Gus T. Hickey ’11 seduces Maya S. Sugarman ’12 as the wolf in “Hello, Little Girl” within Stephen Sondheim’s “Into the Woods.” The production, the second Mainstage play of the semester, will show from April 23 to May 1.

April 23-May 1

Loeb Mainstage

Directed by Jordan A. Reddout ’10

Music Direction by Chad R. Cannon ’11

Produced by Bryce J. Gilfillian ’12 and Katherine R. McNicol ’10

Imagine a world in which every fairy tale collides. Cinderella wants to go to the ball, Jack has to sell his cow for magic beans, Little Red Riding Hood brings food to her grandmother’s, Rapunzel is stuck in her tower, hoping for a prince. There is also a baker and his wife, both of whom have a curse put upon them for transgressions long ago.

All of these storylines converge in legendary composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim and writer James Lapine’s Tony-Award winning musical comedy “Into the Woods.” The work explores the aforementioned characters’ lives and the struggles they face in the fairy-tale world they live in. But the twist is that in this adaptation, the characters don’t necessarily live happily ever after, but have to face the consequences of fulfilling their desires.

“I want people to come, and I want people to laugh. And if they come away with understanding the moral of the story that’s all I can hope for,” says director Jordan A. Reddout ’10.

But be warned, there are major changes to come during the second half of the musical. According to Reddout, the show will take a darker turn when the consequences of the actions in the first half are made visible and culminate in a series of events that sometimes literally crushes the dreams of the characters.

“There’s a really big aesthetic shift between act one and act two, and I wanted to delve into the classic fairy book style to a more stark and darker tone. That’s what I see in the second act when everything gets destroyed—there’s a darker aesthetic,” she says.

The director says her main focus is to draw the audience into the musical, while still maintaining the comedy and the work’s message, all in the hopes of making the show as much fun to watch as possible.

“I think that a lot of the time in Harvard theater people choose shows that are obscure, or dark, or have really heavy meaning, and I think that ‘Into the Woods’ has meaning but also a fun, relaxed atmosphere,” Reddout says.