(continued)

Framed by a narrator, played commandingly by Pete Pederson, the stories inevitably cross paths, bringing everything to a seemingly happy ending in the first act, then confronting trouble and despair in the second half.

Outstanding performances - acting and singing- are turned in by Lynn M. Filusch as the crowd pleasing witch, Kelly Gray as a Cinderella who cracks up the audience with pratfalls and her surprising distaste for the prince, and TJ Cannady as the lanky, seductive wolf who devours people before our very eyes.

The list continues with Michael Pizzi and Barbara Porter Catrett as the baker and his wife, who desperately want to have a child, Dan Harrel as a wooden-headed Jack, Joan Savory as his mother and Jessica Newcomer as a streetwise and spunky Little Red Riding Hood.

John Scheeler and Jeff Obermiller are hilarious as the two princes, winning a big round of applause at the curtain call.

The pit orchestra backs it all up beautifully with a lively, if not familiar score, conducted by Gregory Catrett.

Can anything go wrong with such a production? Well, the sound system had a couple of minor crackles. Some of the complexities and intricacies of the story are muddled in the music. And overall, the 2-hour, 45-minute production is about 20-minutes too long to keep the audience alert for the moral at the end.

But such things are trivial in the context of a show that has everything to offer and can easily stand beside most professional productions.

And that's no fairy tale."