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This year the Bridge Theatre is set to take us into two sets of magical woods: once for a revival for its legendary 2019 production of Shakespeare’s forest-set A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and again for the classic Sondheim musical Into the Woods.
First opened in 2017, the Bridge – based at London Bridge – is the brainchild of former National Theatre boss Nicholas Hytner, and its first few years were defined by a mix of big name new writing and freewheeling, semi-immersive Shakespeare productions. The best was undoubtedly 2019’s joyous A Midsummer Night’s Dream, a riotously queer mix of gender bending tomfoolery and ecstatic dance party that ended with the audience boogying with the cast – it was a huge influence on the Hytner’s landmark revival of Guys & Dolls, which has just wrapped up a two year run at the Bridge. It returns mostly recast, with JJ Feild as Oberon, Susannah Fielding as Titania, Emmanuel Akwafo as Bottom and David Moorst returning as Puck.
Guys & Dolls was the first musical to be staged at the theatre, but the second isn’t far behind: fresh from their superb Open Air Theatre revival of Fiddler on the Roof, director Jordan Fein and designer Tom Scutt will join forces once again to tackle Stephen Sondheim and Jamie Lapine’s deliciously subversive fairy tale musical Into the Woods. That will run for 20 weeks, starting in December – a decent run but clearly the theatre is not simply being given over to it indefinitely a la Guys & Dolls. Casting is TBA.
The pair compliment each other nicely – they are both shows about magical hijinks in enchanted woodlands – although it’s intriguing to note that a venue that used to be practically a new writing only theatre now hasn’t staged a new play since 2022 (its current production is another Shakespeare play, Richard II). That’s something of a shame, although there’s still a chunky autumn-sized hole in the Bridge’s programme that’s crying out for some new work.
A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Into the Woods go on general sale Feb 28.