Into the Woods: a ‘hypnotic’ production

Katie Brayben as the Baker’s Wife

(Image credit: Johan Persson)

Stephen Sondheim’s 1986 musical “Into the Woods” is “the work of a genius at the peak of his powers”, said Andrzej Lukowski in Time Out. With a “tremendous” book by James Lapine, it draws on fairy tales including “Cinderella”, “Rapunzel”, “Jack and the Beanstalk” and “Little Red Riding Hood”, and pushes these “familiar stories into absurd, existential, eventually very moving territory. It’s both playful and profound, mischievous and sincere, cleverly meta but also a ripping yarn”.

Sondheim’s lyrics are by turns bathetic, audacious and poignant, and his lush score of baroque nursery rhymes “feels as vividly alive as the forest itself”. It’s a “sublime but fiddly” piece that is rarely revived because it’s hard to pull off, and requires a large cast of first-rate singing actors. So enormous credit is due to Jordan Fein: his new production “smashes it”.

Fein is the American director who has previously impressed with a stripped-back “Oklahoma!” and a “glorious” “Fiddler on the Roof”, said Clive Davis in The Times. Now, he has worked wonders with material that can risk sinking “under the weight of its outsized ambitions”. This magnificently acted production is “hypnotic” – but also “sharp, propulsive and often very funny”. And it boasts “stunning” set and costume designs by Tom Scutt and “extraordinarily atmospheric” lighting by Aideen Malone. “It’s hard to imagine a production that does a better job of tying all the themes and subthemes together.”

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All the actors are on “blazing musical form”, said Arifa Akbar in The Guardian, and each finds a moment to excel. To pick standouts is invidious, but as the wicked Witch, Kate Fleetwood is “phenomenal both in and out of song”. Jamie Parker and Katie Brayben, as the Baker and his Wife, “bring a truth and sincerity to every note they sing” and every line they speak, said Sarah Crompton on WhatsOnStage; they are the heart of this sophisticated, clever and confident revival. “It’s a great production of a terrific show. A fine way to end a year of musicals.”