THE pantomime season is on its way, a prospect that delights plenty but sends others scurrying for the hills, or maybe even to Stephen Sondheim's fractured fairyland musical, Into The Woods.

Ahead of January's release of the Disney movie version starring Meryl Streep, Johnny Depp and James Corden, York company Pick Me Up Theatre are staging the Broadway hit at the Grand Opera House, York, from Wednesday to Saturday.

Directed by company founder Robert Readman, the show boasts a host of brightly-clad fairytale characters from Grimm stories, a 14-piece orchestra and a magical woodland complete with Jack’s illuminated beanstalk.

"This production is shaping up to be one of my favourites ever," says Robert, who first directed Into The Woods for Stagecoach Youth Theatre York in 2007.

"I absolutely love Stephen Sondheim musicals and Into the Woods just has it all for me. The music is wonderful, I love the way all the fairy stories interweave and it’s very, very funny.”

Sondheim's musical links together an ambivalent Cinderella, a greedy Little Red Riding Hood, a too trusting Jack of Beanstalk fame and a corn-haired, tower-bound Rapunzel in the tale of a childless Baker and his Wife, who must venture into the woods on a quest to reverse the curse of the Witch from the house next door.

On their journey they will encounter such familiar fairyland occupants as Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, the Three Little Pigs, Hansel and Gretel, Rumpelstiltskin and the Snow Queen.

Readman’s most distinctive directorial decision is to place the orchestra on stage, hidden within the woods. "I feel the music is actually another character in its own right," he reasons.

Musical director Adam Laird, deputy head of performing arts at Norton College, agrees.

"Into the Woods really explores the relationship between the actors and musicians," he says. "Every character has a theme and sometimes even an instrument that represents them. The show is full of wonderful songs and audience members will appreciate the modern and tuneful solos and lively chorus numbers.”

Adam admits some of Sondheim's music can be complex to play, while Toni Feetenby, who plays the Baker’s Wife, describes the singing as "quite tricky".

“Sondheim always brings its challenges and I’ve probably found this one of the toughest shows to learn,’ she says. "But it's so rewarding and such an exciting production, I’m really glad to be part of it.”

Toni, head of performing arts at Manor School in York, has appeared in musicals for 22 years, but this show is still full of “firsts” for her. “It’s the first time I’ve had to shepherd a cow round the stage, I’ve never appeared with a witch and I’ve certainly never disappeared into the woods with Prince Charming,” she says.

She sympathises with the childless status of her character, the Baker’s Wife. "As a mother of two myself, I really feel for her. She has to lift the Witch’s spell to have a child and I can understand why she's so determined," she says. "I love her feisty no-nonsense side and the ending always makes me cry.”

Appearing asJack will be Sam Hird, the 15-year-old Pocklington School pupil who was selected from1,000 applicants for the inaugural Shakespeare’s Globe Young Players Company production in April, when he played Maquerelle in John Marston’s The Malcontent in London.

“Jack is my first lead with Pick Me Up and getting an amazing solo is very exciting but also very nerve-wracking,” says Sam, from Bubwith. “I feel I really have to up my game as everyone in the cast is so talented.”

Like Sam, Susannah Baines will be taking on her first Pick Me Up principal part as the Witch next door.

"I'm having such fun with this role," she says. "The Witch is no-nonsense woman who tells it like it is and prefers it if she gets her own way, but I also get to play her in two different ways. She starts out as an old crone, then transforms into a glamorous puss after taking a magic potion."

Further principal roles go to Richard MacDonald as The Baker, Leeds actress Kirsten Moore as Cinderella, and Katy Katy Metheringham as Little Red Riding Hood. Darren Lumby and Will Campbell-Burrell double up twice as the not-so-princely Princes and the ravenous Wolves, while Jack Armstrong follows up his Artful Dodger in Sheffield Crucible's Oliver! last Christmas by turning into Milky White the cow.

Alicia Stabler will be following in the theatrical footsteps of her parents, Noel and Angela Stabler, who appeared in Rowntree Youth Theatre's York premiere of Into The Woods. Alicia leads the Bloody Tour of York in the guise of Mad Alice in another performing life, but here she will be letting her hair down as Rapunzel.

The set has been designed by Robert Readman, West Yorkshire Playhouse lighting designer Chris Speight and Leeds technician Adam Moore and will include two tree houses, a rotating castle, a flying forest and that illuminated beanstalk.

Chris reckons the lighting in Into The Woods is so significant that it should take on a "powerful persona" in its own right.

"The lighting design is not just to make the set look pretty; it has to fit with the nature of the show," he says. "In this case, I’m trying to create a magical, mysterious wood that is constantly changing and surprising, using lights, shadows, smoke and even pyrotechnics. I want the audience to feel they are in that forest and living the story with the cast.”

Grimm news: the woods are calling. Dare you enter?

Pick Me Up Theatre Company's Into The Woods runs at the Grand Opera House, York, from December 3 to 6 at 7.30pm plus a 2.30pm Saturday matinee. Box office: 0844 871 3024 or atgtickets.com/york