Hansel & Gretel

Full Synopsis

Our musical opens with the full company number, There’s Going to be a Wedding which introduces Hansel and Gretel the two children of the Woodcutter all the Villagers and the Woodcutter’s new bride. Hansel and Gretel’s Mother died when they were little, and the Woodcutter feels they need a Mother figure, so he has asked Esmerelda to marry him despite not knowing her for very long.

At first Hansel and Gretel are very excited to have a new Mother but over time Esmerelda starts to show her true colours and grows mean and spiteful towards the two children. When a great famine settles over the land the Villagers are desperate for food and sing Empty Tummies. Esmerelda who is incredibly greedy decides to take Hansel and Gretel into the woods and leave them there to fend for themselves, so that she and the Woodcutter don’t have to share their food especially because she thinks the children eat too much.

When Esmeralda tells the Woodcutter her plan he is horrified and refuses to agree but Esmeralda refuses to give up on her plan and decides that when he is at work the next day she will take the children into the forest and tell the Woodcutter that they ran away. However, Hansel has overhead his Father and Esmeralda talking, and he knows that Esmeralda won’t give up on her plan so he hatches a plan of his own to save himself and his sister.

After his father and Stepmother have gone to bed, Hansel wakes up Gretel and tells her his plan and they sneak out of the house in the middle of the night to collect as many white pebbles as they can. The creatures of Woods help them and sing the number White Pebbles.

The next day, when the Woodcutter has said goodbye to his children and gone to work Esmeralda leads Hansel and Gretel deep into the woods and Hansel lays a trail of white pebbles. After Esmeralda abandons them, Hansel and Gretel follow the trail back home. When their Stepmother sees them again she is furious and locks them in their rooms so that they cannot tell their Father what she did.

The next day, once again Esmeralda leads Hansel and Gretel back into the Woods but this time because Hansel hadn’t been able to collect any pebbles the only trail they can leave is one of breadcrumbs from the one slice of bread they have to share between them! When they are deep in the forest, Esmeralda abandons them again and Hansel and Gretel search and search for the breadcrumb trail, but they cannot find them and get more and more lost in the Woods as they realise that all the birds must have eaten the breadcrumbs.

After hours of wandering through the forest they see a beautiful white bird in a clearing in the woods and follow it until they discover a large cottage built of gingerbread, cakes and sweets. Hungry and tired, the children begin to eat the parts of the house, when the door opens, and a very old lady appears and lures the children inside.

As soon as they are inside the Gingerbread cottage they discover that the old lady is a mean and wicked witch who deliberately catches children so that she can eat them! The Witch locks Hansel in a cage in the kitchen hoping to fatten him up before she eats him and makes Gretel do all the cleaning and housework as she sings, You’re Stuck Here Now.

Hansel is very clever and soon realises that the Witch has really bad eye-sight and so each time she asks him to stick out his arm so she can feel if he is fattening up he sticks out an old bone he has found in the cage and the Witch leaves him until he gets a little fatter! Eventually, the Witch grows impatient and decides that she is going to eat Hansel that evening and so she starts to prepare a stew that she can put Hansel in and turns the oven on. The Witch even decides that as Hansel is too skinny and bony she might as well eat Gretel too!

Hansel and Gretel hatch a plan while the Witch is outside getting more vegetables for the stew and when she returns she asks Gretel to check to see if the Oven is hot enough yet, but Gretel pretends she doesn’t know what exactly it is that the Witch wants her to check and so the greedy and impatient Witch demonstrates by sticking her head in the Oven. Gretel acts quickly and pushes the Witch completely into the oven and shuts the door so that she can’t get out.

Gretel frees Hansel from the cage and the pair search the entire Gingerbread house finding plenty of food and treasure. Then they set off searching for the way back home. The animals of the Wood are so excited that Hansel and Gretel have rid them of the Witch that they help the children find their way home singing Happy to Help.

When Hansel and Gretel make it back home to the Village and their cottage they discover that their Father send Esmeralda away when he realised what she had done to them and that he has been searching for them the whole time. Hansel and Gretel show their Father all the treasure and food they have and the whole village join in the celebration of their return with the finale number, You’re Home.