration is not just on the stage but behind it, too.
“I really admire how everybody here is so close with each other, and they get to know each other so well, “freshman Charlotte Kranz said. “They’re not afraid to be silly or weird with each other, and I really like that. It makes the place feel really safe, a safe place where everybody can be themselves, and I really enjoy being here to do that.”
According to Sanders, students who are part of the crew work on costumes, props, blocking and other work essential to the show running smoothly.
“It’s been fun to bond with the crew and cast and just be part of something,” freshman Piper Lambdin said. “We’ve been doing a lot of (backstage prop and costume work) on our own without a lot of guidance, so it’s been fun having to take charge on it. Costuming is a really good way to practice your social skills to people, and props have been really fun trying to use different resources and trying to find things.”
While “Into the Woods” is a musical-comedy, there are a lot of heart and commentary packed within the show’s two acts. O’Neal hopes audiences pick up on these aspects of the show when they come to see it.
“I hope that they can find themselves in a character or a few characters or a situation that a character goes through,” O’Neal said. “I hope that they appreciate and see all of our hard work, because there’s a lot that goes into it backstage and on stage … We sing a lot about going into the woods and having to deal with the problems in the woods, and that stands out to me because I’m a senior and I’m about to go out into the world and I’m going to have to deal with a lot of new problems, and the lessons that I learn from those problems I’ll carry with me for the rest of my life.”
Crusader Nation Theatre is performing Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s “Into the Woods” at the John R. Armstrong Performing Arts Center located within the L’Anse Creuse School District campus at 24600 Frederick Pankow Boulevard in Clinton Township. Evening performances are scheduled to take place at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 13 and Friday, Nov. 14, with a 3 p.m. matinée on Saturday, Nov. 15. Tickets are $12 for adults and $10 for students and seniors and can be purchased online at showpass.com/into-the-woods-7/.