Following a successful run at the Bridge Theatre last year, Stephen Sondheim’s classic musical, Into the Woods, has transferred to the West End’s Noel Coward Theatre in its first major London staging since 2010.
First staged in 1986, Into the Woods masterfully intertwines four Brothers Grimm fairy tales, following a Baker and his wife, a Witch, Jack and his beloved cow Milky White, Little Red Riding Hood, Cinderella and Rapunzel as they venture beyond “happily ever after” to discover what truly matters.
I was disappointed when I saw this revival at the Bridge Theatre; I felt that director Jordan Fein played things far too safely, when bolder more imaginative choices could have elevated the material. Did I feel the same this time around? No. Maybe I’ve had time to reflect on the show and watching it again made me feel it wasn’t necessarily ‘too safe’ but actually ‘quietly beautiful’.
The set design is attractive if somewhat simplistic. It’s as though all the colour has been sucked out of it but this does make the costumes stand out more, especially Little Red’s cape.
The Cast
At the performance I saw, Gabrielle Lewis-Dodson played the role of Little Red Riding Hood, leaning fully into spoilt-brat Veruca Salt-esque energy and injecting much-needed colour into the production.
The Giant in the second half of the show is portrayed with thunder and lightning to create the effect that the evil creature was high up in the sky. It’s a clever way to stage this character and whilst I would have like to see a giant appear on stage, I can understand it could have risked verging on pantomime.
The Wolf/Cinderella’s Prince, played at this performance by Adam Robert Lewis, leans into Monty Python-esq comedy rather than menace, losing the unsettling edge that often makes the role so effective. I didn’t like the character in the previous production and still don’t like it here but the performance can’t be faulted – I think I have just been spoiled by seeing Gavin Creel play such a delicious portrayal on Broadway.
I loved Laura Pitt-Pulford and John Dagleish as the Baker and the Baker’s Wife who form the emotional heart of the show. Cursed by the Witch after stealing from her vegetable garden, the couple must collect a series of items from the woods in order to lift the spell and have a child.
The scene in which Cinderella’s sisters attempt to squeeze into the Prince’s shoe is neatly staged and played effectively for laughs and Keith Ramsay is sweet in his portrayal of Jack.
Kate Fleetwood delivers a solid performance as the Witch with a softness that again could be pantomime villain but instead gives a human emotional quality to the character.
Into the Woods remains a masterpiece of musical theatre, yet it has always struggled with pacing. Despite a fairly standard running time of around two hours and forty minutes, it feels so much longer. The couple sitting next to me were not wrong in wondering if the show was finished at the interval, as not only does the show feel finished (before it turns on its head in Act Two) but it feels like it’s been on forever. This perhaps raises the question of whether you get more for your money if a show is longer – rather than something like the recently announced West End transfer of the 65-minute play The Guilty, starring Russell Tovey, which, despite its short running time, doesn’t seem to be reflected in the price point.
★★★★
Reviewed by West End Wilma
