Into the Woods – Cockpit Theatre

Picture: David Ovenden

Into the Woods continues at the Cockpit Theatre, London until 24 June 2018.

Star rating: four stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ✩

Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s Into the Woods opened on Broadway in 1987 and won three Tony Awards. Seen some years later in London in an award-winning production at the Phoenix Theatre with a star cast, it has since been frequently revived in various guises, including a forest setting in Regent’s Park, and a Brighton production seen through the eyes of a young boy during the Second World War. Fiasco Theater’s excellent and imaginative production came to the Menier from Off-Broadway with actor/musicians doubling parts and instruments.

At the Cockpit, we have the luxury of a cast of 17 and a five-piece band beautifully rescored under MD Aaron Clingham. It’s played on a clever set by Joana Dias, with atmospheric lighting by Vittorio Verta.

Lapine’s book is rather convoluted, a kaleidoscopic blending of traditional fairy tales with an invented tale at its heart involving a baker, his wife who yearns for a child, a witch and a curse.

I doubt many would grasp all the details of the plot at first viewing. Does it matter? Probably not. The opening sequence is alluring with its mingling of the baker and wife, witch, Cinderella, stepmother and sisters, Red Riding Hood and her wolf.

Narrator Jordan Michael Todd is excellent at holding it all together. Abigail Carter-Simpson is a feisty touching Cinderella and is one of the best singers in the show, as is Florence Odumosu’s Red Riding Hood, streetwise but still singing true to the Broadway idiom.

Matching them is Louise Olley as Rapunzel and Jamie O’Donnell is a touching Jack, but it’s Madeleine MacMahon who consistently catches our attention and entertains in her characterisation of young Jack’s mother as a beer-swilling Glaswegian, clearly living in vulnerable circumstances. Despite a voice being from another genre, she makes it work in a very clever performance.

Michele Moran’s Irish witch is wily and builds to her rage at being abandoned. Her closing exhortation that ‘Children Will Listen’ is very moving.

Director Tim McArthur has introduced elements from reality TV shows: the stepmother and sisters are from TOWIE, the princes are more Made in Chelsea, and Jack and his mother from Jeremy Kyle. The staging introduces hip-hop and street moves.

Some of the singing is rather uneven, with characterisation taking precedence, which diminishes the musical fabric of the piece, but it’s still a joy to be able to see it again in London, staged on the Fringe with high production values.

The uplifting ending Act I gives way to the despair of the Act II and the sermonising is intense as characters are killed, and there is the realisation that there are no simple solutions. Lapine’s book still has its impact and Sondheim’s score builds to an emotional climax.

All Star Productions, Trilby Productions and the Cockpit are to be commended for enabling this to be seen by a wider audience.  If you’ve never seen Into the Woods, grab the opportunity. If you have, make the trip to North London to see it again, there is much to enjoy.

Leon Ferguson