Into The Woods
After a six-month run at the Bridge Theatre Into the Woods has transferred into the West End for a season at The Noël Coward Theatre. This traditional pros-arch theatre adds an intimacy to the production helping the audience connect with the performers. The size of the stage removes some of the impact that the woods had at the Bridge, but this is a modern classic and does not need a fancy set to be good.
In Into the Woods, Stephen Sondheim (Music and Lyrics) and James Lapine (Book) dig into the darker side of the world of fairy-tales. Asking questions of the backstory of Jack (of beanstalk fame), The Baker and Bakers’ Wife (of Rapunzel) and of the Prince in Cinderella, to name but a few. We soon learn they are more flawed than the stories of our youth led us to believe!
In Act One each character tries to steal the show as they weave their story into the bigger narrative. As the show gets progressively darker it’s easy to forget how funny act one actually is. Stand out performances for me came from Gracie McGonigal (Little Red Riding Hood), Kate Fleetwood (The Witch), Matthew Seadon-Young and Lucas Koch (The Princes). Each one seems to battle (in a good way) to make the show their own. This is part of Sondheim’s genius, the moment the characters are given a moment of airtime, they begin to display narcissistic characteristics. By the end of Act One it is impossible for anyone to live happily ever after!
Michael S Siegel, who plays the narrator telling but also influencing the story, seems to have an uncanny resemblance to Sondheim. I’m not sure if that is deliberate!
Act two opens to reveal the forest in semi-destruction. However, the scale of this production means that the set is quite limited. It feels like the set designers have had to resort to a little too much on-stage haze/fog to set the scene. The scale of stage does make it feel a wee bit like a local theatre production as everyone searches for the centre spot on the stage – but the performances are in no way amateur.
The musical has much to say to a modern-day audience about our motives and reactions to life – without being preachy.
The 12-piece orchestra sounds great with some performing in the theatre boxes – and others, who knows where. This is a tight production in all the positive ways. The musically potentially shows its age (it was first produced 40 years ago) however, it shows it in a good way. They don’t write ‘em like this anymore! Indeed, it could easily be argued that Sondheim was way ahead of his time. For lovers of the Musical Theatre world this is a show you must see.
This might not be a ground-breaking production but it is a good production of a great show and you should catch it whilst you can in the West End. Fee fi fo fum …modern classic here we come!
This show was reviewed on the 7th October 2026 at the Noël Coward Theatre, London where it is booking until the 9th January 2027. Tickets available here: Into The Woods Book Now
Review written by Paul Wood
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Photo credit : Johan Persson
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