Into the Woods at Royal Exchange Manchester – Alex Gaumond and Gillian Bevan star

Alex Gaumond makes his debut at the Royal Exchange Manchester as the Baker in Into the Woods. Picture: Helen Maybanks

Manchester Royal Exchange Theatre’s associate artistic director Matthew Xia makes his main-stage debut this Christmas with his exploration of Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s Tony Award-winning fairy tale Into the Woods. As a composer and former BBC Radio 1Xtra presenter, DJ Excalibah, Xia’s passion for telling stories with music has been long held.

Xia said: “The music and lyricism of Sondheim’s work is intricate and sublime. Into the Woods is a brilliantly dark and witty morality tale and so very fitting for a modern day city as complex and diverse as Manchester. It explores a fantastical community of fairy tale characters who are more like us modern city dwellers than we might think.”

For Into the Woods Xia has assembled a creative team including Olivier and Tony Award-winning designer Jenny Tiramani whose design brings the forest into the theatre. Olivier nominated choreographer Jason Pennycooke, musical supervisor Julian Kelly and Sean Green as musical director join the team. Telling these tales are a cast of 18 including leading West End actor Alex Gaumond as the Baker, Gillian Bevan as the Witch, 2015 Evening Standard Emerging Talent Award nominee David Moorst as Jack and Exchange associate artist Maxine Peake as the voice of the Giant. Sondheim’s magical adventure runs from 4 December to 16 January 2016 in the Theatre.

Gillian Bevan will play the Witch in Into the Woods (here she is pictured with Billy Elliot co-star Deka Walmsley at the Olivier Awards)

Royal Exchange associate artistic director Matthew Xia was the recipient of the Regional Theatre Young Director Scheme bursary in 2013 and took up the post as Director in Residence at the Liverpool Everyman and Playhouse Theatres. In the same year he won the Young Vic’s Genesis Future Director award with his production of Sizwe Banzi is Dead. He has a long-standing relationship with the Theatre Royal Stratford East having been a trustee for ten years, associate director and associate artist. His work there includes The Blacks (co-directed with Ultz), Da Boyz, Mad Blud, Aladdin, Cinderella and I Was Looking At the Ceiling and Then I Saw the Sky. Other directing credits include The Sound of Yellow (Young Vic), Scrappers (Liverpool Playhouse), Migration Music (Liverpool Everyman), Blacklands (Cottesloe ), Ruth the Divorcee and Barry the Love Sick Bee (Lyric Hammersmith/Bestival), Abandonment (Rich Mix) and Connections (National Theatre).

Alex Gaumond makes his debut at the Royal Exchange as the Baker. A regular on the West End stage, his recent credits have included Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Matilda, Top Hat, We Will Rock You, Legally Blonde and Guys and Dolls. Other credits include Sweeney Todd (ENO) and Seven Brides For Seven Brothers (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre). He is joined on stage by Gillian Bevan who returns to the Exchange following her roles in Hamlet, Sweeney Todd and Last Days of Troy. Bevan has a long association with the work of Stephen Sondheim including the European premiere of Road Show (Menier Chocolate Factory), his 80th Birthday tribute concert of Company and co-producing the charity gala of Merrily We Roll Along (Shaftesbury Theatre) and Sunday With Sondheim. Other credits include Billy Elliot in the West End and the recent film of London Road.

The cast for Into the Woods is completed by Cameron Blakely, Gemma Page, Marc Elliott, Francesca Zoutewelle, Maimuna Memon, Amelia Cavallo, Michaela Bennison, Michael Peavoy, Rachel Goodwin, Claire Brown, Isabelle Peters, Natasha Cottriall, Michael O’Connor and Amy Ellen Richardson. The creative team includes lighting designer Ciaran Cunningham, sound designer John A Leonard and musical supervisor Julian Kelly.

www.royalexchange.co.uk/intothewoods

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