Interview: Director Michelle LoRicco On the World Premiere of WINNIE-THE-POOH: FOREVER FRIENDS at First Stage

First Stage in Milwaukee presents the world premiere of WINNIE-THE-POOH: FOREVER FRIENDS, a brand-new musical inspired by the stories of A.A. Milne, running weekends January 29 through February 28, 2027 as part of the company’s 40th Anniversary season. Featuring a book by Scott Seidl, music by Alan Stein, and lyrics by Seidl, Stein, and A.A. Milne, with Robert Penola as Creative Development Associate and additional material by Jeff Frank and Michelle LoRicco, the musical follows a newly retired Christopher Robin who returns to his childhood home to be closer to family. While caring for his grandchild Alex, he must relearn the lost art of doing nothing, and when an old packing box is opened, the Hundred Acre Wood springs back to life.

Directing the production is Michelle LoRicco, First Stage’s Associate Artistic Director and Director of Young Company, where she develops new work centering young people’s voices and imagination. LoRicco earned her MFA in Theatre for Young Audiences from the University of Central Florida, and her directing credits include THE PIGEON GETS A BIG TIME HOLIDAY EXTRAVAGANZA!, ELEPHANT & PIGGIE’S “WE ARE IN A PLAY!”, and RIDE THE CYCLONE at First Stage, as well as LUCHADORA and WHEN PIGS FLY at Orlando Family Stage.

BroadwayWorld spoke with LoRicco about joining a project five years in development, carrying forward the work of the late Scott Seidl, and why this story of friendship feels like the perfect fit for First Stage’s 40th Anniversary.

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What first drew you to WINNIE-THE-POOH: FOREVER FRIENDS, and what has it been like to join a project already five years in development?

Originally titled OH, BOTHER! THE BLUSTERY ADVENTURES OF WINNIE-THE-POOH, the project began when Scott Seidl, Alan Stein, and Robert “Bob” Penola reached out to our Executive Artistic Director, Jeff Frank, about developing the piece at First Stage. Because of First Stage’s successful collaboration with Bob on RUDOLPH THE RED-NOSED REINDEER, he had confidence that our team would be good collaborators for this new work.

I joined the development process late last summer, and I was admittedly nervous to share some of the initial feedback from our Artistic Team and Young Company students. Thankfully, Scott, Alan, and Robert were incredibly open to the conversation. They were willing to look at what the piece needed to become, rather than being protective of what it had already been. That conversation led us to expand the story around Grandpa Christopher Robin and his grandchild, Alex, a young person who is much more comfortable building worlds on a tablet than navigating the real world. Grandpa Chris opens the door to the Hundred Acre Wood, and together they rediscover a world built on imagination, friendship, and simply being present with one another. That was the piece I wanted to be part of.

One of my favorite parts of working at First Stage is putting young people at the center of new play development. I love being a conduit between the artists creating the work and the young audiences who will ultimately experience it. I cannot wait to continue that work with our incredible young performers in the rehearsal room.

Since you came on as both a collaborator on the script and the director, how did working on the “Additional Material” shape the way you approached staging the show?

After Scott Seidl’s passing last winter, Jeff and I were asked by Alan and Bob to help bring the rehearsal draft to the finish line. Honoring Scott’s writing, his vision, and our friendship with him became a major part of the process. That’s also when the title evolved into WINNIE-THE-POOH: FOREVER FRIENDS. That idea of enduring friendship became our north star. Winnie-the-Pooh has endured for generations because these characters model friendship in all kinds of weather. As we worked on the script, we were also experiencing that kind of friendship ourselves. The creative team was coming together to carry Scott’s work forward, and that became deeply connected to the story we were telling.

I wanted that spirit of collaboration to extend into every part of the production. We intentionally brought together artists who represent different generations of First Stage’s history, including scenic designer Lisa Schlenker, Costume Designer Jazmin Aurora Medina, and lighting designer Jessica Baker. Our cast includes First Stage alumni like JT Backes and Karen Estrada, longtime First Stage collaborators like David Flores, James Carrington, and Aundre Reid, and an incredible group of young performers. It has truly felt like building the Hundred Acre Wood with a community of friends.

How did you and Jeff Frank divide or share responsibilities when contributing additional material to Scott Seidl’s book and Alan Stein’s score?

It was a true joy to work with Jeff on this piece. We already had so many of the puzzle pieces: A.A. Milne’s original adventures, Scott’s vision for the adaptation, Alan’s beautiful score, and the characters we all know and love. In our first rewrite, we kept our contributions in separate colors, so the document became this wonderful visual tapestry of Scott’s original writing, Jeff’s material, Alan’s lyrics, and my rewrites. It was a pretty beautiful thing to see.

Jeff took on much of the writing for Grandpa Chris and Alex’s opening and closing scenes. He also had the very useful job of reading many of my edits aloud in every character’s voice, which was a joy in itself. I focused primarily on arranging the pieces of the adventure and strengthening the through line of the Blustery Day across the Hundred Acre Wood. My Artistic Intern and Young Company alum, Silver Anderson, and I also spent a lot of time working on Alex’s dialogue and agency. It was important to us that this became a truly intergenerational story, rather than simply a story about Christopher Robin returning to his childhood home.

