'Into the Woods' combines fairytales for look at 'happily ever after'

For those who grew up listening to fairytales, the term “happily ever after” usually signals the end of the story. But in the Old Town Temecula Community Theater’s rendition of “Into the Woods,” happily ever after is just the beginning.

The 1986 Tony-winning musical by Stephen Sondheim was inspired by Bruno Bettelheim’s 1976 book, “The Uses of Enchantment,” and intertwines several Brothers Grimm fairytales in order to explore the consequences of wishes.

The narrator, played by John Edward Clark, notes that wishes are more important than life itself to three sets of characters: Cinderella wishe...