"If the production’s style is minimal, it is never austere and on this mostly blank canvas, deBessonet, aided by Lorin Latarro’s playful choreography, paints in rich and plentiful tones."
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“True to its semi-concert roots, this production is low on spectacle. … The costumes are a weak spot—even dialed up to Skittles brightness for the Broadway transfer, they are mostly dull and sometimes perversely indifferent to their function—but it hardly matters. The emphasis is on Sondheim’s twisting, punning, verbose score and on the easy charisma of the performers, who seem to be having an infectiously good time and who strike an expert balance between charming and sincere.”
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"As characters get mashed together and 'happily ever afters' are replaced by reality checks, the scope of the show expands. What emerges is a funny, insightful, and thrilling story about life and death and all that’s waiting along the way."
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"A mild surprise, if you’ve become accustomed to the show via its various original cast albums, is just how much comedy there is in this musical comedy. The book scenes, which the recordings skip, are funnier than I remembered, and deBessonet gets a lot out of them."
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"Even when the giant starts stomping around and the cast goes boom-squish, you still find reasons to laugh. It’s a tonic. "
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"Despite the musical’s somewhat overextended length and dizzying complexity, this production carries us through from start to finish on a buoyant tide of inspiration. The key to the brilliance of this staging lies not so much in its musical accomplishment, ... but in its enhancement of the show’s form as an antic farce."
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"In a top-flight production, the 1986 musical is transcendent. And make no mistake: Whatever else this summer will be remembered for, we can say this: New Yorkers and visitors to this city currently have a chance to witness the transcendence of a musical theater masterpiece."
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"Into the Woods is arguably the most humorous of Sondheim’s shows, and this ensemble of some of New York’s finest musical-theater talents has a ball playing up the comedy. But the merriment is never at the expense of the characters’ fragile humanity or the material’s poignancy."
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