Fiasco's award-winning Into the Woods gets UK premiere at Chocolate Factory

18 May
2016
Posted in: Theatre News
Author: Press Releases
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Emily Young and Noah Brody in Into the Woods

The Menier Chocolate Factory has made its name in the US by transferring acclaimed Sondheim revivals - including Sunday in the Park with George and A Little Night Music - but the Sondheim traffic is coming the other way with Fiasco Theater's award-winning INTO THE WOODS...


Following great critical success in New York, innovative and ground breaking theatre company Fiasco bring their enchanting reinvention of Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s masterpiece INTO THE WOODS to the Chocolate Factory this Summer. The production opens on 12 July 2016, with previews from 1 July, and runs until 17 September. Tickets go on sale at 9am on 25 May 2016.

Using ten actors, multiple musical instruments and boundless imagination, this fairytale classic is reimagined as never before. This production, which received the 2015 Lucille Lortel Award for Best Revival, will include the original US cast.

Featuring the timeless songs Children Will Listen and No One Is Alone, this Tony Award-winning musical was recently made into a successful Disney feature film starring Meryl Streep, James Corden and Johnny Depp.

Into the Woods has music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by James Lapine. It’s directed by Noah Brody and Ben Steinfeld; music supervisor Matt Castle, choreographer Lisa Shriver, set designer Derek McLane, costume designer Whitney Locher, lighting designer Christopher Akerlind, sound designer Darron L West. This production is presented in association with Michael Harrison Entertainment and David Ian Productions.

Bios

Stephen Sondheim (b. 1930) is one of the world’s greatest living composer and lyricists. His works include Saturday Night, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Anyone Can Whistle, Company, Follies, A Little Night Music, Pacific Overtures, Sweeney Todd, Merrily We Roll Along, Sunday in the Park With George (Pulitzer Prize), Passion, Assassins and Road Show.  Sondheim also wrote the lyrics for West Side Story, Gypsy and Do I Hear a Waltz? He is the recipient of multiple awards, including 8 Tony Awards – one of which was a Lifetime Achievement Award, 7 Grammys and an Academy Award for Best Song for Dick Tracy, and was elected to The American Academy of Arts and Letters (1983).

James Lapine (b. 1949) also collaborated with Sondheim on Sunday in the Park with George and Into the Woods – he also directed the original productions. His other librettos include Falsettos, Der Glockner von Notre Dame and A New Brain. Lapine is also a director and playwright. 

Fiasco Theater is an ensemble theatre company created by graduates of the Brown University/Trinity Rep M.F.A. acting program. Their previous productions include Cymbeline (TFANA/Barrow Street), Measure for Measure (New Victory), The Two Gentlemen of Verona (Folger/TFANA) and Twelfth Night. Cymbeline was presented Off-Broadway twice, for nearly 200 performances, and was honoured with the 2012 Off-Broadway Alliance Award for Best Revival.  Every year, Fiasco offers the Free Training Initiative—a three-week, conservatory-level classical acting intensive for professional actors, completely free of charge to students. Fiasco has been in residence with Duke University, Marquette University, LSU, and NYU-Gallatin. Their work has been developed at the Sundance Theatre Lab, the Orchard Project, SPACE at Ryder Farm (upcoming) and the Shakespeare Society, and Fiasco has led master classes at Brown University and NYU.