A Conversation with Chloe Saracco
on Sondheim, stepsisters, and standby strategy
It’s a pleasure to welcome Chloe Saracco to The Sondheim Hub. Chloe currently appears in the much-discussed and celebrated production of Into the Woods at The Bridge, London, where she serves as standby for Rapunzel, Lucinda, and Florinda. In our conversation, Chloe reflects on the particular demands — and exhilarations — of covering multiple roles, the mental and physical choreography required to step into the woods at a moment’s notice, and the way Sondheim’s work has threaded through her life. Our conversation begins below:
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It’s so great to meet you. To begin with, I wonder if you could orient readers as to the various roles you’re covering in this phenomenal production of Into the Woods.
Sure! I’m a standby for three of the characters: Rapunzel, Lucinda, and Florinda. What that means is that I am in the building every night, at my dressing table, ready to go on should anything happen to any of those characters at any point during the evening, or during the day if we have a two-show day. I’ll often get called in to do the part before our call time, so I’ll hear maybe a few hours before we’re called to the theatre if I’m going to be on that night, and for which character.
At that point, I do a little review in my head, and I go in there and put the costumes on. I have my own costumes and wigs for everything. And I have a special thing, too: usually, each character will have a duplicate costume, but I actually have my own Lucinda-Florinda costume. So, whether I’m on for Lucinda or Florinda, I’m in the same stepsister outfit. Which is hilarious, because they specifically have the lines, “never wear mauve to a ball,” “or pink,” depending on who you are. And the costume very cleverly incorporates both.
So if someone sees you as one of the stepsisters, you are wearing both mauve and pink to the ball? I love that.
Exactly. It’s funny: when I auditioned for the project and I was seen for the stepsisters, they didn’t specify which, so the bit for the audition was “I was greedy, / I was vain, / I was haughty, / I was smug, / We were happy, / It was fun” — that whole bit, which is obviously incredibly fast. When I went in, I remember Jordan [Fein, director] saying, “Okay, let’s do this song,” and I said, “Which sister would you like?” And he said, “What do you mean?” I said, “I do think they’re quite different — one’s pretty domineering, and the other one is more of a follower.” He was like, “You pick, you choose your favorite, and you go ahead and do that.”
But then, when we did our cover run, I was playing all three of my characters at once. That was when I got to have my split personality moment, where I did both sisters at the same time, getting my heel and my toe cut off.
When I got the job, I did think about how challenging it would be to step in as both stepsisters. Their blocking’s very much the same, but just slightly different — and that might be trickier to remember and master, as opposed to two entirely different parts. I’m able to keep Rapunzel quite separate from the two of them, because they never really interact on stage. But it was such a fun challenge to surmount. With those alternating lines, you really have to keep track: okay, who am I tonight? And I can’t look down at my costume and know who I am, because it’s the same! But it’s really quite fun. They’re so silly, and I just have the best time.
When I get the call, I have a few different tricks. The first thing I did when we were in rehearsal was make what some people call a cheat sheet. I call it an entrances and exits sheet, where essentially I have all the scenes or songs that character is in, what comes right before, what cues you to perk up. Like, “Oh, I hear ‘Agony Reprise.’ I need to get over and get ready!” On that sheet, I also write where I enter from, what my first line is, what my last line is, what cues my exit, where I’m exiting, along with any props I’m wearing or bringing on, and any costume changes.
I did that for all three of my characters during tech, sitting in the back of the theatre in the gallery. For Lucinda and Florinda, I could essentially copy and paste, and then go in and change all the specific things — okay, this person stays on the right, this person enters from wherever — and then it was very clear what the differences were. So whenever I’m on, I’ll have a quick glance at the chart. And when I’m waiting in the wings, I’m just reviewing what goes first, who goes where, all the different positions.
Of your three roles, which was the first you went on for in a public performance, and how early into the run was it?
I was the last standby to go on. Press night was on December 12th, and I didn’t go on until the end of January, so it was a good amount of time. I went on as Florinda first, and it was the best day. The cast were all so supportive — finally Chloe gets to be on stage! And it really didn’t hit me until after that opening number, when the woods are revealed and the audience just cheers in exhalation after this huge prologue. I came off the stage after prancing around with the horse-and-carriage handbags, and that roar of applause… Of course I hear it every night from my dressing room along the hallway, but there was just something about it. Coming off the stage and hearing that, I got a bit teary-eyed. I was like, wow, that’s what that feels like.
I hadn’t been on stage and had it acknowledged by an audience for so long — almost an entire year, because the last time I was in a show on stage was The Great Comet of 1812, and that closed in February 2025. So it was just like, whoa! I forgot what that feels like! What a breath of fresh air!
