Into the Woods Reviews Round-up – Bridge Theatre London [Updated]

"Jordan Fein’s revival of the fairytale-filled Sondheim classic is pure magic"

"... rising star Jordan Fein’s sumptuous revival of Stephen Sondheim’s Into the Woods"

"... this is the first actual proper major Sondheim revival to be staged in this country since the great man’s passing. And the main thing worth saying about 1986’s Into the Woods is that it’s the work of a genius at the peak of his powers"

"It’s both playful and profound, mischievous and sincere, cleverly meta but also a ripping yarn."

"... every second is filled with Sondheim’s presence: his lush, motif-saturated score of baroque nursery rhymes feels as vividly alive as the forest itself."

"... Into the Woods is a sublime but fiddly musical with a lot of moving parts. You need to get it right, and Fein smashes it, largely thanks to exceptional casting."

"Gracie McGonigal is absolutely wonderful as a gung-ho, psychotic girl guide of a Red Riding Hood. Oliver Savile is a hoot as the smarmy, childlike Prince"

"... Kate Fleetwood walks off with woman of the match – she’s an actor who eats up villain roles for breakfast, but she brings complexity, heart and a comic range equal to her vocal one to the role of the scheming but complicated Witch."

"... the whole thing looks astonishing: Tom Scutt’s set transitions between a sort of huge table the whole ensemble moves around and through, and the astonishingly lush, vivid woods themselves."

"It’s just great, really, a sublime production of a sublime musical with a sublime cast.... Pure magic."

"Sondheim at its best, a five-star triumph"

"Director Jordan Fein’s take on the show’s twisted fairy tales at the Bridge Theatre is sharp, propulsive and often very funny"

"Jordan Fein strikes again. A year after the director gave us a glorious revival of Fiddler on the Roof at Regent’s Park... he now works wonders with a Stephen Sondheim show which has, in the past, risked sinking under the weight of its outsized ambitions."

"Fein’s captivating version at the Bridge, endowed with stunning set and costume designs by Tom Scutt and extraordinarily atmospheric lighting by Aideen Malone, is sharp, propulsive and often very funny."

"He has assembled a magnificent cast. Chumisa Dornford-May, prowling the stage in a spectacular gown, makes a triumphant Cinderella. Jo Foster... is an irrepressible Jack"

"Yes, there are still longueurs in Act One where you chafe at Sondheim’s knotty rhythms and Lapine’s densely layered book. But it’s hard to imagine a production that does a better job of tying all the themes and subthemes together"

"The musical director Mark Aspinall’s 12-piece orchestra is elegance itself. I don’t mind admitting that I struggled with the other big Sondheim opening of recent weeks — the screen version of the clever-clever showbiz story Merrily We Roll Along. These twisted fairy tales, though, are hypnotic."

"A five-star revival of Sondheim’s fairy-tale mash-up at the Bridge"

"An immaculate cast carries the composer’s fiendish score with panache in this first London production for almost a decade"

"... done well, it needs a huge, and hugely capable, cast to sing the fiendish staccato score, as well as trees, cows, giants, witches, magic, humour, horror and heart. This production is done well, and it has all of those."

"It’s no radical reinvention from director Jordan Fein... but like his Fiddler on the Roof from last year, this is a very finely wrought piece of theatre that looks extraordinary, boasts a tremendous cast and uses their precise performances to let the score speak for itself."

"Designer Tom Scutt wraps them all in costumes that are creepy and plentiful: everyone wears several layers of fabric, adorned with cloaks and scarves, frills and ruffs. There is plenty of colour, but muted, like a faded oil painting. And his set is several remarkable designs in one."

"Katie Brayben as the Baker’s Wife perfectly lands every one of Sondheim’s unexpected notes in “Moments in the Woods”, and Jamie Parker as her husband brings rawness and resignation to “No More”. But it’s Kate Fleetwood’s Witch who really stands out"

"Although hardly light Christmas fare, it is a superbly entertaining way to be told that things don’t always work out for the best."

