Into the Woods London Reviews | What the Critics Say

Into the Woods opened at the Bridge Theatre on 11 December 2025, and the critics gave it fours and fives, with a single three. They agreed that it looks beautiful and they picked out Kate Fleetwood's Witch more than any other performance. Where they split was on the show itself: whether playing it exactly as written is enough, and whether the book holds up.

Every review here is from that Bridge run. It's the same production at the Noël Coward Theatre, with the same director, designs and staging. Kate Fleetwood (the Witch) and Gracie McGonigal (Little Red Ridinghood) are in both companies. The Baker, the Baker's Wife, Cinderella, Jack, Rapunzel, both Princes and the Narrator are played by new actors, and the West End press night is 7 October 2026.

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The Critics' Verdict

WhatsOnStage, Time Out, The Times and the Financial Times gave it five stars. The Guardian, The Standard, The Telegraph, The Independent and the i gave it four. The Stage gave it three.

The fives and the three describe the same show. Nobody said it was badly done. The five-star reviews loved a faithful, lavish staging of a great musical, and The Stage wanted something it hadn't seen before. The fours sit in between, mostly on the strength of the look and the singing, with a doubt or two about the story.

It went on to win the 2026 Olivier Award for Best Musical Revival, and audience reviews since have been warm too.

What the Reviews Praised

The woods. The show opens on a bare, black stage, and the reviews kept coming back to the moment the forest appears. The Guardian's Arifa Akbar watched the backdrop crack open "to a woodland with birdsong and shafts of light", and Dominic Cavendish in The Telegraph described "tree-trunks so tangible and foliage so lush, you want in on the adventure, too". Andrzej Lukowski at Time Out thought it "often has the look of some lush Breugel painting". Louis Chilton at The Independent was the one who found the opening "almost dispiritingly sparse", but only until the reveal. To see the whole of it, sit in the middle of the Stalls or at the front of the Royal Circle.

Kate Fleetwood's Witch. She was praised in review after review, and she's in the Noël Coward company. Tim Bano in the Financial Times had her "commanding the stage with her performance of the ferociously difficult 'Last Midnight'", and Akbar called her "phenomenal both in and out of song". Sarah Crompton at WhatsOnStage caught the other side of it: "She's full of power but also very funny". Jennifer Hepburn plays the Witch at some performances as the Alternate.

The Giant you never see. Crompton wrote that Adam Fisher's "terrifyingly good sound design" makes the Giant "absolutely convincing, even though you never see her", and Akbar felt the Giants "through an earthquake of sound and light". Expect it to be loud.

Little Red Ridinghood. Gracie McGonigal is back in the role. Lukowski called her "absolutely wonderful as a gung-ho, psychotic girl guide of a Red Riding Hood", and Nick Curtis in The Standard found her "wonderfully bratty". Chilton was less sure about her big song, "musically proficient but a little static", though he liked how she brought out "the shifting psychology of her character" as the show went on.

Where Reviews Were Mixed

It doesn't reinvent anything. Chilton found "no radical reinvention" and still thought "the big moments feel enormous". Lukowski put it this way: Jordan Fein "doesn't try to reinvent the wheel", but makes "the best looking, best crafted wheel you've ever seen". For Sam Marlowe at The Stage, the plot's "mechanics" felt "slightly laborious in a production that brings so little that's new to the table". If you've seen Into the Woods several times and want a new take, this isn't one. If you've never seen it, this is the show as it was written.

The book. Curtis called James Lapine's book "the weak spot: thin and episodic in the first half and sketchily functional in the second". Akbar thought the opposite, asking how the show could "ever disappoint, when its book is so clever". The first half sets four fairy stories running at once, so there's a lot of plot to keep hold of before the interval.

The second half. This is where the story turns dark, and the critics who loved it most loved it here. Clive Davis in The Times praised the production for "actually making you care about the characters as they confront the darkness in Act Two". Fiona Mountford in the i found that the same second act "occasionally lapses into bagginess", and the whole show "easier to admire than love". If you're after a feel-good night, the second half isn't that.

Dancing. Curtis warned that "those hoping for elaborate dance numbers will be disappointed, but there are vocal performances here to savour", and Marlowe found the staging "a little cluttered" at times. Come for the singing.

Is Into the Woods Right for You?

Book it if you love Sondheim, or know the songs and have never seen the show on stage. The critics agreed it's a faithful, beautifully made production.

Book it if you want to be wowed by how a show looks. The woods, the lighting and the unseen Giant are what every review remembered.

Book it for teenagers who like a story with some bite. It's 12+, it's funny, and the second half takes the fairytales somewhere much darker.

Think twice if you want big dance numbers, or a bold new version of a show you already know well.

Think twice about bringing anyone under 12. The Standard found the Wolf's song "has not dated so well", and there's blood, blinding and death on the way to the ending.

These reviews are of the Bridge company. Kate Fleetwood and Gracie McGonigal are in the Noël Coward company too, and the other leads are new.

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Book Into the Woods Tickets

Into the Woods is at the Noël Coward Theatre on St Martin's Lane until 9 January 2027 only. It runs 2 hours 40 minutes with one interval, and it's for ages 12 and up. Tickets start from around £20 and go up to around £225, and Monday to Thursday is cheaper than the weekend. All-in pricing, so the price you see is what you pay.

Dates, seats and the full cast are on our Into the Woods tickets page.