PTPA presents ‘Into the Woods’ in Hazleton

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“She’s so feisty and lively. She’s bold,” Jadyn Culp of Drums described Little Red Riding Hood, the character she portrays.

“He’s no older than 13 or 14, and he’s dim-witted,” Ben Steltz of Wilkes-Barre said of Jack, the boy who will climb a beanstalk.

“Granny is a total badass,” said Lynn Warwick of Bloomsburg, who has that role. “I mean, everyone else is afraid to go into the woods, but she lives there all the time. To me, she must be pretty cool.”

If you haven’t guessed which play these cast members are talking about, it’s PTPA’s production of “Into the Woods,” with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by James Lapine.

Performances will be July 5 through July 14, at 7 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 3 p.m. Sundays, at the JJ Ferrara Center, 212 Broad St., Hazleton. The following weekend, July 19-21, a teen-age cast will have their turn to present the full two-act show.

“This is my favorite show, out of many, many musicals,” said director Joshua Plesce, who once upon a time had the role of Jack as a student at Hazleton Area High School. “I think Sondheim strikes a perfect balance taking the stories your mother read to you and subverting them. It becomes very dark, and a lot of characters we know and love get killed off.”

Among those destined to lose their lives are Jack’s mother, played by Kevin Costley of Plymouth in a curly wig, and the Baker’s Wife, played by Cate McDonald of Scranton.

“She’s kind of pushy,” Costley said of Jack’s Mother. “She’s the most dominant female in the show. She’ll say, ‘Listen to me, Giant.’ She dies trying to save Jack; she is a good mother.”

As for The Baker’s Wife, her greatest desire is to become a mom.

“She loves her husband and really, really wants a child,” McDonald said. “She’ll do anything to have one.”

Anything?

“She’ll steal. She’ll pull Rapunzel’s hair right out,” McDonald said. “Oh, yes, it’s very violent.”

In order to lift a witch’s curse and have a baby, the Baker’s Wife and the Baker are looking for four ingredients: golden hair, a white cow, a red cape and a special slipper.

While Rapunzel has golden hair, Jack has a white cow, Little Red has a red cape and Cinderella has a special slipper. So will the Baker and the Baker’s Wife get what they want? Those other characters have dreams, as well. Will any of them come true?

“One of my favorite lines in the show is ‘dreams come true, not free,’ ” McDonald said, hinting there’s always a catch.

Narrator Adam Randis said the make-up of the show reflects Lapine’s affection for fairy tales and Sondheim’s interest in video games, in which characters often go on a quest for various objects.

“This is going to be spectacular,” music director Michele Millington of Mountain Top promised. “The music is challenging, and we have phenomenal singers.”