Into the Woods (New York City Center) NYC Reviews and Tickets
About the Show
Production Covid-19 Safety ProtocolsMember Reviews (133)
See it if Liked this one better than bway many years ago. Great singing. Long 3 hours but worth it.
Don't see it if Minimal stage. Need to like the story to enjoy.
See it if A brilliant cast to the classic. Beautiful voices. Delightful music. Great story. Fun!
Don't see it if you dislike minimal sets/production. Encores are "concerty" productions but really well done.
See it if You are a fan of this show and want to see this incredible cast. Enjoyed it better than most of the shows this Broadway season.
Don't see it if You only want to see shows with full staging. The staging & set is minimal (normal for the encores series). Read more
See it if you love the music - the orchestra is great and the voices are the best - and you want to enjoy the hilarious mashing of these tales.
Don't see it if you want the full staging as this is not what Encores presents, or you do not like children's stories altered for adults.
See it if you're a Sondheim fan, have loved this musical, loved the performers, and enjoy intelligent theater and music
Don't see it if you want your musicals bright & cheery, want nice resolutions & happy endings, don't want to think & identify musical & language puns Read more
See it if you like Sondheim at his funniest and wittiest best. Encores produced a great production of his show with wonderful cast and staging.
Don't see it if you like your fairy tales straight. Read more
See it if great book/lyrics reimagine basic fairy tales as residue of childhood fears; expert puppetry used w comic flair; dream cast
Don't see it if kumbaya ending "you are not alone" is not consistent w unsentimental view of childhood Read more
See it if You love this show or have never seen it before — no matter the sparseness of the production, it (and everyone in it) soars.
Don't see it if You have a true distaste for the show and have seen it multiple times — this production, though stellar, is nothing new.
Critic Reviews (7)
"These same years have offered galvanizing examples of mutual care and aid, a mode echoed in the ballad 'No One Is Alone,' which argues for support and understanding despite differences. If I were a betting woman, I would hazard that’s the aspect of 'Into the Woods' that appealed to deBessonet, the artistic director of Encores! and an artist with a long history of community engagement and activism."
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"As directed by Lear deBessonet, this is a straightforward and simple staging that emphasizes the richness of the score and script and relies on the strengths of a full orchestra and superb ensemble cast"
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"For a concert production with such a limited rehearsal period, each character is remarkably well-drawn, with every beat accounted for in Sondheim's artfully crafted songs that teach as much about life as they do about musical-theater writing."
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"What can I say about the cast except for 'wow?' Encores! has outdone itself by bringing in a stellar group of actors boasting exceptionally fine achievement in the world of theater and elsewhere."
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"Encores has traditionally been a refuge for theatergoers in search of favorite and/or unjustly neglected shows with the original music elements reasonably intact. 'Into the Woods' more than delivers."
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"We do not deserve Heather Headley. ... But never have I felt more strongly about Headley than in City Center Encores! superstar-studded production of James Lapine and Stephen Sondheim’s beloved musical 'Into the Woods,' transforming the Witch into the actual heart and soul of this many-pronged story."
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"'Into the Woods,' because of its fairy tale trappings, is a crowd pleaser and is often put in a separate category apart from the intellectual masterworks that are more commonly associated with [Sondheim]. But one of the gifts of this Encores! revival is that it brings out how smart this piece of writing is."
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