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Into The Woods Reviews

MusicalsLocalStrictly Limited Runs

Average customer review: 3.0 star rating (2.9 Stars)

Number of reviews: 20

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5.0 star rating Karen Erskine from Landenberg PA

INTO THE WOODS MUSICAL...OUTSTANDING

I just attended this musical as a chaperone with my sons middle school. Totally shocked at how AMAZING this show was! The actors were top notch fantastic!! I’ve seen shows on Broadway NYC and Into the Woods was equal in every aspect. I will absolutely be returning to see more shows. Thank you for the best entertainment!!

5.0 star rating Robbie Strader from Aurora, Illinois

SO SO GOOD

I went to the 1pm performance today and all I can say is 👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾

5.0 star rating Janet Hickey from Aurora IL

- A MUST SEE!

What an outstanding production! Superb acting, beautiful singing, a flawless orchestra seamlessly & sensitively supporting the actors on stage, a beautiful theatre with great seats & acoustics + EASY parking. I mainly attended to see a relative in the ensemble but what I saw was as high or higher a caliber of Musical Theatre than I’d seen anywhere! Bravo to all the cast, directors, conductors & designers who tirelessly worked to make it happen! J.H.

5.0 star rating Skip Ulrich from Aurora, Illinois

PARAMOUNT CONTINUES TO AMAZE

Into the Woods was as good of a theater production as you can see anywhere. Chicago, NYC… kudos to the Paramount. Fantastic production, 5 Stars!!!!!

5.0 star rating Annika from Seattle, Washington

LOVE

LOVEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

5.0 star rating KBPayton from Minneapolis, Minnesota

GREAT ACTORS AND INCREDIBLE MUSIC!

We loved the show! The acting and singing were phenomenal, the music was beyond awesome. It was long but entertaining the whole time. We also ate at a great place beforehand called the Farmers Market which had very good food including gluten free, vegetarian and vegan options. The veggie melt was unique and good, and my husband loved his grass fed burger. We went for a Sunday matinee which required masks, i suppose to make it an all-inclusive event which we were totally ok with. We found a parking spot half a block away from the theater since it was Sunday, total bonus! The drink selection during the intermission was extremely limited so had to drink something i dont like but I was just grateful to have something with caffeine before the 2nd half. No dress code but we still dressed up! We love the Guthrie!

3.0 star rating Sarah from Seattle, Washington

IT WAS FINE..

Most of the actors were great, expecially Cinderella's Prince, the Baker, and the Baker's Wife. The sets, costumes, and staging were a bit modern and minimalistic for my taste. Would not recommend for a first introduction to the show itself.

3.0 star rating Randy from Seattle, Washington

NOT WHAT I EXPECTED

While the casts’ vocals were on point, the whole production seems lackluster and disappointing. The neon lights were too bright and made the woods seem less scary and mysterious as the song lyrics made it to be. The costumes also seemed like an afterthought. I get that they were trying to be modern, but too modern to be costumes for a fairy tale musical.

3.0 star rating Deb from Seattle, Washington

DISAPPOINTING

Seeing Into the Woods national tour when I was 12 changed my life and made me love musical theatre. I have seen several productions since including dinner theaters and high school productions. Sadly, I have seen high schools do it better. The direction, staging, and costumes were so weird! I feel like the cast was good, but the direction sometimes was just bizarre. Why did Cinderella's Prince have his hands in his pockets for most of his lines? Why did the narrator play EVERY small part. Why did she do the Giant's voice and while onstage? Completely distracting from the tension of the scene? My high school production had better props and special effects. I usually cry for most of the 2nd act but I had no tears and felt very little for the people on stage. I took a friend who had never seen the show before and my friend thought it was cheesy and confusing which broke my heart. So many meaningful lines were thrown away. The rhythm of the songs were off frequently. I was sad.

3.0 star rating from Seattle, Washington

LOST IN THE TREES

As a long time subscriber to the 5th Ave, this musical missed the high marks for me. There we some great singers but I found the story not my fanatacy. So much more could have been done with LED lighting to better represent a tree and Repunsal could have dropped her hair on high.

3.0 star rating Soundheim Fan from Seattle, Washington

MINIMALIST PRODUCTION OF A GREAT SHOW…FLOP

I took the family to see this last week, with two young girls that know the show well. We were all disappointed in the end result. The lights and stairs were a weak minimalist/modern take on the set, even those tacky neon signs introducing the characters were really bad. Costumes were a total afterthought without any inspiration. Without insulting performers I’ll just say some of the characters were good and some weak. Read some of the other critical reviews they have some good insight to the way this show missed such an amazing opportunity. If you want to see the show go see it somewhere else, like your local high school and you will have a better experience.

