The Donmar Warehouse used to be the place to look for innovative productions of sophisticated Sondheim musicals but in recent years the Menier Chocolate Factory have stolen the crown with critically acclaimed revivals of A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC, ASSASSINS and ROAD SHOW.
Next up at the fashionable SE1 venue is the transfer of the New York production of INTO THE WOODS, the oft performed, very oft performed, fairy tale metaphor for life in which various favourite story book characters collaborate to help a Baker's family and defeat a female giant.
This production is a little different though, there's no West End or TV stars, instead a group of performers tell the tale with a bare stage, inventive use of props and a simple accompaniment. New Yorkers have loved it's freshness and directness and it was in a simple, pared-back production that audiences first recognised the genius of his masterpiece SWEENEY TODD when it had flopped in a more lavish staging.
Fiasco Theater’s production of Into the Woods will play at the Menier Chocolate Factory from July 1 to September 17 and will feature the original US cast of 10 actors.
The producers have described it as “reimagined as never before” and it's good to see that the highly creative London producer Michael Harrison has been instrumental in importing it all along with David Ian Productions.
It is directed by Noah Brody and Ben Steinfeld, and has musical supervision by Matt Castle, choreography by Lisa Shriver, set by Derek McLane, costumes by Whitney Locher, lighting by Christopher Akerlind and sound by Darron L West.
One of the most celebrated and successful musicals of the early 21st Century BILLY ELLIOT was adapted by writer Lee Hall, director Stephen Daldry and choreographer Peter Darling from their low budget British film of the same name, itself partly adapted from A. J. Cronin's 1935 novel THE STARS LOOK DOWN.