Into the Woods review: a ‘spellbinding’ and ‘irresistible’ production

This production of Stephen Sondheim’s Into the Woods was summarily cancelled by the Old Vic last year, said Clive Davis in The Times, a few months before it was due to open. Co-director Terry Gilliam – “still a free spirit at the age of 81” – had, it seems, fallen foul of younger staff who were reported to have felt “uneasy” about remarks he had made about the #MeToo movement and transgender issues. His “thought crimes”, said Patrick Marmion in the Daily Mail, apparently included recommending a Netflix special by the African-American comedian Dave Chappelle. “What a relief, therefore, to see that artistic merit can still triumph over small minds.” The production, now staged in Bath, is spectacular to behold, and takes a “childlike delight in every aspect of James Lapine’s story”, weaving together an assortment of fairy tales.

Gilliam deserves “three cheers” for his resilience, said Dominic Cavendish in The Daily Telegraph. And Theatre Royal Bath should be applauded too for stepping in – “fairy godmother-fashion” – to stage the piece. The production itself? “Two-and-a-half cheers.” Visually, it is indeed “spellbinding” – an almost “hallucinogenic” feast, full of “surreal surprises”. Animal-headed figures prowl the woods, while Rapunzel is “confined to a tower made of two outsized baked beans and garden peas tins, as if inside some installation by the late Claes Oldenburg”. Vocally, it’s “a mixed bag”, however, with more “heft, attack and pace” needed at points.

What makes Into the Woods so “irresistible” is that it combines quirky fun with a “profound exploration of parental anxiety and loss”, said Arifa Akbar in The Guardian. “First we laugh at its wisecracks and wit, then we feel for its lost folkloric icons.” Gilliam and Leah Hausman’s production captures the first quality: it’s “visually enticing” and playful, and “excels in its aesthetics of dark, dreamlike otherworldliness”, with fluttering puppetry, gorgeous masks and “fabulous” lighting – all wonderfully “elegant”. But it lacks true emotional power, and it never “quite manages to pull us into the musical’s mournful depths”.

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Until 10 September at Theatre Royal Bath (01225-448844); theatreroyal.org.uk