"Magical moments in the woods"

"Director Jordan Fein’s magical new production of Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s Into the Woods"

"Fein and Scutt collaborated last year on a radical and revelatory Fiddler on the Roof, and here they once again work with the musical supervisor Mark Aspinall to make Sondheim not only look but sound fresh, with Jonathan Tunick’s orchestrations dialling up the darkness inside the lyrical score. Adam Fisher provides a terrifyingly good sound design"

"Within this perfect frame, the cast shape their stories. There isn’t a weak link among them as strong-voiced and subtle they bring fictive characters to grounded life."

"... Chumisa Dornford-May is an extraordinarily clear and charismatic Cinderella"

"All of them sing as though they are thinking, as though Sondheim’s complicated, punning, lyrics that twist and turn on themselves are the most natural way to express themselves. Nowhere is this truer than of Jamie Parker and Katie Brayben as the Baker and his wife, who bring a truth and sincerity to every note they sing and every line they say."

"This is the most sophisticated and clever production, confident in every aspect"

"It’s a great production of a terrific show. A fine way to end a year of musicals."

"Forget panto, Into the Woods is theatre’s classiest Christmas show"

"This beautiful production of Stephen Sondheim’s fairytale musical is good enough to outlive the festive season"

"... Jordan Fein, whose beautiful production for the Bridge Theatre makes a classy alternative to panto yet is richly detailed enough long to outlive the festive season."

"A plot that could easily become convoluted is instead brisk and hypnotic, Sondheim’s jaunty music keeping step with lyrics that have their own springy levity."

"... Tom Scutt reveals a woodland scene with tree-trunks so tangible and foliage so lush, you want in on the adventure, too."

"That sophistication is matched by nuanced, vocally commanding performances in the ensemble, whether from Chumisa Dornford-May’s soulful Cinders, Katie Brayben’s careworn Baker’s Wife, or Kate Fleetwood, sensational as the snarling yet anguished Witch. I also loved Jo Foster’s sweetly wide-eyed Jack, puppeteering a soft-toy cow with sly glee. Chapeau."

"Brothers Grimm gloriously mashed up by Sondheim"

"Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s fairytale adventure follows its archetypal characters into real-world emotion, brilliantly drawn and sung"

"Jordan Fein’s production shimmers and shines with all the humour and pathos of these errant fairytale characters who misadventure into the woods, winding their rearranged stories around each other."

"The show begins with swift efficiency, racing through some of the early songs, but it gathers feeling and there is picaresque fun."

"The cast bring bags of charm: Jack is ultra-feminine, Red Ridinghood appears like a fearless girl guide, the Wolf (Oliver Savile) a vulpine version of David Niven, it seems, and the Witch (Kate Fleetwood) is both comically evil and wronged. The Baker and his wife’s struggles to conceive come weighted with feeling."

"The actors are on blazing musical form too, hitting every difficult or dissonant note, and each performer finds a moment to excel."

"The alluring darkness to this dysfunctional family drama (with fairytale bells on) is literal in the exquisitely conceived set design by Tom Scutt."

"This production has none of the broadness or festive spirit of a Christmas show or panto, but the wonder and magic of both."

"A triumphant musical mash-up of fairytales"

"This revival of Stephen Sondheim’s clever musical is packed with terrific performances as classic fairytale characters lose their way in the darkness"

"Stephen Sondheim’s 1980s musical mashup of various, mostly Grimm fairytales – Cinderella, Jack and the Beanstalk, Rapunzel - is triumphantly revived here by director Jordan Fein. And it’s an inspired choice to open it at Christmas."

"Fein assembles a terrific cast of new and established singing talents who give soaring voice to the witty lyrics and a score that hopscotches elegantly through recurring themes and motifs."

