Into the Woods: Children will listen – West End cast and creatives regale us their theatrical childhood stories

Ahead of the eagerly awaited West End transfer of Into the Woods, WhatsOnStage caught up with some of the cast and creative team members of the Bridge Theatre’s multi-award-winning production.

As the show’s finale says: “Children will listen…” and we were keen to hear their stories about memorable experiences in the theatre from their own childhoods.

Find out what book writer James Lapine, director Jordan Fein, designer Tom Scutt and new cast members John Dagleish, Laura Pitt-Pulford and Michael S Siegel (who takes on the roles of the Baker, the Baker’s Wife and the Narrator / Mysterious Man, respectively) and returning cast members Kate Fleetwood (the Witch), Hana Ichijo (Lucinda), Gabrielle Lewis-Dodson (Florinda) and Gracie McGonigal (Little Red Ridinghood) had to say in the video below:

Into the Woods features music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and a book by Lapine.

The West End cast also includes Simbi Akande as Cinderella, Valda Aviks as Grandmother and the Giant, Geoffrey Aymer as Cinderella’s Father, Fiona Finsbury as Rapunzel, Jennifer Hepburn as Cinderella’s Stepmother and alternate Witch, Julie Jupp as Jack’s Mother, Lucas Koch as Rapunzel’s Prince, Jack Quarton as the Steward, Keith Ramsay as Jack, and Matthew Seadon-Young as Cinderella’s Prince and the Wolf.

Hollie Aires, Sabrina Aloueche, Jacob Fowler, Adam Robert Lewis, Sophie Linder-Lee, Toby Turpin and Elsie Watson will serve as standbys.

The creative team also includes musical supervisor Mark Aspinall, orchestrator Jonathan Tunick, sound designer Adam Fisher, lighting designer Aideen Malone, video designer Roland Horvath, movement director Jenny Ogilvie, wigs, hair and make-up designer Sam Cox, puppetry designers Cheryl “Chuck” Brown, Max Humphries and Tom Scutt, musical director Alex Beetschen and casting director Stuart Burt.

The production premiered at the Bridge Theatre in 2025 and went on to win Best Ensemble or Cast and Best Designer at the Critics’ Circle Awards, followed by Best Musical Revival and Best Lighting Design at the Olivier Awards.

Into the Woods begins previews at the Noël Coward Theatre on 22 September, ahead of an opening night on 7 October, and is scheduled to run until 9 January 2027.