Johanna Allen returns to State Opera South Australia as the Baker’s Wife in Into the Woods, Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s Tony‑winning musical that twists familiar fairy tales – many of them first written and published in France by Charles Perrault – into a sharp, funny meditation on wish‑fulfilment and “happily ever after.” In this conversation, the Adelaide‑trained, Juilliard‑schooled singer–actor talks about why Sondheim’s complex women feel like home, how becoming a parent has deepened her take on the role, and what it means to bring a Sondheim musical to an opera stage with an entirely South Australian cast. Discover our interview with Johanna Allen below.
Johanna Allen, you studied at University of Adelaide and completed both a Bachelor of Music Performance (Hons) and B.A. (Drama Performance and Direction.) and won a scholarship to study with Daniel Ferro at the Juilliard School, New York. When did you know that you wanted to pursue a career in the performing arts and more specifically in music?
I think I have always been moved by the meeting of words and music. I don’t think there is a more powerful union. Music and acting are a shared experience with an audience – and it was that exchange that I loved the most. I wanted to be part of that, to impart that and to explore it in a way that made people laugh and feel. So it was where I wanted to go. I dared to think about it in high school, but I was academic, and I felt a certain duty to follow a more conventional path. At the last minute I changed my university preferences and did a late audition. And now, I am eternally grateful I did, even though sometimes it’s a challenging life.
What drew you to the field(s)?
What hooked me was discovering works I loved – Sondheim, Puccini, Shakespeare, the plays of Tennessee Williams. When I found these scores and texts, I felt a visceral excitement and that was that!
From this weekend, you’re stepping into the role of The Baker’s Wife in the State Opera South Australia’s Into the Woods alongside Hugh Sheridan in the role of your husband, the baker. Tell us about this role.
She’s a modern women in a not so modern world. She’s intelligent, pragmatic, filled with heart and she loves her husband, but she yearns for a bigger life. She also yearns for a child, which is a complex longing in the scheme of the story. She is funny and real. And I’ve adored getting to know her.
You have played the Baker’s Wife before, in a charity performance, and in 2012 you called it one of your favourite roles. What has changed in your understanding of her now that you are returning to the character in a fully staged State Opera production?
Truthfully when I played the role then I was too young. I hadn’t yet experienced the full gamut of what it is to yearn to be a parent. And this show is all about the crossroads of loving your children, but trying to protect them in a world that isn’t ‘happily ever after’. Then I was in my 20’s with very little responsibility and I wasn’t yet a parent. And it wasn’t a fully fledged production. Now I am a parent, I have experienced more of life, and we’ve had the wonderful fortune to be led by our visionary director Constantine Costi and his incredible associate Shannon Burns. Together they have enriched this piece for me, and it means so much more now than it did then.
Now I am a parent, I have experienced more of life, and we’ve had the wonderful fortune to be led by our visionary director Constantine Costi and his incredible associate Shannon Burns. Together they have enriched this piece for me, and it means so much more now than it did then.
Also, what made it your favourite role?
I’ve had the good fortune to play several of Sondheim’s great female presenting characters – Nellie Lovett in Sweeney Todd, Charlotte in Night Music and now the Baker’s Wife. I could sit in these roles, and others by Sondheim for a very long time and be happy – he writes complex, remarkable, relatable women. So it is my favourite role, but really, they all are. And there is a list of more I want! J
I could sit in these roles, and others by Sondheim for a very long time and be happy – he writes complex, remarkable, relatable women. So it is my favourite role, but really, they all are.
The Baker’s Wife begins with a seemingly straightforward wish – to have a child -but the journey exposes much more complicated desires. What do you think she is really searching for when the story begins?
She’s searching. Full stop. To love and parent a child yes. But she’s searching her own life for meaning. She’s wondering whether there can be a better life, a more exciting life, a life less mundane than her own, a life without the challenges we all face. And that’s in part why this piece remains so relevant and universal – haven’t we all, at some point, compared our life to another and longed for a different experience?
And that’s in part why this piece remains so relevant and universal – haven’t we all, at some point, compared our life to another and longed for a different experience?
Into the woods intertwines beloved Brothers Grimm fairy tales including Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, Jack and the Beanstalk, and Rapunzel with an original story of a baker and his wife on a quest to break a witch’s curse and start a family. Are the Grimm fairytales as we know them in Into the woods?
I think the best thing is to come and see the show. You will recognise all of the fairy tale characters, and the tropes of their stories – but you need to see where they have been re-invented and where they remain the same!
Sondheim and Lapine complicate the idea of “happily ever after”. How has that shift affected the way you play the Baker’s Wife’s hopes and disappointments?
