Into The Woods – Opera North

OPERA North and West Yorkshire Playhouse have joined together to give us a magical production of the Stephen Sondheim musical Into The Woods.

We are re-introduced to beloved fairy tale characters: Cinderella, Red Riding Hood and Idle Jack in pursuit of their happily-ever-after-through the eyes of school teacher narrating their stories to his class.

Throw in a childless baker and his wife cursed by the Witch who lives next door and you have a bundle of different personalities all about to wander into the woods in order to find their hearts desire.

Act 2 picks up the individual stories as we go into the Ever After and we see if things turn out as magical as they dreamed.

However, as we know, life is not a fairy tale – and we end up with a Giant attacking the kingdom and killing several family members, along with blind step-sisters and two philandering princes.

Helen Evora as Little Red Riding Hood was a lovely treat she really embodied the part and showed the different ways that she changed from the cheeky little girl who is always hungry to the cunning huntress in search of a new family.

The stand-out performance came from Claire Pascoe as the Witch. From her very first song about her greens she had us hooked.

With a good balance of evil and comedy she moved perfectly and captured both the children’s and the audience’s imagination.

With fabulous sets and singing this is a different take on the usual fairytale and one well worth seeing.

• Until June 25 at the West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds. Visit wyp.org.uk or call 0113 2137700 to book tickets.

Opera North’s coming season will include Britten’s masterly Billy Budd, Rimsky-Korsakov’s rarely-performed The Snow Maiden, much-loved classic Der Rosenkavalier, Puccini’s Suor Angelica, Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel and Rossini’s Cinderella (La Cenerentola). Visit leedsgrandtheatre.com or call 0844 8482700 for further information.

Katrina Knights