Into The Woods

by James Lapine (book) and Stephen Sondheim (music & lyrics)

Producers – Louise Sall and Tim Rice

Crescent Theatre, Birmingham – Sunday 30th November 2025

The musical “Into the Woods” dates back to 1986 and made its Broadway debut a year later. A film version was made in 2014, starring James Corden and Emily Blunt. It takes characters from various folk stories and fairy tales and weaves them into a single storyline.

There is a full length version but this presentation was an abridged one-act which clocked in at just under an hour. Bearing in mind the cast had three performances on the day, I suspect they were grateful for not doing the full version! The performance I saw was the third and final one of the day. A different cast had performed the show 3 times on Saturday and, although I wasn’t able to see that as well, I have no doubt they would have been equally as good.

The production was presented in the Ron Barber Studio at the Crescent, which does have a somewhat limited use of space and I am always impressed by how groups overcome the limitations that they have. I am also impressed that with a cast of over 20 performers that everyone avoids bumping into each other.

The opening scene presented us with a woodland setting depicted by flats on either side of the stage, with a tree in front of the one on stage left. In the middle of the stage was a table containing a basket and a tray of bread rolls, appropriate for the introduction of the otherwise unnamed Baker, who was to be the main protagonist of the show.

In front of the flats were the chorus, predominantly dressed in brown and waving branches around – this was very effective and helped to set the scene.

There was also the good use of a large projector screen raised above the middle of the stage area, which also helped with scene setting and establishing where the action was taking place.

One thing that struck me as odd was once the play started most of the characters seemed to be speaking in American accents. Bearing in mind that the characters are all from European folk tales, this was a very strange directorial decision, to be honest I’d expected the actors to use their normal speaking voices.

To be fair to the kids though, they did maintain these throughout the performance and there was no wavering. I also wasn’t aware of any prompts through the course of the evening.

There is quite an extensive opening musical number which essentially introduces all the main characters intertwined with the dialogue and bearing in mind the limitations of the stage space, everyone was very much in tune with everyone else, all the entrances and exits were well executed in order to keep the action moving, vital in a play with this short a duration.

The only time there was an issue was when the bed was being removed after the Red Riding Hood and Wolf scene, but this didn’t detract too much.

There was good use of costume in this production. The Narrator’s green suit certainly fitted in with the woodland scenes whilst the Baker and his wife were suitably rustic. The Witch was dressed in a very striking black dress and Red Riding Hood had the appropriate red cape. The Wolf was resplendent in his own suit with a tail pinned to the back of his overcoat which completed the ensemble.

Good use of props here, from the selection of bread rolls at the start and a handful of beans which would surely flummox Baldrick even more. The only one that didn’t work for me was the golden egg, which looked more like a Christmas tree decoration. And I have to mention that at one point the Witch was drinking out of an obviously empty cup – sorry, but that is a particular bugbear of mine!

Music was mostly handled well. It maybe went too loud on one or two occasions, meaning we couldn’t hear some of the vocals.

I keep saying this, but I am always impressed with the quality of youth talent we seem to have in the West Midlands and this was no exception with this cast where, according to the programme, only one of the team was over 15 and yet they all gave very confident and energetic performances, even on their third show of the day!

Maisie Holdsworth as the Witch commanded the stage whenever she was on, she had a very clear and strong voice and handled the rap number very well.

Niamh Mulligan as Red Riding Hood also gave us a strong and confident performance as did Peyton Lockley as Cinderella who gave us a quality rendition of “On the Steps of the Palace”.

Daniel George as the Baker had apparently stepped in late in the day as someone else had dropped out which, as he had also been in the Saturday cast, meant that he had done all six performances over two days, which is commendable in itself, but to keep going with the energy he did is all the more remarkable.

Shout outs here to Lewis Ward-Bygrave who gave us a very comedic portrayal of the Wolf, and Isla Rose Thompson who had the thankless task of moving around on all fours as Milky White the cow.

Lexi Roberts gave us a very strong and confident performance as the Baker’s Wife and Katie Hey and Lexie Shaw were a splendid double act as Cinderella’s step sisters.

Too many cast to namecheck everyone but there was not a weak link amongst them as they all worked together well to bring us a highly entertaining hour’s entertainment.

Well done to everyone involved.

Reviewed by – David G