Into the Woods is theatre’s classiest Christmas show
8 / 10
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. Fein initially positions his lead cast around a work-table, with Michael Gould markedly understated as the show’s Narrator. Then designer Tom Scutt reveals a woodland scene with tree-trunks so tangible and foliage so lush, you want in on the adventure, too. The moral of the tale, of course, is to be careful what you wish for: the second half, in which discord, death and disaster stalk a ravaged landscape, dismantles “happy ever afters”.
