Into the Woods Book by James Lapine | Music & Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim The Bridge, 3 Potters Fields Park, London SE1 | Until 18 April 2026 ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Review by William Russell

Photo credit: Johan Persson

Into the Woods
Book by James Lapine | Music & Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim
The Bridge, 3 Potters Fields Park, London SE1 | Until 18 April 2026
⭐⭐⭐⭐ Review by William Russell

“Into those woods one more magical time.”

This latest revival of this story of what happens to the folk in fairy tales who venture into the woods and hope to live happily ever – which they don't - after is beautifully staged and performed by good cast led by Kate Fleetwood as the witch. Directed by Jordan Fein it is very much an ensemble production – sometimes you get productions in which individual characters, and they all get their moment, stand out but here, Fleetwood apart, while they are all good nobody quite stops the show, which is what can happen sometimes. Set designer Tom Scutt has resisted playing with the Bridge toys – it can morph the auditorium into all sorts of performance levels as it did with last year's triumphant Guys and Dolls and A Midsummer Night's Dream. Here we are looking at a stage face on and Scutt has conjured up a beautiful forest which gets less lovely as things deteriorate and the characters from Cinderella to Little Red Riding Hood, Jack and his mother and the beans, Rapunzel, the Baker and his wife and a couple of princes find life in the woods is no laughing matter. It is a show directors like to play with and sometimes it all works memorably, sometimes less so although people who love Sondheim regardless should have no reason to complain with this production. Lapine's book is good and springs it surprises well, and the score is – well one can leave a Sondheim show humming the words. His lyrics matter and here they come across loud and clear. The Baker and his wife are childless and go into the woods seeking the witch who has put a spell on them to ask her to lift it and on the way they meet a host of  fairy tale characters who also have problems – Rapunzel wants to escaper her tower, Little Red Riding Hood is trying to kill the world, Cinderella wants to stop being a skivvy, her sisters want a prince and so on and they seem to get their wishes except that life is not like that and in act two everything goes spectacularly wrong. It is a superb staging and one that does full justice to the musical which not all the previous ones have done, although sometimes there have been stunning individual performances. This production works as a whole rather than as a showcase for turns by each of the characters, which sometimes happens, but best of all it the Wood. The set is wonderful when the searches are going on and decays dramatically as time passes and what one was looking for turns out not to be quite what one expected or longed for.

Cast

Valda Aviks – Grandmother/Giant

Geoffrey Aymer -Cinderella's Father

Katie Brayben – Baker's Wife

Bella Brown – Rapunzel

Kate Fleetwood – Witch

Jo Foster – Jack

Michael Gold – Narrator, Mysterious Man

Jennifer Hepburn – Cinderella's stepmother

Hana Ichijo – Lucinda

Julie Jupp – Jack's Mother

Gabrielle Lewis-Dodson Florinda

Gracie McGonigal – Little Red Riding Hood

Hughie O'Donnell – Steward

Jamie Parker – Baker

Oliver Saville – Cinderella's Prince, Wolf

Rhys Whitfield – Rapunzel's Prince

Creatives

Director -Jordan Fein

Set & Costumes Designer – Tom Scott

Musical Director – Mark Aspinall

Orchestrations – Jonathan Tunick

Sound Designer – Adam Fisher.

Lighting Designer – Aideen Malone

Video Designer – Roland Horvath

Movement Director – Jenny Ogilvie

Wigs, hair & makeup Designer – Sam Cox

Puppetry Design – Cheryl 'Chuck' Brown, Max Humphries & Tom Scott