What happens after Happily Ever After, after all? In Sondheim and Lapine’s beloved musical retelling of the Grimm classics, a parade of familiar folktale figures find their way “Into the Woods” and try to get home before dark—under the guidance of Mark Lamos, who dazzled us with A Little Night Music in 2008.
While Sondheim is the marquee name, the book and lyrics are by James Lapine (who also did the honours for Sunday in the Park with George and Passion). He naturally does a tremendous job – his lyrics are sometimes hilariously bathetic, sometimes formally audacious, sometimes devastatingly poignant, often all three in a single song. But every second is filled with Sondheim’s presence: his lush, motif-saturated score of baroque nursery rhymes feels as vividly alive as the forest itself.
Adam Fisher’s thunderous sound design provides a fine impersonation of a lumbering, unseen giantess seeking revenge for the death of her husband. Kate Fleetwood spits venom as the Witch, while the two princes (Oliver Savile and Rhys Whitfield) are engagingly over-the-top on Agony. Gracie McGonigal’s Little Red Ridinghood [sic] is drenched in convincing gore in her grand guignol moment. Jamie Parker and Katie Brayben win our sympathy as the baker and his wife.
| 1986 | New York |
Reading New York |
| 1986 | San Diego, CA (Regional) |
Old Globe Production (Pre-Broadway) San Diego, CA (Regional) |
| 1987 | Broadway |
Original Broadway Production Broadway |
| 1988 | US Tour |
National Tour US Tour |
| 1990 | West End |
London Production West End |
| 1997 | Broadway |
Reunion Concert Broadway |
| 2002 | Los Angeles |
Los Angeles Revival (Pre-Broadway) Los Angeles |
| 2002 | Broadway |
Broadway Revival Broadway |
| 2007 | West End |
London Revival West End |
| 2015 | Off-Broadway |
Roundabout Theatre Company Production Off-Broadway |
| 2015 | St. Louis, MO (Regional) |
The Muny Production St. Louis, MO (Regional) |
| 2016 | US Tour |
Fiasco Theater National Tour US Tour |
| 2019 | Los Angeles |
Hollywood Bowl Revival Los Angeles |
| 2019 | Immersive |
Rooftop Musical Society Immersive Production Immersive |
| 2022 | Broadway |
Broadway Revival Production Broadway |
| 2023 | US Tour |
US Tour US Tour |
| 2025 | West End |
West End |
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