Jordan Fein on bringing the magic of Into the Woods back to the West End
Published on 11 November 2026
When director Jordan Fein was about to open Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s Into the Woods at the Bridge this time last year, Nicholas Hytner walked into the theatre one day to take a peek and declared, “Wow, I haven't seen so many tights on stage in decades.”
But then part of the pleasure of Fein’s revival of the musical fairytale mash-up -- which has now taken up residence at the Noel Coward Theare with a cast which includes Kate Fleetwood as The Witch who locks Rapunzel up in a tower and John Daglleish as The Baker longing for a child-- is the skilfully crafted way that he brings real clarity to the storytelling while weaving an evening which is part magical dark fairytale, part witty pantomime, and part unsettling journey into the unconscious.
There are indeed men in tights, and they are often very silly, but while Into the Woods was written almost 40 years ago, Fein succeeds in making it feel sharply contemporary, a piece about the here and now. He does it without diluting the enchantment. He sharpens this tuneful, funny rallying cry for the power of community in a way which ensures it takes a knife to our self-interested individualism.
“The characters, and the actors playing them, bring such humanity to it, and I think audiences respond to that. You watch Cinderella in the woods and see her trying to just figure out who she is and how she should be. It is a show which is political through personal stories.” Neither Sondheim nor Fein offer any guaranteed happy ever afters.
“The brilliance of Act Two", says Fein, ‘’is that more than perhaps ever we understand that happy ever after isn’t real, that we are always going to have to continue to take care of each other. That doesn’t ever stop.”
Tom Scutt’s design—creating a lush forest which is gradually revealed to be full of sinister lurking shadows—is a key ingredient of Fein’s magical potion.
“I grew up on this musical through an American theatre lens,” says the US-born Fein, who is best known here in the UK for his Oklahoma! (co-directed with Daniel Fish), which transferred from the Young Vic to Wyndham’s back in 2023, and his Regent’s Park revival of Fiddler on the Roof, which transferred to the Barbican, “but Tom cut his teeth making panto at the Lyric Hammersmith, and so the show is a marriage of those two perspectives.”
Does it help or hinder that the pair have been a real-life couple for the last 10 years, during which time Scutt has lived with Fein’s obsessive devotion to Into the Woods?
“You have to learn to separate church and state. But I think we are quite good at being both collaborators and partners, and here the design is so integral to the piece it always felt right that it was Tom who did it. As soon as Nick Hytner offered me the job, I said to him that I wanted to work with Tom on it because he was just the right person for the job. But during the process you do have to give each other space; otherwise, life is just work.”
If the Bridge seemed like the perfect venue for Into the Woods, Fein says that Noel Coward Theatre brings with the production greater intimacy and force.
“The show feels like it is trying to burst out of the theatre, and when Kate Fleetwood’s Witch arrives, it really feels as if she is blowing the roof off of the building. Because the theatre is smaller there is real intimacy too because the audience is closer. So, in the soliloquy moments, the cast can access the audience in a more immediate way.”
Casting has been key for a show which is often described as an ensemble piece but has an unusually large raft of distinctive, fully developed characters.
“I think it is another reason why audiences respond to it. It is not like there are a couple of leads and stars. Here you get 17 very different artists on stage together, all bringing themselves fully to it. That is thrilling to watch.”
Talking with Fein, you get the sense that he is still pinching himself about the way his career has taken off over the last few years, but he is no overnight success and comes with 20 years of solid work behind him, including a significant amount of new writing and classic revivals.
“Never in a million years did I think I’d get a shot at directing Into the Woods at this point in my career, and it only happened because Nicolas Hytner saw Fiddler on the Roof and asked me if I would want to do Into the Woods, and he was in a position to make it happen. I will be forever grateful to him. I sort of believe that things come to you when you are ready for them."
This production proves that Fein was not just ready, but he has seized his chance, and it has given his career a real boost.
“I’m now in a position where I can let my gut lead me. I have options, and I can really think about what I want to spend my time on, whereas for the first 20 years of my career, when I was offered something, I had to figure out how I could make it work for me. So, yes, I have some energy behind me and am in the lucky position to be able to pick and choose, but I am also very aware that careers ebb and flow. You know, I’m turning 40 in a few months, and I feel I have a bit of perspective on just how fortunate I am. I have worked hard to get here, but I have been very lucky too.”
Next spring he will be opening a new musical in Boston based on the Jewish memoir Unorthodox about a Jewish woman who flees an arranged marriage. But for now, when Fein walks down St Martins Lane and sees the marquee for Into the Woods, he feels a genuine thrill that a show which hasn’t been seen in the West End since 1990 is back where it belongs, and it is his production which has achieved that.
“It really is pretty cool. I love the idea that some adult or kid who doesn’t know the show is going to wander in and fall in love with it, just like I did when I was a kid.”
Into the Woods plays at the Noel Coward Theatre unril 9th 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.