It’s a special kind of production that can combine the storiesand characters of Cinderella, Rapunzel and Little Red Riding Hoodinto one seamless musical.

Throw in a kid in a cow suit playing the farm animal from “Jackand the Beanstalk,” and this weekend’s performance of “Into theWoods Junior” by Brookhaven Little Theatre moves even higher on theHaven’s most-curious list.

“There’s no lead character in ‘Into the Woods.’ In what otherplay is a cow just as important as a prince?,” said Zachary Salter,18, a recent Mississippi School of the Arts graduate who isperforming as Cinderella’s Prince. “Actually, I think the cow is onstage more than I am.”

“Into the Woods,” a musical comedy based on the interaction ofseveral Brothers Grimm fairy tale characters and written by StephenSondheim, goes onstage at 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, returningfor a 2 p.m. show on Sunday. Tickets are $10 at the door, andseason ticket holders being able to use their tickets foradmission.

The play will be the result of BLT’s month-long teen camp, thegroup’s first all-teenage production. The show features 18 teens,ranging in age from 12 to 19 and drawn from Copiah, Lawrence,Lincoln and Pike counties, performing the roles of 20 BrothersGrimm characters in the junior version of “Into the Woods.”

“It’s a really creative and really intelligent combination ofthe all these characters,” Salter said. “It’s similar to a typicalmusical in that there’s fun music, a fairly large cast and it’s acomedy, but you get to see a little more of the characters’personal development.”

Dr. Robert Brooks, the theatre director at MSA and director of”Into the Woods,” said that while the play is considered the juniorversion – with the serious and depressing second half removed – itstill packs a little more punch than the average play. Sondheimwrote the play as a satire, and although it ultimately delivers apositive message, it doesn’t shy away from shady humor when it’scalled for.

“When one of Cinderella’s shoes doesn’t fit, the evil stepmothercuts off one of her toes to make it fit,” Brooks said. “That wasn’tin the Disney version.”

Brooks said practice throughout the month of June has not beenwithout its tough moments, but supports the idea of an all-teenproduction at BLT.

“There are so many talented kids who don’t have an outlet,” hesaid. “They sometimes get case in adult shows if there’s a teencharacter, and we’ve got youth camp this summer, but these actorsfall in between. Here, they all get to work.”

BLT President Greg Russell said the inaugural teen camp has beena success from the start, with all the roles being filled on thefirst night of auditions. He wants to see more teen participationon the stage, and he wants to see people in the audience thisweekend.

“For the kids, it’s a wonderful way to instill confidence in akid who’s looking at sitting down for a job interview or applyingfor a scholarship,” Russell said. “From our point of view, we thinkthe play is entertaining because of the music, its topic, and wethink the community will like it.”