“If something scares you, then you probably need to do it”: John Dagleish on Into the Woods
Published on 27 August 2026
“I wanted to do Into The Woods because it scares the hell out of me, and I always think that’s a good reason to do something,” says actor John Dagleish. “After 20 years in this industry one of the things I’m really certain about is that if something scares you, then you probably need to do it.”
Dagleish, last seen in the West End giving a complex, tender turn as the lead in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, a show which won him many fans, is playing the Baker in the West End transfer of Jordan Fein’s Bridge Theatre revival of Stephen Sondheim’s 1986 musical, Into the Woods. Arriving at the Noel Coward in September, it’s a gloriously tuneful mash-up of fairytales which comes with some of Sondheim’s most enduring songs as well as the reminder that happy ever after is never quite what it’s cracked up to be. Not in fairytales; not in real life.
Dagleish has had a varied career in TV (he’s in the BBC’s upcoming Le Carré spin-off, Legacy of Spies) and theatre (he was Lysander in Joe Hill Gibbons’ Young Vic Dream and Bob Cratchit in A Christmas Carol at the Old Vic), but Into the Woods is only the third time that Dagleish has been cast in a musical.
But given he has won the Best Actor in a Musical Olivier Award for both his previous two outings—playing Ray Davies in the Kinks’ musical Sunny Afternoon back in 2015 and for his performance in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button—he may be feeling daunted by Into the Woods, but he’ll undoubtedly make good.
Winning two Oliviers is quite an achievement for any actor, but particularly one who trained at Drama Centre London and who, while he loved singing and dancing as a child, followed a TV (he was cast in the BBC’s Lark Rise to Candleford on graduation) and straight theatre career for many years before Sunny. Afternoon came.
He says that winning an Olivier makes you feel great on the night, but if it’s for a role in a musical, you shouldn’t expect it to be a career rocket boost.
“It’s different in the UK from Broadway, where a Tony win for a musical is a gamechanger. Here, if you win an Olivier for Best Actor in a play, it brings opportunities, but if it’s an Olivier for Best Actor in a musical, it might get you a foot in the door for another musical, but it doesn’t necessarily open other doors. In every musical I’ve done I’ve been surrounded by amazing actors, the very best, who are also brilliant musicians and singers. I think there is still a bit of snobbishness around musical theatre here."
Not that he’s complaining. He says that he’s like the child with his nose pressed up against the sweetshop window.
“I always wanted to be able to do everything if I could: film, TV, plays and musicals. I have been very lucky to have the breadth of career that I have.”
He’s enjoying the challenge of Into the Woods even though he doesn’t read music, which means he has to learn the score by ear.
“It’s like nothing I’ve ever had to learn before. It’s so dense. Packed with information. It’s not chorus, then verse, then chorus. It’s not the rock and pop of Sunny Afternoon or the folk score of Benjamin Button. They were quite straightforward. These are key changes and modulations all over the place, and when there are repetitions, there are completely different lyrics. Fortunately, in the rehearsal room I’m surrounded by Sondheim geeks who really know their stuff, who understand the motifs and the way the rhymes and motifs link and repeat. Nothing is there by accident. It is very complex. This show is the Shakespeare of the musical theatre world, enormously rewarding to perform, but it’s not easy.”
It can be daunting for audiences too, and the pleasure of Jordan Fein’s revival is the way it takes the audience by the hand and leads them through the thickets of the woods -- exquisitely imagined in Tom Scutt’s design as like a vast playground – and the even darker thickets of the mind. The woods are a place where witches and monsters lurk but also a potential liberation from the self and self-obsession.
“You have to be crystal clear with the storytelling, and every word counts, so it requires real articulation and dexterity from the performers. But what I really like is that the complexity isn’t ever for show; it’s all there for a reason.”
The Baker and his wife, desperate to have a child but unable to do so unless they can break a curse that has been put on them by a witch, are the lynchpin of Sondheim’s musical. Dagleish’s character goes on quite a journey in those woods.
“He’s initially quite petty and controlling. He doesn’t see his wife as his equal. But he’s a lot funnier than I originally thought. A bit of a clown. It is also very physical. I’ve been needing my knee pads every day. But it is such fun because we are still playing and discovering. I don’t think there is ever any such thing as a wrong choice; it’s the only way you ever make discoveries as an actor.”
Making discoveries about who you really are and what you really want and what you really need is right at the heart of Into the Woods, whose almost jolly first act ends with everyone apparently having achieved their heart’s desire. But getting what you wish for comes with terrible consequences, not just in Sondheim’s fairyland but in our own world too, where we have our own monsters, witches and giants, and where individual aspiration is valued over collective benefits.
Dagleish reckons there are plenty of reasons why despite its many jaunty joys and witty delights Into the Woods also feels like a very necessary show just at the moment.
“We are living through a time where existential threat feels very real. Where the world is burning. Where there is going to be a reckoning with younger people asking, ‘What the fuck were you doing?’ This is about a group of people who think they can only be happy if they can get their heart’s desire, and they do. But it comes at a cost. Ultimately it's about whether getting that thing you’ve always wanted is really going to make you happy. At the end, the survivors come together like a surrogate family. I think it’s a bit like Benjamin Button; they realise that what they really need was right in front of them the whole time, they just didn’t see it."
Into The Woods plays at the Noel Coward Theatre from 22 September 2026 to 9 January 2027. Book your tickets today.
By Lyn Gardner
Lyn Gardner is an acclaimed theatre journalist and former critic with decades of experience covering British theatre, from off-West End and fringe theatre to major West End productions.