US theatre company Fiasco Theater will bring its critically acclaimed reinvention of Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s much-loved musical Into The Woods to the Menier Chocolate Factory this summer.
While audiences may well know the magical fairytale from London’s most recent revival of the musical classic, Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre’s Olivier Award-winning 2010 production, or the recent Disney film adaptation, this award-winning production promises an entirely new take on the story.
Performed by a 10-strong cast including the US’s original performers, the Lucille Lortel Award-winning company will retell Sondheim’s clever story, which interweaves the tales of Red Riding Hood, Jack And The Beanstalk, Cinderella and Rapunzel with the Baker and his wife’s quest to have children, using multiple musical instruments and boundless imagination.
Mirroring the rags to riches story of The Play That Goes Wrong’s Olivier Award-winning Mischief Theatre, who began as a group of drama school graduates, Fiasco Theater is an ensemble theatre company created by graduates of the Brown University/Trinity Rep M.F.A. acting program.
Much like Mischief Theatre’s phenomenal West End welcome, Fiasco’s Into The Woods earned rave reviews for its New York premiere in 2015. One of the US’s most respected critics, The New York Times’ Ben Brantley, described the show as “Truly enchanting!”, commenting: “These are the woods that you want to get lost in, a place you’ll find buried treasures that you didn’t even know existed.”
The Noah Brody and Ben Steinfeld-directed production will make its London premiere at the Menier Chocolate Factory, a theatre with an enormously successful track record of showcasing the most exciting musical talents, from 1 July to 17 September.