It was tempting, in the opening scene, to think this was a production subjected to substantial financial constraints. There’s not a huge amount to look at, at what is essentially a black box set. But, as a certain beverage used to advertise, good things come to those who wait, and the staging eventually opens up to… well, something that would take this review into spoiler territory if I provided you with a detailed description. An interview in this production’s programme with Kate Fleetwood, who plays the Witch, reveals some of the thinking behind this revival. “I think all good theatre has to move on and not linger.” But occasionally the apparent need to keep things going is a little too relentless, and some of the punchlines are delivered with such rapidity they are barely decipherable – in which case, why bother saying the lines at all?
There was also the feeling that the first act is a show in itself, and a fellow theatregoer admitted at the interval that it took Michael S. Siegel’s Narrator to state, “To be continued!” at the end of the first half for my neighbour to even realise there was a second to look forward to. It did feel like a long evening, perhaps because there was so much narrative to get through, in turn because of the incorporation of several fairytales into one. All is explained, so there is no need to read to plough through The Complete Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm before seeing the show.
I still don’t know what to make of the puppet cow, which at one point sits on Jack’s (Keith Ramsay) lap. The beanstalk – you know, as in ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’ – isn’t much to shout about either, with the hair Rapunzel (Fiona Finsbury) lets down from her tower being more visually arresting. And there’s a reason why certain songs from this show have made it into those musical theatre compilation concerts – they’re really rather good. In the first half, ‘Agony’ sees Rapunzel’s and Cinderella’s respective Princes (Lucas Koch and Matthew Seadon-Young) square off as to whose pain (in terms of young love) is greater. But it is Fleetwood’s Witch who gets the most sustained applause of the evening, thanks to the eleven o’clock number, ‘Last Midnight’, delivered with considerable pizazz.
This production isn’t one of those revivals that attempts to do something leftfield or present an alternative take on what is already an alternative take on well-known stories. Perhaps the best expression of this is in Jonathan Tunick’s orchestrations: the orchestra, situated in boxes on either side of the stage, does nothing unexpected (unless, of course, you happen to be someone who has never seen and heard a Stephen Sondheim musical before, with all its complex and intricate melodies and harmonies). Adam Fisher’s sound design is excellent, particularly when it came to the Giant (as the cast and character list in the programme calls it), voiced by Valda Aviks. Without much visual detail to go on, the audience gets the feeling that this is someone who has marched up from Trafalgar Square and has appeared at the back of the Noël Coward Theatre to address the other characters gathered with Thatcheresque or even Trumpian fury.
There’s something about the power of storytelling that this production does very well to demonstrate. The second half of the second half did get a little too didactic for me, especially with a couple too many slow musical numbers in succession. All things considered, it’s a very satisfying and gritty show, with touches of lighthearted silliness in amongst the doom and gloom.
Review by Chris Omaweng
We all know how the story begins. But what happens after it ends?
Once upon a time…
The Baker and his wife. A Witch with a curse. A boy and his cow. A girl in a red cloak. A maiden with long flowing hair. A servant covered in cinders. All journey deep into the dark woods.
To sell the cow
To visit mother
To go to the festival
To lift the spell
As the adventure unfolds and paths entwine, wishes are made, slippers are lost, beanstalks take flight and new friendships are forged – revealing that life beyond ‘happily ever after’ can still be full of magic, even when there’s darkness.
Step into the woods. But watch out for the wolf.
Simbi Akande – Cinderella
Valda Aviks – Grandmother/Giant
Geoffrey Aymer – Cinderella’s Father
John Dagleish – Baker
Fiona Finsbury – Rapunzel
Kate Fleetwood – Witch
Jennifer Hepburn – Cinderella’s Stepmother & Alternate Witch
Hana Ichijo – Lucinda
Julie Jupp – Jack’s Mother
Lucas Koch – Rapunzel’s Prince
Gabrielle Lewis-Dodson – Florinda
Gracie McGonigal – Little Red Ridinghood
Laura Pitt-Pulford – Baker’s Wife
Jack Quarton – Steward
Keith Ramsay – Jack
Matthew Seadon-Young – Cinderella’s Prince/Wolf
Michael S. Siegel – Narrator/Mysterious Man
Hollie Aires, Sabrina Aloueche, Jacob Fowler, Adam Robert Lewis, Sophie Linder-Lee, Toby Turpin, Elsie Watson – Standbys
Stephen Sondheim – Music and Lyrics
James Lapine – Book
Jordan Fein – Director
Tom Scutt – Design
Mark Aspinall – Musical Supervisor
Jonathan Tunick – Orchestrations
Adam Fisher – Sound Designer
Aideen Malone – Lighting Designer
Roland Horvath – Video Designer
Jenny Ogilvie – Movement Director
Sam Cox – Wigs, Hair and Make-Up Designer
Cheryl ‘Chuck’ Brown, Max Humphries & Tom Scutt – Puppetry Design
Stuart Burt CDG CSA – Casting Director
INTO THE WOODS
Noël Coward Theatre
22 September 2026 to 9 January 2027
Book Tickets for Into The Woods
