Helen Dallimores Cinderella also has that other most memorable number, No One Is Alone, which had me singing her refrain all the way home. It would be pointless to list all the delights that especially pleased me, but the highest praise for female voice must go to Hannah Waddinghams Witch whose Our Little World is a masterclass in live Sondheim performance. Established in 1932, the theatre is the oldest, professional, permanent outdoor theatre in Britain, located in the heart of Regent’s Park. In such an exposed setting, you wonder how they’ll ‘manage’ the magic - a beanstalk must appear, a wolf devour a grandmother, a giant tramples the world underfoot and there’s a transformation scene as challenging as any pantomime suffice it to say that this is where the director and designer’s ingenuity come into their own, and all the devices - particularly the appearances of the giant voiced by Judi Dench in what you could call Dame Ex Machina, are cracking. Indeed the great treat for Sondheim groupies is Sheaders ensemble of fine singers with the ability to deliver his witty words, not just pitch perfect but with astonishing clarity of delivery and meaning. The folklore’s as tangled as the branches overhanging the stage: half a dozen Perrault or Grimm fairytales are Magimixed with an original story about a childless baker and his wife, cursed by a witch and ultimately redeemed in a messily-written second act with a crude motif about everyone needing other people, outing Sondheim as the mawkishly sentimental sap he really is. Plenty of quality food and drink options within the theatre enclosure, open from 90 minutes before showtime. (2010). Baby boom children were regaled with the story that Princess Elizabeth had been informed of her father King George VI’s death at the exclusive ‘Treetops’ game lodge in the Aberdares national park of Kenya. Runs 2 … Let us know here. As Into The Woods reacts to the culminating Giant dilemma set before them, wonderfully voiced by Judy Dench, the crashing of everyone’s wish, including the escapist fantasy of the young boy who brought all of this to life, gets amazingly out of hand and scary. Michael Billington @billicritic.
Soutra Gilmour's design also brilliantly exploits the sinister beauty of the outdoor setting. Into the Woods, Open Air Theatre, Regent’s Park, review. Into The Woods continues at Regent's Park Open Air Theatre until September 11, Monday-Saturday at 8pm and matinees on Thursdays and Saturdays at 2.30pm. By the end of the first act, all the criss-crossing storylines seem to have resolved the problems. Open Air, Regent's Park, London ... Theatre. Michael Xavier and Simon Thomas make a pair of preeningly self-absorbed princes, complete with drainpipe leggings and Russell Brand hairpieces, Xavier particularly strong in partnership with Jenna Russell in ‘Any Moment’. Before the show begins the surprise is to find the Open Air Theatres naturally bosky backdrop of bushes and trees, surely the perfect outdoor setting for Stephen Sondheims fairytale Into the Woods, masked by an intricate maze of multilevel platforms, linked by a network of straight and circular staircases.
It’s also refreshing to see the minor role of Jack’s Mother played by someone who is both an experienced comedienne and a fine singer, Marilyn Cutts (from Fascinating Aida) appropriately wearing a carpenter’s tool belt and nailing this part totally.
It’s harder to warm to Beverley Rudd‘s scene-stealing chavvy Red Riding Hood since she seems directly derived from Suzanne Toase’s clever characterization in the 2007 ROH/Linbury production. A flawed musical has been intelligently reclaimed as a late-summer night's dream that suggests fantasy is the first refuge of the psychologically damaged.
Not far behind come Jenna Russell, one of the cleverest Sondheim interpreters as she showed in the recent Sondheim Prom at the Albert Hall, as a sardonic and abrasive Baker’s Wife, and Helen Dallimore equally splendid as an unconventionally tetchy Cinderella with consummate phrasing in ‘On the Steps of the Palace’. All seats in the lower tier and half-way up the upper section (which has no armrests) are now £42.50, some 'premium seats' £50, although cheaper tickets from £22.50 are available. Stephen Sondheim (Music and Lyrics) and James Lapine (Book) By Open Air Theatre. But the more significant central characters are the Baker and his loving if still barren wife, superbly played by Mark Hadfield and Jenna Russell, sent by the Witch on a quest for magical trophies in exchange for which she will grant them a baby all their own. The best things to do in London. What, he wonders, if the happy-ever-after world were to be threatened by a dead giant's vengeful wife, marital conflict and sudden death?