How Julia Lester Went ‘Into the Woods’ and Came Out a Broadway Star
When her agent calls, “I never know if it’s going to be a good thing or a bad thing,” the actor Julia Lester said. Last August, one such call came through, and it turned out to be life-changing.
A few weeks before, Lester, 22, had auditioned to play Little Red Riding Hood in a forthcoming production of Stephen Sondheim’s Into the Woods. She recalled to The Daily Beast that she had sent a self-made tape of herself singing the character’s song “I Know Things Now,” and performed three additional scenes fully dressed up as the character sticking a red skirt under her collar to make a cape, and brandishing a knife to ensure producers knew she was ready to face the hungry Wolf.
“Part of you doesn’t want to hold on too tightly, you don’t want to get your hopes up,” Lester said of waiting to hear after the audition. She had other job possibilities floating about. But on the call that day, both her agents were present. “If they’re both on a call, you know it’s big news,” Lester said. “I thought, ‘Whatever can this be?’ One of them said: ‘Sondheim wants you to play Little Red.’