When Nicholas Hytner’s Bridge Theatre launched in 2017 it was pretty much a new writing only theatre with a bit of Shakespeare tossed in for good measure, with no musicals at all on the agenda. Still, it’s not like any of this constituted a rule of physics: Hytner’s landmark 2023 revival of Guys & Dolls both broke the musicals omerta and (for now) ended the run of new writing at the theatre.
Following the two-year-run for Guys & Dolls and a couple of Shakespeare productions, next up is a revival of the late, great Stephen Sondheim’s Into the Woods, his puckish musical subversion of the Brothers Grimm fairytales.
The show will be directed by Jordan Fein, an American making a serious name for himself over here thanks to his excellent 2024 Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre revival of Fiddler on the Roof.
There’s a very decent (and very big) cast Valda Aviks as Grandmother/Giant, Geoffrey Aymer as Cinderella’s Father, Katie Brayben as the Baker’s Wife, Bella Brown as Rapunzel, Chumisa Dornford-May as Cinderella, Kate Fleetwood as the Witch, Jo Foster as the Narrator/Mysterious Man, Jennifer Hepburn as Cinderella’s Stepmother, Hana Ichijo as Lucinda, Julie Jupp as Jack’s Mother, Gabrielle Lewis-Dodson as Florinda, Gracie McGonigal as Little Red Ridinghood, Hughie O’Donnell as the Steward, Jamie Parker as the Baker, Oliver Savile as Cinderella’s Prince/Wolf and Rhys Whitfield as Rapunzel’s Prince.
The show will run for 20 weeks only – a good chunk of time, but not a run as monolithic as that of Guys & Dolls.