3.0 star rating Educator from Fort Lauderdale, Florida

3 HOURS TOO LONG FOR CONTENT!

In all fairness, I thought the actors behind the characters of "Witch" and "Little Red Riding Hood" were phenomenal! Kudos to the "Cow+" animator--he's very funny. As for the play in general, three hours was way too long for the content--it can be condensed into two; some parts dragged and caused boredom. I don't regret going, but I wouldn't recommend it or see it again.

2.0 star rating Jacob from Seattle, Washington

STAY AT HOME, THE PLAY IS STARK AND MILD

I was hoping to see the 80s-retro, bad-acid-trip, gender-bent-casting-of-color version of Into The Woods. I got the middle-school, thrift-shop, failed-fundraiser-budget-blown-on-one-prop, land-of-make-believe-on-rolling-staircases version of Into The Woods. Neon lights existed but were used to no great effect. The remaining props and effects looked straight out of shop class. The greatest sin, however, was the tempo. Into The Woods is an entire score of clever word play and tongue twisters intentionality contrasted with long, pregnant pauses and comedic beats. None of it can be rushed and remain effective. All of the tighter lines were garbled, and none of the jokes landed. This was a huge mistake. And it's a shame, as the cast were excellent singers and good actors regrettably delivering a mediocre performance in bad stage direction and mediocre show in bad set direction and cheap design. They deserved better, and so did Sondheim, and so did the audience.

2.0 star rating Chris from Minneapolis, Minnesota

BIG DISAPPOINTMENT

The show had one speed…. Fast. A lot of the great humor was blown over like a junior high play, like kids who don’t get it, and Cinderella’s prince played it all wrong. He’s supposed to be charming. Not Regina George. Why was he such an asshole? How would any princess want to fall for him? And zero chemistry between the baker and his wife. No wonder they’re childless!! Seems like poor directing. I really think community theaters have done better work than this disappointing Guthrie production.

1.0 star rating Very disappointed. from Seattle, Washington

WHAT DID I JUST SPEND MY MONEY ON?

First of all, I want to start by saying the singers/actors were actually really good. Through no fault of theirs, I would never recommend this production to anyone I know. I've seen many musicals, plays, and ballets. Everywhere from Broadway on down to cruise ships and high schools. I would rather go to a middle school play than suffer through that ever again. Their costumes looked straight from someone's closet with thrift store flare. The set design was 3 or 4 rolling staircases and dangling neon lights. That was apparently supposed to be the "woods". They couldn't even be bothered to have any backgrounds or real props of any sort. They had a ridiculous wooden cow that they pushed around every where. They had stage hands on stage during the performance to move the stairs around. They made no effort to conceal them in anyway. They had the same actor play multiple roles throughout the show. It was very confusing to watch play out. This was the lowest budget anything I have seen ever.

1.0 star rating Heather from Seattle, Washington

DO NOT RECOMMEND

Very disappointed! The set design was poor. All it was was some colored lights and scaffolding to represent the forest. The cast was fine. The day we went there were two understudies and personally I think one of them was the best actor there! I did think the singing was the greatest. Overall was not pleased. We left halfway through. I would recommend just watching the movie.

1.0 star rating Deb S. from Seattle, Washington

HORRIBLE SHOW, WALKED OUT

As a regular theater goer and 5th Ave season ticket holder have seen a wide breadth of different genres and types of shows, but never been a fan of anything Sondheim. This validated my view completely. Hodgepodge of storylines, cacophony of music and uninspiring costumes (with exception of stepmother and step sisters) as well as sparse, uninteresting set. No redeeming qualities, unsure why Sondheim described as genius, when it's mostly just depressing (as are most of his works). Don't recommend throwing your money away on this one. Another Sondheim to follow with Sweeney Todd, we won't be attending though it's part of our subscription. Overall disappointing season 5th Avenue! 😔

1.0 star rating John from Seattle, Washington

TERRIBLE

Walked out at intermission. Awful musical. Forgettable music with lyrics that understood about half. Overacting bordering on the stupid. It was like a junior high musical gone wrong. Really bad.

1.0 star rating Michelle from Snohomish, Washington

SO DISAPPOINTING

I fell in love with this musical when my college put it on, so I was so excited to introduce it to my husband and children. To echo many comments above, this felt low-budget and even unprofessional at times. The set was too minimalistic, the costumes were cheap-looking & terrible, and the sound mixing was unbalanced (orchestra would often drown out the singer). As a first time season ticket holder, this season, thus far, has fallen flat and been a huge disappointment. Sadly, I won’t likely be purchasing season tickets next year.

1.0 star rating Mr Sandman from Seattle, Washington

NOT FOR ME

I am not a seasoned veteran of theater. We brought my 12 year old daughter. There were lots of kids in attendance. If you are looking for an introduction into theater this isn’t the one for you or your kids. The story was confusing, the set was….terrible and overall boredom kicked in. The cast did well.

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