Had doing a Sondheim show always been a specific goal of yours?
As an actor, so much is out of your control. For my mental health and wellbeing, I try not to give myself too much of a tick list, because so much of it is up to chance, no matter how hard you work or how good you are. But of course, in my dream of dreams, as a theatre kid and a Sondheim head, I always wanted to do a Sondheim show.
I remember that was one of the first things Jordan asked in my first-round audition. We sat down and talked about Comet — he had seen me in Comet and loved the show — but then we moved on to Into the Woods. We talked about the different themes and how it speaks to so many people on so many levels.
It’s always been a dream of mine to be part of a Sondheim musical, let alone one as iconic as Into the Woods, that holds such a special place in so many people’s hearts. I remember when it was first announced, at The Bridge, with that creative team, and the theatre world went wild. I remember thinking, oh man, I would love to do that.
And I remember I had just gotten a no from another show that I’d been through several recalls for. I was on the phone to my agent, kind of sobbing about that as he told me, and through my tears I was like, “Can you just make sure I get in the room for Into the Woods? The creative team, the music, the theatre… I will play tree number two if you can get me in that room. I will be forever grateful.” And he was already on it. I was so thrilled to get to audition for this, let alone get to do the actual job — and honestly, it’s everything I could have wished for and more.
Rapunzel feels like quite a good microcosm of the emotional range of the show, because she gets laughs for the hair and her “beautiful music,” but then what’s actually going on with her is really quite dark and sad. How did you find that expressive variety as you were preparing for Rapunzel?
I do love that about Rapunzel. You get to the end of the show, and everybody’s saying their lines about what they’ve learned, and then Rapunzel turns around and goes, “Ah-ah-ah-ah-ah.” That always gets a huge laugh. But I love that Jordan has really leaned into the sadness of Rapunzel’s story.
When I went on for Rapunzel, I got to be on stage with Kate Fleetwood. She is just the most incredible scene partner. I feel like she’s seeing into my soul. I’ve never seen somebody so in it, so connected, so giving, so listening. It makes me feel and be a better actor simply by being on stage with her and doing a scene with her. It’s really amazing to stand in the wings with Kate just to the side of the stage before we go on, and to see her doing the prep work, preparing to go into the scene with you.
There’s a moment when Rapunzel enters first, and then the Witch comes on after her. Kate was so lovely with me about it, and told me exactly what she wanted. She needed me to stand on one side of her so that I run in front of her before I’m visible to the audience through the trees and on stage first, because that was an important thing for her to see for her prep before we went into the scene. So even though I enter first, I come in from behind her.
I love the monologue that Rapunzel has after the big opening number of Act Two. She runs on stage, and it’s the first time the audience sees Rapunzel going completely crazy, with her balding hair, looking like she’s on the edge, laughing, clearly not all there. That’s one of those zero-to-a-hundred moments in playing her. And then Kate comes out of nowhere, and we see the juxtaposition — the two of them on stage once again, the complete and utter change between how they look physically, and also where they’re at mentally. I love that scene so much, because I think the audience has no idea what to do. Where is this coming from? What’s going on with Rapunzel?
And I’m really glad that James Lapine put that in there, because I think it’s such a critical and interesting point in Rapunzel’s story. We hear more about Cinderella and Jack and Little Red — quite a bit more. Rapunzel may have a smaller slice of the pie, but she still has a very great impact.
You mentioned being a real Sondheim head growing up. What was your Sondheim origin story?
Sondheim’s really been woven throughout my life. Everything I was just saying about process and performing on stage with Kate reminded me of a quote by Sondheim from that six-hour-long interview. I remember when I was in school, I listened to the whole thing over a weekend while I was cleaning my flat. Sondheim said something like, “When you prepare the table, the meal is easier to cook.” And I feel like that really applies to those moments with Rapunzel and the Witch, and seeing Kate’s process.
I would say the first time I was really introduced to Sondheim was when my voice teacher, at around age fifteen, gave me “On the Steps of the Palace” to learn. That was the first Sondheim song that was ever in my book. Ever since then, he’s just popped up in so many different parts of my life. When I went to uni, the first musical I did in my freshman year was Sweeney Todd, where I was Johanna. I think possibly one of my favourite Sondheim numbers is the Johanna quartet.
I feel like, in one way or another, Sondheim has always had some presence in everything I love about musical theatre. But it’s really something else to get to do this show professionally, as one of my first proper jobs, and to get to do it on this scale with these people. I couldn’t be more grateful.
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