The late Stephen Sondheim is world renowned for his sparkling lyrics and wit. In fact, once you have mastered his fiddly riddles known as verses, you will notice he has given the thespian a wealth of knowledge and depth to play with.  It cannot be denied that this may be the most playful of all of his musicals and Terry Gilliam does not disappoint in this regard, with his daring production.

The set is wonderfully interactive and colourful; although somewhat distracting during the deeper moments of the show.  James Lapine’s story is humorous and touching, and the words often shine through the characters, though some are lost due to unclear diction.

The first act is led by traditional fairy tales. Here, you will find: Cinderella, Jack and his Beanstalk, Prince Charming and Rapunzel, amongst others. The less traditional players are the Baker and his wife cursed by the Witch (the first ever witch to rap on Broadway) to be a barren family.  The task is simple, the Witch requests: “the cow as white as milk, the cape as red as blood, the slipper as pure as gold and the hair as yellow as corn”. They must gather these to achieve their happily ever after, if only if it were that simple. 

The second act takes a darker turn when the characters realise their happily ever after perhaps wasn’t what they’d imagined.  They then have to deal with the consequences, including an angry widowed giant! And there you have a classic Sondheim and Lapine collaboration.

The cast often shine, particularly during the most humorous parts. The Prince’s duet ‘Agony’ (played by the vivacious Nathanael Campbell and Henry Jenkinson) is a particular crowd pleaser, containing some of the funniest lines in musical theatre history. The real stand out is the beautiful puppetry, created by Billie Achilleos. Cinderella is often found corresponding with the simple yet captivating bird puppets and Jack’s cow, Milky White, steals the show with its beautiful fluttery eyes and childlike physicality (performed by the wonderful Faith Prendergast).

The narrator in this musical is the core of the show. But unlike other productions, Gilliam chooses to portray him as more of a frightening Dickensian character. The use of a young child and her toy box to introduce each act is sweet, but also means our narrator loses his purpose. This could be forgiven, however, if the more serious momentous songs weren’t a little lost in the second act. This is possibly due to the show being cut slightly (it still has a running time of 2 hr 50 minutes) and so during the beautiful ‘No-one is Alone’, the characters are moving around in order to move the show along, rather than stopping and embracing the beautiful observations of life they are singing about.

Despite the slight lack of depth and occasionally distracting, albeit mesmerising set, Into The Woods is a captivating show with an extremely talented cast. As Prince Charming defensively claims in the second act, “I was born to be charming, not sincere!” and it certainly is charming.

*** Three stars

Reviewed by: Sophie Eaton

Into The Woods plays at Theatre Royal Bath until 10 September, with tickets available here.