Into the Woods (Cambridge)

Fairy stories and folk tales – even those where wedding bells ring – don't necessarily end "happily ever after". Evil-doers can be punished quite ferociously. Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine's Into the Woods takes us into the darkest parts of the forest.

It's a bold choice for the Cambridge University Amateur Dramatic Club to stage. Andrew Room's production spills across the ADC Theatre stage with a complication of locations on a revolve (top marks to designer Yasmin Hafesji) and a 17-piece band under musical director Oli Rew.

The trick with Sondheim is to balance the wit of his complex lyrics with what at times is a demand for operatic vocals. Central to the what-happened-after stories of Cinderella, Rapunzel, Little Red Riding Hood and Jack (of beanstalk fame) is the intervention of the Baker and his Wife.

She's a sort of variation on both the also nameless Empress and the wife of Barak in Strauss' Die Frau ohne Schatten and is very well sung and acted by Mary Galloway. Lily Grieve as the witch who imprisons Rapunzel in her tower manages to be both funny and sad; she has a way with the complex line endings of Sondheim's lyrics which adds bite to their sense.

Emily Murray's stroppy Little Red is another female with whom it's best not to tangle. Holding the complicated narrative threads together is Ben Glassberg's Narrator. Of the other male performers, the best singing and a near show-stopping duet comes from Will Finn and Quinton Beer as Cinderella and Rapunzel's respective princes.

You feel for Aydan Greatrick's Baker, as he and his wife yearn for a child of their own and – meaning only to do the best for the odd assortment of people they encounter – unwittingly complicate matters until they become truly tragic.

Grimm's source material pulled no punches as far as retribution is concerned. Cinderella's step-sisters are mutilated by their mother in their attempt to wear the slipper and win the kingdom; later Cinderella's friendly birds peck out their eyes.

While Tom Lloyd-Jones' Jack is a simple person ripe for exploitation, Joey Akubeze's Wolf is a forest dweller you don't want to come across on a dark night when you're all alone. And loneliness is what's on offer here.

Into the Woods runs at the ADC Theatre, Cambridge until 22 March.