I think that is the arc of the Baker’s wife – she has to learn that there is no ‘happily ever after’ and sometimes, the imperfection of our lives and the day to day can be as cherished as the supposed notion of ‘happily ever after’.
Sondheim gives the Baker’s Wife some of the musical’s most emotionally intricate material, particularly Moments in the Woods. What can you tell us about performing Moments in the Woods, and what makes it such a compelling song?
It’s such a challenge because it is filled with soooooo many words and soooooo many thoughts. And somehow, I have to make sure the audience get all of them. Because that song is her reckoning, her working it through, and her raison d’être, if you will. And so it’s a joy, but it’s so many things to convey, in the moment. And it comes right after something really big has happened to her. And you have to come and see the show cause I’m not going to say what that is!
It’s such a challenge because it is filled with soooooo many words and soooooo many thoughts. And somehow, I have to make sure the audience get all of them. Because that song is her reckoning, her working it through, and her raison d’être,
The show asks whether getting what we want is necessarily good for us. Has working on the Baker’s Wife changed the way you think about ambition, compromise or the consequences of a wish fulfilled?
I think artists constantly think about all those things. We never feel like we summit the mountain – we always have to find the next job, do the next audition, plan the next project. That is all part of ambition, and it all contributes to the idea of what success is. Plus, for those of us who are parents, we are trying to balance the needs of our children with our own artistic need and identity. It’s complex stuff I have always thought about, but certainly those thoughts are compounded by working on this show.
We never feel like we summit the mountain – we always have to find the next job, do the next audition, plan the next project. That is all part of ambition, and it all contributes to the idea of what success is.
Into the Woods is a Broadway Tony winning musical rather than an opera. What do you think made State Opera South Australia decide to produce a musical?
I welcome SOSA’S decision to program this work. Sondheim isn’t just any musical. It’s complex, it’s musically challenging, it requires legitimate singers. Many of the cast, myself included work as classical singers in our own right. This is a further elevation of music, with a different approach to storytelling, but never the less, equally as valid. Art is art. And ‘art isn’t easy’ as Mr Sondheim says. But this gives audience a broader perspective of musical value and experience. And I think broadening musical understanding is well within the programming ideals of any opera company. What a wonderful serving to the people of South Australia.
What is distinctive about performing a Sondheim musical with an opera company, and how does that shape the way you and the rest of the cast approach Into the Woods?
Like any classical offering it requires musician performers with precision, accuracy, emotional understanding and serious performance chops.
You’re one of a cast of 18 South Australians in the production. What does being part of such a local cast mean to you?
This is literally a reunion. I am working with dear friends. Hugh and I have known each other since we were in our teens. I studied with most of the cast at the Elder Conservatorium before further study overseas. It is truly a joy. I am very proud to be from Adelaide. To come home and be part of this is a true gift.
This is literally a reunion. I am working with dear friends. Hugh and I have known each other since we were in our teens. I studied with most of the cast at the Elder Conservatorium before further study overseas. It is truly a joy. I am very proud to be from Adelaide. To come home and be part of this is a true gift.
You’re no stranger to State Opera South Australia audiences having previously performed in Carousel and The Mikado. What do you enjoy about working with State Opera South Australia?
This company gave me so many firsts – first principal role, first Young Artist Program. I was so young and naïve and had total imposter syndrome in the early part of my career. We all do, to some degree all the time. But I am very grateful to come back and be part of this. And be able to channel what I love so much, into a company I care deeply about.
Who is this production for?
This production is for everyone. It’s for people who love opera who don’t know music theatre. It’s for musical lovers who haven’t experienced some of the more complex musical pieces. It’s funny, heart breaking, familiar and real – who can’t find something to love in that? It’s for everyone, truly everyone.
This production is for everyone. It’s for people who love opera who don’t know music theatre. It’s for musical lovers who haven’t experienced some of the more complex musical pieces.
Why should people come to see it?
Anyone who is familiar with fairy tales, and anyone who has occasionally wished for a different life, will find something to love in Into the Woods. And again, isn’t that just about all of us? Come to the Woods – you won’t regret it!
Anyone who is familiar with fairy tales, and anyone who has occasionally wished for a different life, will find something to love in Into the Woods
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We thank Johanna Allen for this interview and can’t wait to see Into the Woods this weekend.
KEY INFO FOR INTO THE WOODS
WHAT: Into the Woods
WHERE: Her Majesty’s Theatre
WHEN: 4 shows only:
- 7:30pm on Saturday 22 August
- 7:30pm on Wednesday 26 August
- 7:30pm on Friday 28 August ; and
- 1pm on Saturday 29 August 2026
HOW: Purchase your tickets via this link
HOW MUCH: From $79 up to Premium $199
What’s your favourite Brothers Grimm fairy tale?
