This Musical Starring Jodi Benson Needs WAY More Than Three Performances!

We talk all the time about how much we love live entertainment around the Disney parks, but there’s also SO much live entertainment you can find wherever you are locally.

Since a few members of our team are in Orlando, we like to keep up with what live entertainment is happening around our area. We went out for a night of theatre last night and got a chance to see the brilliant Jodi Benson, who originated the voice of Ariel in The Little Mermaid, star as The Witch in “Into The Woods,” and WOW were we blown away!

We headed over to Steinmetz Hall at the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts in Orlando to see this incredible performance of Steven Sondheim’s Into The Woods, starring Jodi Benson as The Witch. The show is only running for one weekend, with its final show today, August 2nd, and the only reason we’re sad about that is because it was SUCH an incredible production.

Jodi herself was jaw-dropping. The first half the show, she was completely unrecognizable with her spindly gray hair, twisted posture, and a growling voice. It was clear she threw herself into this role. She was ferocious, funny, intimidating, and completely in command of the stage and story. Seeing who we normally associate with Disney’s bright, happy-go-lucky Ariel turn so convincingly into this manipulative, terrifying witch, was absolutely incredible to watch.

The rest of the cast and crew was also filled with Disney creatives, many of whom you can see perform in the parks right now! We really enjoyed reading through the Playbill to see who was bringing the story to life, both on stage, and backstage. Here are just a few that we caught!

Lana Gallo (Nemo in Finding Nemo: The Big Blue… and Beyond!) played Florinda
Jeffrey Correia (Marline in Finding Nemo: The Big Blue… and Beyond! and originated Lumiere in Disney Cruise Line’s Beauty and the Beast) played The Baker
Katie Whetsell (Dory in Finding Nemo: The Big Blue… and Beyond!, originated Ursula in Villains Tonight!, and Mother Gothel in Tangled: The Musical for Disney Live Entertainment) played Baker’s Wife
Rasheem Ford (Kiúme in Festival of the Lion King and Bruce in Finding Nemo: The Big Blue… and Beyond!) played the Narrator/Mysterious Man
Kathryn Nash (Anna in Frozen and Belle in Beauty and the Beast with Disney Cruise Line) played Cinderella
Thomas Bradford (currently performs in Finding Nemo: The Big Blue… and Beyond! and Disney Villains: Unfairly Ever After, and spent six years with Disney Cruise Line) played Cinderella’s Prince and the Wolf
Music Director Benjamin Rauhala is the music supervisor and co-creator of Disney Princess: The Concert and worked as a vocal coach on Disney’s Wish
Director Kristen Sheola has performed at Walt Disney World
Associate Director Michael Rodgers currently works as a Performance Specialist at Walt Disney World.
Multiple members of the hair, wigs, makeup, and costumes departments also currently work in the Disney sphere!

Overall, we left the show feeling incredible inspired and thankful for the wonderful world of theatre. To us, it feels far bigger than a limited engagement, and everyone involved, from the cast to the creative team, delivered something that felt worthy of a much longer run.