Anna Francolini and Gary Waldhorn join the cast of Into The Woods, the Sondheim and Lapine musical revived by the Royal Opera House’s Linbury Studio next month.
Francolini was most recently on stage in London in the National Theatre production of Caroline, Or Change, for which she was nominated for Best Performance in a Supporting Role in a Musical at the Laurence Olivier Awards this year. Francolini’s long list of London stage credits includes Metropolis Kabarett and Almost Like Being In Love, also at the National, Merrily We Roll Along and Company at the Donmar Warehouse, and Daisy Pulls It Off at the Lyric, plus many off-West End productions. Her television work includes Live Girls, Rome, Holby City and Jonathan Creek.
Waldhorn is a familiar face to fans of television’s The Vicar Of Dibley, as the actor played David Horton in the long running sitcom. On stage he has worked frequently with the RSC in Stratford, on Broadway and in the West End in productions including All’s Well That Ends Well, alongside Dame Judi Dench, at the Gielgud in 2004. He has also appeared in Six Degrees Of Separation (Royal Court and Comedy), Black Comedy and The Real Inspector Hound (Dommar Warehouse) and Mahler’s Conversion, along with Francolini, at the Aldwych.
Waldhorn plays the Narrator in this new production of Sondheim and Lapine's 1987 musical Into The Woods, which is set among the lives of classic fairytale characters, drawn together by the original story of a baker and his wife who wish for a child. Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, Rapunzel, Jack (he of Beanstalk fame), a witch, a wolf and a wicked stepmother are all present in Sondheim and Lapine’s modern – and sometimes dark – twist on once-upon-a-time fairytales.
Francolini (who plays the Baker’s Wife to fellow Caroline, Or Change co-star Clive Rowe’s Baker) and Waldhorn join an already substantial cast which comprises Gillian Kirkpatrick (Cinderella), Peter Caulfield (Jack), Anne Reid (Jack’s Mother), Elizabeth Brice (Cinderella’s Stepmother), Louise Bowden (Florinda), Lara Pulver (Lucinda), Martin Nelson (Cinderella’s father), Suzanne Toase (Little Red Riding Hood), Beverley Klein (Witch), Linda Hibberd (Cinderella’s Mother), Nicholas Garrett (Wolf/Prince), Christina Haldane (Rapunzel), Nic Greenshields (Rapunzel’s Prince) and Byron Watson (Steward).
Into The Woods is directed by Will Tuckett, in his musical theatre debut. The director and choreographer has previously directed The Wind In The Willows and Pinocchio for ROH2.
Into The Woods runs in the Linbury Studio Theatre from 14-30 June.
CB