We also wanted to explore what happens to the Hundred Acre Wood when it has been forgotten for decades. What happens to friendships when they aren’t tended? What happens to a place built on imagination when nobody comes back to visit? Alan was incredibly generous throughout the process and welcomed feedback, even allowing me to make a few adjustments to his beautiful lyrics and score. That was a particularly exciting part of the process for me.

What were the biggest challenges in adapting such a beloved, iconic world like the Hundred Acre Wood for a brand-new theatrical story?

At First Stage, we often work with beloved stories, and we’re always trying to find the balance between honoring what makes a story timeless and asking what parts of it might speak especially powerfully to audiences today. A.A. Milne was remarkably emotionally intuitive. These characters represent so many facets of human behavior: anxiety, loneliness, confidence, insecurity, impulsivity, overthinking, optimism, pessimism. There’s something remarkable about seeing those qualities represented in children’s literature written nearly a century ago. We wanted to honor that emotional truth while allowing the story to speak to the world young people are navigating now.

In our adaptation, Christopher Robin has been away for more than forty years. When he returns, the Hundred Acre Wood has changed. Rabbit’s garden has been overtaken by weeds. Eeyore’s house has slowly fallen apart. These aren’t simply physical problems; they become metaphors for what happens when relationships aren’t tended. At the same time, there is an invitation to reconnect. Old friendships can pick up where they left off, and new friendships can find their way into the story. That was the challenge: How do we give audiences the Pooh they already love while creating enough space for them to discover something new?

Christopher Robin returns as a newly retired grandfather in this version. What inspired that framing device, and why did it feel like the right way to reintroduce these characters?

Part of the inspiration came from my own experience entering this creative team. When I first joined the project, I was sitting on Zoom with these incredibly experienced artists who had been carrying this piece and these characters for years. I looked at these passionate, kind faces and thought, “I’m the Alex in this room.” I was the person being welcomed into a world that they knew intimately. Thankfully, they were generous enough to make me feel like I belonged there.

That became something I wanted to give our young audiences. I know many parents and grandparents who grew up with Winnie-the-Pooh will bring their children and grandchildren to see this production. Why not create a mirror of that experience onstage? Christopher Robin represents a generation that already knows and loves the Hundred Acre Wood. Alex represents a generation that may encounter it for the first time. The two of them get to discover each other through Pooh.

How do you balance honoring the nostalgia adult audience members have for Winnie-the-Pooh with creating something that feels fresh for young audiences discovering it for the first time?

Our Artistic Team, which includes production staff, education staff, Academy leaders, and people who work directly with young people, gave us a lot of insight into what the original version needed. We realized we needed Alex: a shy, brilliant young person who is much more comfortable building worlds on a tablet than building connections in real life. This is their first real opportunity to spend time one-on-one with Grandpa Chris, who has been away for much of their life. Alex became our bridge.

We also made a conscious choice not to simply put every Pooh character onstage because we could. We wanted to go deeper rather than wider. We wanted the audience to have a direct emotional connection to Pooh, and Alex gives us a way into that relationship. For audiences who already love Pooh, the Hundred Acre Wood feels like coming home. For audiences meeting Pooh for the first time, Alex gets to discover it right alongside them.

What was it like stepping into this project knowing it was one of Scott Seidl’s final creative contributions before his passing?

None of us knew that Scott wouldn’t be celebrating opening night with us in Milwaukee. One moment we were on a call talking about the major rewrite, and then we received the devastating news that he had passed away. It was heartbreaking, and for a moment I wasn’t sure how the project could continue without him. Alan and Robert were adamant that moving forward was what Scott would have wanted.

As we continued, the meaning of the piece changed for all of us. We weren’t simply finishing a musical. We were carrying forward the work of a friend. And in a strange and beautiful way, we made the title true. We became Forever Friends through the process of making this show. Scott is at the heart of this production, and we hope audiences can feel that love when they see it.

What does it mean to you to bring this particular story to life during First Stage’s 40th Anniversary season?

This feels like exactly the kind of story that represents what First Stage does best. For forty years, First Stage has centered the experiences of young people while using the traditional tools of storytelling to create immersive worlds through imagination, artistry, and heart. We’ve spent four decades telling beloved stories while also developing new work for young audiences. WINNIE-THE-POOH: FOREVER FRIENDS brings all of those things together. It is a beloved world, a new adaptation, an intergenerational story, and a piece that has been shaped through collaboration with young artists and the people who work with them every day. It feels both like a celebration of where First Stage has been and a glimpse at where we are going.

Looking ahead, what do you hope the legacy of this production will be, both for First Stage and for future audiences encountering WINNIE-THE-POOH: FOREVER FRIENDS?

I hope this piece becomes a bridge. A bridge between generations. Between childhood and adulthood. Between the digital world and the physical world. Between the stories we inherit and the stories we make our own. I also hope it represents something about the future of First Stage: a continued commitment to developing new work, centering young people, and creating theater that responds to the families and communities we serve.

At its heart, this is a story about remembering how to be together. Isn’t that part of what A.A. Milne was doing when he created these stories for his son? He took the people and things he loved and created a world where they could keep playing together. That’s what art can do. It creates bridges. And when the world feels overwhelming, I hope WINNIE-THE-POOH: FOREVER FRIENDS gives families a place to slow down, take each other’s hands, and remember that friendship is something we have to notice, tend, and carry with us.

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