Review Roundup: Reimagined INTO THE WOODS Opens Off-Broadway - All the Reviews!

Roundabout Theatre Company presents a new Off-Broadway production of Stephen Sondheim & James Lapine's Tony Award-winning Into the Woods. Directed by Noah Brody and Ben Steinfeld, this production premiered in May 2013 at the McCarter Theatre in association with the Fiasco Theater. Into the Woods officially opens tonight, January 22, 2015 at the Laura Pels Theatre.

Into the Woods features the original McCarter Theatre Center/Fiasco Theater cast, including: Jessie Austrian as "Baker's Wife," Noah Brody as "Lucinda, Wolf & Cinderella's Prince," Matt Castle as "Pianist," Paul L. Coffey as "Mysterious Man," Andy Grotelueschen as "Milky White, Florinda & Rapunzel's Prince," Liz Hayes as "Cinderella's Stepmother & Jack's Mother," Claire Karpen as "Cinderella & Granny," Jennifer Mudge as Witch," Patrick Mulryan as "Jack & Steward," Ben Steinfeldas "Baker" and Emily Young as "Little Red Ridinghood & Rapunzel."

With only 10 actors, one piano and boundless imagination, this witty and wildly theatrical re-invention is Into the Woods like you've never seen it before!

Let's see what the critics had to say...

Ben Brantley, The New York Times: Fiasco Theater's truly enchanting production of Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine's "Into the Woods"...makes the best case ever for a musical that interpreters have been trying to get right since the show was first staged in the mid-1980s. Directed by Noah Brody and Ben Steinfeld, but obviously the product of a fully collaborative troupe, this "Into the Woods" reminds us that it takes a village to give myths enduring life...By stripping the show of lavish and literal-minded storybook flourishes that have mired earlier incarnations...the Fiasco production uncovers the full emotional weight of such aspirations...It also illuminates the thoughtful, questing nature of a book by Mr. Lapine that has sometimes been dismissed as too glib...There's a winning humility about Fiasco...Each performance -- and I'm reluctant to single out individuals -- brims with wit and magnetic feeling...This "Into the Woods" makes sure that we listen, too, with a brand-new set of ears.

Jennifer Farrar, Associated Press: Why go "Into the Woods" through the musical play when the big, splashy Disney movie is everywhere? Because a streamlined, refreshingly irreverent version of the 1987 theatrical classic by Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine is being performed live in New York City...The homespun and witty Fiasco Theater production...presents the twisted, ambiguous tale with childlike simplicity. Co-directors and performers Noah Brody and Ben Steinfeld steer their troupe of 10 through ingenious staging, with clever choreography and plenty of zaniness, performing the cautionary bedtime story with heartfelt emotion.

David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter: With a single upright piano serving as the principal accompaniment, and a vast stash of bric-a-brac props that appear to have been looted from thrift stores, the production scores higher on story-theater ingenuity than emotionality, sacrificing some of its heart to smartypants cleverness. Its ten cast members seem a tad too pleased with themselves as they knock holes in the fourth wall. But they also wrestle with the musical's complex tangle of themes with clarity and humor, exploring the twisty, sometimes frightening path that takes us from wishing and wondering to growing and knowing...But given the highly variable skill of the cast's musicianship and vocal ability, this production makes no claims to be the most perfectly played or sung Into the Woods you'll ever see...The layers of meaning and wit in Sondheim's songs come through loud and clear. But while the illusion of a ramshackle company getting together to spontaneously enact a story has its appeal, it's a bit like a school musical staged by wannabe Wes Andersons, with a surfeit of whimsy at the expense of depth.

Marilyn Stasio, Variety: Just to get it straight: This is not the movie version of "Into the Woods" with Meryl Streep. This is the cutesy Fiasco Theater version that originated at the McCarter Theater in 2013. Stripped down to its underpants by co-directors Noah Brody and Ben Steinfeld, the Sondheim/Lapine musical is performed in minimalist story-theater fashion by ten actors who play multiple roles and assemble their own sets and costumes from found-object props. The show's playful spirit is best caught by music director Matt Castle, pounding out the score on an upright piano that might have come out of a Storyville bordello.

Elysa Gardner, USA Today: Somehow, this let's-put-on-a-show strategy results in something both less self-conscious and more poignant than the film, or some previous stage productions of Woods, for that matter. Stripping the show down to its essentials and entrusting them to a company whose biggest asset is its youthful vivacity, Brody and Steinfeld mine the urgency and tenderness in Lapine's book and Sondheim's lyrics -- which, for all protestations otherwise, can be disarmingly simple and direct...The performances here -- from Jennifer Mudge's fierce, witty Witch to Emily Young's refreshingly earnest Red Riding Hood (and droll Rapunzel) -- help ensure that Woods' keen observations about both autonomy and community ring out as forcefully as ever.

Robert Kahn, NBC New York: There's nothing towering or gigantic about this production of the "after happily ever after" musical...The innovations drop like golden eggs from a goose...The tricks serve to create a distilled, acoustic "Into the Woods" that forces us to focus on the bare bones of the story...The performances, particularly Emily Young's winking Little Red, assume an intimate knowledge of the story (Young doubles as Rapunzel). This production will be most appreciated by theatergoers already familiar with the material...At times, the sameness of the cast...was distracting...The members of the Fiasco company have the resourcefulness of a community theater in how they land "Into the Woods" on what is surely a modest budget. Sometimes, what they come up with hits the mark -- sometimes it doesn't quite. Still, we'd gladly hand over five magic beans to watch them do their thing.

