Oscar Wilde famously said, “There are only two tragedies in life: one is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it.” Stephen Sondheim’s and James Lapine’s musical “Into the Woods” sets out to prove Wilde right.

Sunnyvale Community Players opened the first production of its 58th season, “Into the Woods,” on Sept. 5, and audiences are in for a delightful show in Sunnyvale’s intimate community theater. Director Thomas Times always keeps the show moving, and even the first act’s almost constant set changes don’t slow the pace.

The cast is uniformly good singers, but three performances stand out. Monty Zinkevich brings a bright and pleasing tenor to Jack (the beanstalk boy). Benjamin Pierson sings Cinderella’s Prince with a formidable bass baritone. The night’s most memorable vocal performance, though, belongs to Christi Waybright as the Witch, whose solo song, “Last Midnight,” brought the house down.

“Into the Woods” is Sondheim and Lapine’s mashup of familiar Grimm’s fairy tales built around an original story of a baker and his wife who are cursed to be childless by a witch. Act One brings the characters to the happily-ever-after ending where the traditional tales stop.

Act Two opens with the song “So Happy.” But the dissonant orchestra hints that something is amiss in the happily-ever-after world.

Cinderella is bored on her throne while her prince is off womanizing (later, we’ll catch him in the woods putting the moves on the Baker’s wife). The baker and his wife finally have the baby they wished for, but the baby cries incessantly, and the wife is complaining the house is too small. Rapunzel has gone mad from the many years she was trapped in the tower; apparently the prince couldn’t supply the psychotherapy she clearly needed. The witch gets her wish to become a glamorous and beautiful woman, only to lose her magical powers. Jack and Little Red Riding Hood have their own new disappointments.

As this is all percolating, the giant’s wife comes down from the sky to get even with Jack for killing her husband. And get even she does. In the end we are all chastened and wiser, and living as happily-ever-after as real grown-up life allows.

“Into the Woods” runs through Sept. 27 at the Sunnyvale Community Theatre, 550 E. Remington Drive. Performance times vary but are most Friday and Saturday evenings and Sunday afternoons. Tickets are available at sunnyvaleplayers.org. Note: bring a sweater, because the theater is cold.

Later this season, the Players will be presenting Alice in Wonderland, Rent, Disney’s Descendants, and Mean Girls. In addition, Sunnyvale Evening of the Cultural Arts has three more performances slated for this year. See tinyurl.com/sunnyvalearts for details.

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