Into the Woods - TNT

It's not just Little Red Riding Hood who goes deep into the forest in Stephen Sondheim's wittily subversive musical take on a handful of familiar childhood fairy tales. Cinderella and her Prince, the childless Baker and his Wife — not to mention Jack (of Giant and the Beanstalk fame) and his dried-out, milk-white cow, plus a handful of others — all end up there in pursuit of their dreams. And, although Grimm's original stories are already pretty disturbing in themselves, he adds extra layers of cynicism — and a darker second half which puts wrong almost everything the first act seemed to have put right. It's a salutary reminder that, even if you get what you wish for, you still might find it's not quite enough. But it makes for an excellent evening's entertainment in which Beverley Klein's Witch morphs into a spell-free femme fatale and Suzanne Toase's knife-wielding Little Red Riding Hood, triumphantly flouncing in her new wolf-skin cape, almost steals the show.
Linbury Studio Theatre, Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, WC2, 020-7304 4000. Until June 30

LOUISE KINGSLEY