Adam Feldman, Time Out NY: Into the Woods we go again in Fiasco Theater's cozied, modestly pleasing revival of Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine's 1987 musical...This Into the Woods looks like it was officially sponsored by Etsy and has the vibe of a college show put on by friends who have cast themselves in parts they might not otherwise play: Jessie Austrian makes a gutsy Baker's Wife, but her directors and fellow Fiasco leaders, Noah Brody and Ben Steinfeld, are less effective. Still, the show's dorm-spun style is often amusing, even if most of the humor happens to the side of the material...And the personal, low-key approach does very well by the musical's notoriously difficult denouement; the complex wisdom of the play's traumatized conclusion emerges with simple, moving clarity. For fans of this woundingly prickly musical, Fiasco's account is worth another journey.

Joe Dziemianowicz, New York Daily News: Sad-sack Cinderella isn't alone in taking some lumps in the new Off-Broadway "Into the Woods." Stephen Sondheim's score also gets dinged, admittedly unintentionally, thanks to a number of actors who fall short on his sumptuous but demanding music...Bare bones is a hallmark of this company...And the most entertaining element is seeing what the troupe comes up with to tell the bittersweet tale...Unlikely casting adds laughs, too. Andy Grotelueschen and Brody make goofy stepsisters. And Grotelueschen milks it merrily as Milky White, Jack's bovine BFF. The burly, bushy-faced actor looks out sweetly, waves a hoof -- er, hand -- and is consistently delightful. If only the same could be said of the singing. I wish.

Elisabeth Vincentelli, New York Post: Fiasco's ingenuity is well suited to Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine's dark twist on fairy tales. It feels natural for the production to ask us to use our imagination...We don't need to see any actual trees in the woods, either -- Derek McLane's beautiful set is dominated by piano parts and crisscrossing ropes -- because those woods are in the characters' heads: They're the fears and desires we all face. That said, the acting and singing are uneven, particularly from co-directors Noah Brody and Ben Steinfeld, whose Prince and Wolf (Brody) and Baker (Steinfeld) barely register. Others fare much better. Jessie Austrian is luminous as the Baker's Wife, and Jennifer Mudge's Witch alternates between sneakily naughty and warmly loving...But there isn't anything anybody can do about the show's ponderous second act.

Matt Windman, AM New York: Disney's starry film version of "Into the Woods" is still in movie theaters, but that hasn't stopped Roundabout Theatre Company from bringing the Fiasco Theater's simple, scaled-down staging of the Sondheim fairy tale mash-up musical to its Off-Broadway space...These actors have no scruples about breaking the fourth wall, which is perhaps why "Into the Woods," which is built around a direct storytelling model, works so well for them. Rather than have a single actor narrate...here everyone takes turns guiding the audience along the journey...This is hardly the most musically complete or dramatically compelling version of the musical you're ever likely to see. The singing is barely passable, and the acting is the kind you'd expect from a college production. That being said, it contains a relaxed charm and pleasing sense of team spirit.

Jesse Green, Vulture: The keynote of the stripping-down is not poverty but imagination, so that the story proceeds in much the way it might if it were an actual fairy tale plucked from Grimm and read at bedtime with the lights off...Fiasco's choices for Into the Woods mostly delight in the aptness and subservience of their illustration...The lack of dramatic character transitions and elaborate scene changes...has another unintended side effect as well: the loss of surprise and sweep that can result from a careful manipulation of storytelling tempo...And it has to be said that a similar trade-off has been made musically...One could wish for better singing...Jennifer Mudge's take on the Witch in the Fiasco production may be less rich, but it has a compensatory value: It's more human. And that's true across the board...The result is an Into the Woods that in highlighting the words highlights the way people fight with their fate rather than just succumb to it. We see the characters working out their philosophy on the fly...Fiasco's version is just the latest of its gorgeous transformations.

Marc Snetiker, Entertainment Weekly: It's a rare thing, the production that manages to give you pause about a familiar musical based on even more familiar stories, and yet...the plucky Fiasco Theatre...has restored Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine's 27-year-old musical into a wildly inventive, emotionally gut-punching, delightfully off-kilter production. One has to believe that a stripped-down Into the Woods reliant on the power of imagination isn't a novel concept...but Fiasco has managed to craft an insightful, folksy interpretation of the text that strips the fairy tales of their whimsy in favor of the actual pathos of the thing...Occasionally the creativity can feel inconsistent...and certain cast members demonstrate a completely different vocal prowess than others. But it's easy to forgive these flaws as their perpetrators are delivering strong acting performances that demand thoughtful attention. A

Steven Suskin, The Huffington Post: Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine are probably feeling pretty swell just now, with the motion picture version of their 1987 musical Into the Woods having grossed over $140 million in the four weeks since it opened on Christmas Day. If they wander over to the Laura Pels, where the Fiasco Theater's production of that same musical is playing under the auspices of the Roundabout, I imagine they'll feel even more jolly...what's on stage at the Pels is engagingly winning...The most delectable performance comes from Emily Young, who toggles between Red Ridinghood and Rapunzel. Ms. Young is a comic find; she comports herself like a delectable intermix of Christine Baranski, Ruth Gordon, and Minnie Mouse...Not only does the reduced production allow you to concentrate more closely on the words and music; it might well be the most emotionally satisfying version of the show you have seen, and that includes the original.

Stephen Collins, BritishTheatre.com: Trust me, you will never have seen a version of this musical anything at all like this one. Whether that is a good or bad thing will depend upon your attitude to theatre - if you want the same stuff served up time after time, you will probably hate this...But if you have an open mind theatrically, then this could be something special...Derek McLane provides a set which looks like the shattered innards of a grand piano...the overall result is that the audience is constantly reminded that they are not watching a musical; they are inside one...it relies upon the alchemy of experiment, improvisation and the fun to be had with bits of paper, noises and silliness: there is a child-like breeziness which saunters through every aspect of the production.

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Photo Credit: Joan Marcus

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