I wish.

That’s the first line from Sondheim’s Into the Woods. A steady, dissonant yet melodic piano-chord rhythm sounds beside it (uh oh… is this starting to sound like a Nativity! re-hash?). It’s music that will get any theatre kid like me jumping out of their seat. My trip to see Into the Woods at the Bridge Theatre was truly spell-binding, so here's a few minutes' read of my thoughts. Don't have time to book tickets before the run ends in May? Have no fear - your trip Into the Woods could begin in September, when the production will have transferred to the West End.

Act I

If you don't know the basis for the story of Into the Woods, here's a whistle-stop tour.

Cinderella wishes to go to the ball. Jack wishes his cow, Milky White, would give him some milk; his mother wants to sell her. And Little Red Riding Hood just wants a loaf of bread to bring to her granny in the woods. These (originally Grimm Fairytale) stories are tied together by a Baker and his Wife, whose wish is to have a child. A Witch, who is Rapunzel’s mother, visits the couple, telling them that the baker's father stole from her garden. She steals his sister in return, cursing the family tree to be a ‘barren one’. They are instructed by her to find four objects to break the spell (including a red cape, a cow as white as milk, a slipper… you can see where this is going). This brings them Into the Woods, where they meet the other characters. Think this sounds like a re-hash of these Grimm Fairytale stories? Not quite. James Lapine, the author of the original story of Into the Woods, along with Stephen Sondheim’s impeccably unique composition, instead relates the ups and downs of the Woods, using them as a metaphor for life.

Now… where were we? Ah yes. The Woods.

The set rarely changed from – you guessed it – a strikingly realistic woodland. The trees and undergrowth were incredibly detailed, although the set was also sensitive to the complexities of the story. Its variety of paths, from a fallen tree on stage right to an open section on upstage centre, provided a real depth to the stage. The undergrowth also made it a real set of intrigue. I felt like a child searching through the woods during hide and seek, searching for the cast as they appeared onstage, and I think that this is purposeful. But the mystery of the woods turns more sinister in Little Red Riding Hood's encounter with the wolf.

Her song “I Know Things Now”, once she is saved by the baker (not the lumberjack – a humorous change), relates a loss of innocence. She sings of the contrasts between the encounter being ‘scary’ and ‘exciting’, and finishes the song by stating: ‘Isn’t it nice to know a lot? And a little bit… not’. I interpreted this as being a comment on the process of sudden sexual maturity, as in the original Grimm tale. Gabrielle Lewis-Dodson played Red Riding Hood as being naïve even after the encounter, verging on mocking herself by trying to work out how she feels about it. Indeed, the device of the woods being a metaphor for life is evident in Red Riding Hood's song, while the set's intricacy helps to bolster the mystery of adulthood being both nice and '...not'.

Into the Woods is set to be transferred to the West End in September.

Image from westendtheatre.com

Skip a few numbers and bits of dialogue, and the baker and his wife eventually, after some back and forth, find the items needed to reverse the curse. But the magic beans (filled in by the audience's imagination) are sold in exchange for Milky White, causing a beanstalk, as in the original story, to grow.

The next time we hear of the beanstalk is from Jack’s song “Giants in the Sky”, where he wishes that he could ‘live in between the giants’ world and his home life. This touched me as an almost-graduate. I love the life that I have as an individual away from home, but when I'm back, and reminded of these comforts, I too wish I could have something in between. Jo Foster, who played Jack, did an excellent job of capturing this excitement and innocence, just teetering on the edge of maturity. His run on stage to announce his findings prompts a reflection back onto the woods being a metaphor for life, this time communicating with my own qualms and experiences of young adult life.

Act II

The second half of the show relates how the characters are met with the consequences of their actions.

In the Prologue, all is well - Cinderella has married her prince. The baker and his wife have a child. Jack and his mother are wealthy because they sold the gold Jack found at the giants’ home. Everybody sings that they are “So Happy”.

But the group’s happiness comes crashing down when Lady Giant visits, killing the Baker’s Wife and Rapunzel with her footsteps. She comes seeking revenge on Jack, who, in chopping down the beanstalk, killed her husband. This destruction is a depiction not only a metaphor for the curveball that sudden death throws us, but also relates to the curse of revenge; wronging others only causes more wrong. Act II is more poignant, relating the complexities of human relationships and emotions.

It is remarkable how all of this is related so well when the Lady Giant herself is only seen as a projected shadow, and an audience only hears her booming voice and footstep sound effects. It is no surprise that the musical won Best Lighting Design at the Olivier Awards just a few days ago.  But what struck me most was that the presence of the giant's character relied almost solely on the power of the imagination. This was another moment when I was reminded of my childlike capabilities - the imagination is so often lost going into adulthood, or used for making assumptions about people's lives. This story is one that isn't afraid of being honest about the consequences our actions have, or afraid of being honest about how it feels when people leave our lives.

The show's final two numbers, “No One is Alone” and “Children Will Listen” relate these topics more thoroughly; Cinderella sings the line ‘sometimes people leave you halfway through the woods’. There are references to people 'leaving', either through death, the end of a relationship, or through a situation that means one is left quite alone. This is signalled by being sung as a ‘dual duet’ between Cinderella (played by Chumisa Donford-May) & Red Riding Hood, and the Baker (Jamie Parker) & Jack, whose characters experience at least one of these things. Their performances were wonderfully sensitive to these themes, related with such sincerity. The simplicity of this number compared to the more typical fast-paced Sondheim motifs was, also, a welcome lullaby.

“Children Will Listen” is more instructive, a song warning us to be careful about which ‘spell we cast’ on others, and to be careful about which stories we tell children. I also noticed a reference to the fact that our upbringings are the models upon which we build our own lives. In this way, ‘stories’ can be about actual created stories, but also in that our own lives become stories.  The way in which this was communicated by the cast was gently profound, but I think you might have to go and watch to find out exactly what I mean by that.

Well, The Bridge Theatre’s adaptation of Into The Woods certainly has my five stars. With this production's emphasis on returning to our childlike tendencies, and with the cast’s skill at storytelling through Sondheim’s music, which I didn't think I could love any more, a new spell has certainly been cast on me.