Harry Hepple, Steffan Lloyd-Evans and Laura Tebbutt Join Menier Chocolate Factory's INTO THE WOODS

The Menier Chocolate Factory has announced that Harry Hepple (Baker), Steffan Lloyd-Evans (Wolf/ Cinderella's Prince) and Laura Tebbutt (Baker's Wife) will join the company of Fiasco's enchanting reinvention of Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine's masterpiece INTO THE WOODS. They will take over tomorrow from Ben Steinfeld, Noah Brody and Jessie Austrian. Read BroadwayWorld's review of the show here

Using 10 actors, multiple musical instruments and boundless imagination, this fairy tale classic is reimagined as never before. This production, which received the 2015 Lucille Lortel Award for Best Revival, includes the original US cast - Paul L. Coffey (Mysterious Man), Andy Grotelueschen (Milky White/Rapunzel's Prince), Liz Hayes (Jack's Mother/Stepmother), Claire Karpen (Cinderella/Granny), Patrick Mulryan (Jack/Steward), Vanessa Reseland (Witch), and Emily Young (Little Red/Rapunzel) alongside Hepple, Lloyd Evans and Tebbutt.

Stephen Sondheim is one of the world's greatest living composer and lyricists. His works include Saturday Night, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Anyone Can Whistle, Company, Follies, A Little Night Music, Pacific Overtures, Sweeney Todd, Merrily We Roll Along, Sunday in the Park With George (Pulitzer Prize), Passion, Assassins and Road Show. Sondheim also wrote the lyrics for West Side Story, Gypsy and Do I Hear a Waltz? He is the recipient of multiple awards, including 8 Tony Awards - one of which was a Lifetime Achievement Award, 7 Grammys and an Academy Award for Best Song for Dick Tracy, and was elected to The American Academy of Arts and Letters (1983).

James Lapine also collaborated with Sondheim on Sunday in the Park with George and Into the Woods - he also directed the original productions. His other librettos include Falsettos, The Hunchback of Notre Dame and A New Brain. Lapine is also a director and playwright.

Harry Hepple returns to the Menier to play the Baker - he previously appeared in Pippin. For theatre, his work includes The Saints (Nuffield, Southampton), A Taste Of Honey, Burnt By the Sun (National Theatre), The Lightening Child, Macbeth (Shakespeare's Globe), Privates on Parade (Noel Coward Theatre), A Midsummer Night's Dream, Ragtime (Regent's Park Open Air Theatre), The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (Donmar Warehouse), Been So Long (Young Vic/ETT), I Caught Crabs In Walberswick (Bush Theatre), and Alaska (Royal Court Theatre). For television, his work includes Boy Meets Girl, Little B**tard, Hustle and Misfits; and for film, Criminal.

Steffan Lloyd-Evans plays (Wolf/ Cinderella's Prince). For theatre, his work includes Brave, The Dancing Years (Wales Millennium Centre), Beyond the Fence (Arts Theatre), The World Goes Round (St. James Theatre), Black Snow (Moscow Art Theatre), HMS Pinafore, Trial By Jury (Gilbert & Sullivan Opera Company) and Tales from the Bad Years (Landor Theatre). For television, his work includes Pobol Y Cwm, The Waltz and The Royals.

Laura Tebbutt plays Baker's Wife - for the Menier, she previously worked on the transfer of Forbidden Broadway to the Vaudeville Theatre. Her other theatre Love Me Tender (UK tour), A Little Night Music (Palace Theatre), Kiss Me Kate (BBC Prom, The Royal Albert Hall), The World Goes Round (The Lyric, Belfast), The Wizard Of Oz (London Palladium), Goodbye Barcelona (Arcola Theatre), Shoes (Peacock Theatre), and Les Miserables 25th Anniversary (International Tour). Tebbutt is also a recording artist.

Fiasco Theater is an ensemble theatre company created by graduates of the Brown University/Trinity Rep M.F.A. acting program. Led by co-Artistic Directors Jessie Austrian, Noah Brody and Ben Steinfeld, their previous productions include Cymbeline (TFANA/Barrow Street) Measure for Measure (New Victory), The Two Gentlemen of Verona (Folger/TFANA) and Twelfth Night. Cymbeline was presented Off-Broadway twice, for nearly 200 performances, and was honoured with the 2012 Off-Broadway Alliance Award for Best Revival. This production is presented in association with Michael Harrison Entertainment and David Ian Productions.

www.menierchocolatefactory.com

Photo credit: Catherine Ashmore

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