"The book, by James Lapine, is the weak spot: thin and episodic in the first half and sketchily functional in the second... Still, the show expertly distils the dark psychological undertow of fairytales"

"As is customary, Oliver Savile doubles the role of Cinderella’s prince with that of the wolf salivating over Gracie McGonigal’s wonderfully bratty Red Ridinghood. His pervy song Hello Little Girl has not dated so well"

"Those hoping for elaborate dance numbers will be disappointed, but there are vocal performances here to savour."

"... Fleetwood passionately leads the spellbinding Second Midnight; and Brayben brings the house down with Moments in the Woods. McGonigal and Jo Foster are very funny as Red Ridinghood and Jack."

"This production is very Fein indeed."

"Stephen Sondheim revival is a thing of lush and arresting beauty"

"A lavish production that plays to the musical’s strengths"

"The towering 1986 classic by musical theatre’s late genius Stephen Sondheim feels here almost bewilderingly small. And then, the backdrop lifts, and the stage expands. And keeps expanding. It’s a breathtaking Dorothy-in-technicolour sort of flourish: by the time we get a full view of the lavish woodland set, it’s clear that spectacle was never going to be an issue."

"... it’s no bad thing that director Jordan Fein has opted for a fairly down-the-line approach. There are no real surprises here, no radical reinvention in characterisation or staging. But it’s a production that really plays to the musical’s strengths: the big moments feel enormous."

"Fleetwood’s second-act showstopper “Last Midnight” brings the house down, and rightly so."

"Among the ensemble, there are several standouts – Brayben, Fleetwood, and Dornford-May are terrific, while Michael Gould is an enjoyably ramshackle narrator"

"Fein and co have treated this musical with the care and seriousness it deserves – and that’s a spell not easily broken."

"Sondheim's Into the Woods is stylish and stuffed with talent"

"Kate Fleetwood and Jamie Parker lead an elegant revival of the celebrated 1987 musical"

"Director Jordan Fein did terrific work with Fiddler on the Roof at the Open Air Theatre in London last year, and here he offers a high-class production stuffed with talent."

"The first half climaxes with myriad wishes being granted, but never forget that this is Sondheim not Disney. A dark second act, which occasionally lapses into bagginess, worries at the eternal question of what happens after the happily ever after – and throws a rampaging giant into the mix too."

"This musical has an unmistakably elegant froideur about it, making it easier to admire than love. Yet how very much there is to admire, from Parker’s earnest good nature to Brayben’s spirited determination to Dornford-May’s soaring voice. McGonigal is a delight"

"Gould continues to prove that he is the most reliably excellent supporting actor around, lifting any ensemble by his mere presence."

"Not content with being one of our finest dramatic actresses, she [Kate Fleetwood] proves once again what a notable musical theatre performer she is as well, luxuriating in the Witch’s flamboyant transformation from a vile hag to an imperious rejuvenated beauty."

"Visually spellbinding"

"Visuals enchant in this revival of the Stephen Sondheim fairytale musical"

"If you’ve never seen Stephen Sondheim’s 1986 musical, with its ingeniously intertwining, multi-narrative book by James Lapine, you might well find Jordan Fein’s revival bewitching. If you’re familiar with the piece, on the other hand, you’ll get just what you expect."

"Fein’s production looks and sounds sumptuous, yet it’s a little like an expensive chocolate box, with nothing within that offers any fresh or surprising flavour."

"In fact, much of the enchantment here lies in the visuals. Scutt costumes everyone deliciously, down to the smallest detail. The two charming princes are like a pair of primped playing-card knaves"

"The Witch, who holds the key to all the stories’ mysteries, played with immense wit and pathos by Kate Fleetwood, is a roguish, snaggletoothed, nightmare horror"

"Sometimes the staging is a little cluttered – Jenny Ogilvie’s movement has a nicely folksy, jigging simplicity, but it occasionally clumps. And the mechanics of the plotting feel slightly laborious in a production that brings so little that’s new to the table. Still, it’s plush and polished, and moment by moment, there’s plenty to enjoy. And visually, it’s spellbinding."