Solution to Musical Theatre Guild
MIT’s Musical Theatre Guild is the subject of perpetual jokes about having the same abbreviation as the card game Magic: the Gathering. In M:tG’s Ravnica setting, a set of ten guilds is each associated with two of Magic’s five colors. In this puzzle, each cropped musical poster is composed of two main colors (leaving aside yellow/gold, which is not a Magic color but was unavoidable for some of the posters), and so can be matched with a guild.
We notice that the second clue in each pair does not fit the musical given by the poster, and some research brings us to M:tG. Once we make the connection to Ravnica guilds, we identify all the characters as follows:
| Poster | Colors | Musical / Guild | Clue | Answer |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
black / red | Jersey Boys | the mob boss (3) | Gyp |
| Rakdos | the zombie shaman (9) | Guildmage | ||
 |
white / blue | Assassins | the fictional son (5) | Billy |
| Azorius | the sphinx (7) | Isperia | ||
 |
white / black | The Book of Mormon | the leader (6 7) | Mafala Hatimbi |
| Orzhov | the leader (4) | Kaya | ||
 |
red / white | West Side Story | the female lead’s coworker (5) | Anita |
| Boros | the guildhall (7) | Sunhome | ||
 |
green / white | Tarzan | the young gorilla (4) | Terk |
| Selesnya | the guildhall (4-5) | Vitu-Ghazi | ||
 |
black / green | Wicked | the good witch (6) | Glinda |
| Golgari | the guildhall (8) | Svogthos | ||
 |
blue / red | Mary Poppins | the word vendor (3. 5) | Mrs. Corry |
| Izzet | the leader (3 5) | Ral Zerek | ||
 |
red / green | Hair | the grower (4 “4” 7) | Neil “Woof” Donovan |
| Gruul | the leader? (11) | Borborygmos | ||
 |
white / blue | Hairspray | the lead’s father (6) | Wilbur |
| Azorius | the sphinx’s knight (8) | Skywatch | ||
 |
blue / black | Into the Woods | the act I villain (5) | Witch |
| Dimir | the silencer (6) | Etrata | ||
 |
black / red | Hadestown | the narrator (6) | Hermes |
| Rakdos | the scourge diva (6) | Judith |
As clued by the flavortext, take the single letter that appears (possibly multiple times) in both names in each pair, to spell out the answer GIANT GROWTH — a fitting Magic card for Into the Woods.