Terry Gilliam’s long-awaited revival of Stephen Sondheim’s Into the Woods is to be staged at the Theatre Royal Bath, before a West End transfer.
Into the Woods, the award-winning musical by Stephen Sondheim, who died last month aged 91, is to be revived in the UK.
Acclaimed film and stage director Terry Gilliam, who was part of the iconic Monty Python team, will direct the show, alongside American choreographer Leah Hausman. Other creators includedesigner Jon Bausor, costume designer Antony McDonald, video designer Will Duke, sound designer Paul Groothuis, and casting director David Grindrod.
The new production will open at the Theatre Royal Bath on 19 August 2022, running until 10 September. The production was originally to have been staged at the Old Vic Theatre in London, before being cancelled. The show will then transfer into the West End in late 2022 or early 2023, with no further news on casting or dates.
Into the Woods was due to open at the Old Vic Theatre in April 2021, but was cancelled by the Old Vic’s former executive director Kate Varah.
Into the Woods has music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim musical and a book by James Lapine, and brings together a number of Grimm Brothers fairytales includingRed Riding Hood, Cinderella, Jack and the Beanstalk, and Rapunzel into one magical story. A baker and his wife desperately yearn to have a child but have been cursed by the Witch who lives next door, thanks to the actions of the baker’s father. The only way to lift the curse is to find four obscures yet strangely familiar items – a cow as white as milk, a slipper as pure as gold, a cape as red as blood and a hair as yellow as corn. With only three nights to find them before the curse becomes irreversible, the couple head deep into the mysterious nearby woods only to discover more about themselves than they might ever have expected…
The show has won a number of awards including Tony Awards for Best Score and Best Book for the original 1987 Broadway production starring Bernadette Peters, a Tony Award in 2002 for Best Revival, and an Olivier Award for best musical revival in 2011 for the Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre starring Hannah Waddingham and Jenna Russell. Into the Woods was also turned into a hit movie directed by Rob Marshall and starring Meryl Streep, James Corden, Emily Blunt and Johnny Depp.
Terry Gilliam came to fame as one of the Monty Python Flying Circus troupe. In 2009, he was presented with the BAFTA Lifetime Achievement Award for a film career which has included Brazil, Twelve Monkeys, Time Bandits, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and the Oscar-winning The Fisher King. He has also directed to critical acclaim The Damnation of Faust and Benvenuto Cellini for English National Opera.
Into the Woods is produced by Scenario Two and Theatre Royal Bath Productions. Scenario Two co-director John Berry said in a statement that Sondheim had given them his permission before his death: “We feel privileged to be working on this wonderful work and we are extremely grateful to Steve (Sondheim) and James Lapine for their support as we searched for a new home for this production.”
More information about Into the Woods
