University of Michigan musical theater Professor Mark Madama directed the first Los Angeles production of James Lapine and Stephen Sondheim’s “Into the Woods” — now being staged at U-M — at the start of the 1990s, when many of his current student performers were just being born.

“I try not to think about it,” said Madama, who’s now directing U-M’s production. “To us, ‘Into the Woods’ is still a relatively new show, but to them, it was around before they were, so it’s old.”

Even so, Madama reports that the students are loving the experience of working with “Woods,” which — with its emphasis on fairy tales — is widely considered to be Sondheim’s most accessible work (and is consequently the most oft-produced).

“You can relate to it at every level of maturity,” said Madama. “ … You watch it as a little kid, and you’re fascinated by the fairy tales, even though there are dark elements in them. It’s like a cartoon, and they see everything at face value. When you’re a little older, you see another level. You’re just learning how to cope in the world. Like college kids, who are just learning independence, and about being away from parental influence. And when you’re older, you view (‘Woods’) as an altogether different thing — about taking responsibility for your actions, and what the consequences of your actions have been.”

“Woods” combines the fairy tales of Cinderella, Rapunzel, Jack and the Beanstalk, and Little Red Riding Hood, while also telling the story of a baker and his wife who must go on a quest in order to break a curse that prevents them from having a child. And while things go well for the characters in the first act, the show takes a much darker turn in the second.

“There’s not a wasted word in (Lapine’s) entire script,” said Madama. “It’s always smart, always funny. … But in the second act, (theatergoers) get upset — they feel blindsided, … because the first act was so much fun. But I just look at that as being like life. When are we not blindsided in life? Life isn’t frivolous — there are consequences for all your actions. If you ignore that in the story, it stops being a story.”

But of course, when Madama first saw the show in previews in New York, he too thought, at the end of the first act, “What in the world is going to happen now?” And reportedly, several theatergoers started to leave the theater at intermission, thinking that the show had ended.

“Woods” premiered on Broadway in 1987 (after originally opening at San Diego’s Old Globe in ’86), in the thick of the “spectacle age” of theater that included that year’s juggernaut “Phantom of the Opera,” fast on the heels of shows like “Starlight Express,” “Les Miserables,” and — a few years earlier — “Cats.”

“’Woods’ had a rough time in New York,” said Madama. “But it was very advanced for its time. The witch — one of her first songs is a rap. In 1987. When rap may have been starting, but it wasn’t big. And for there to be a rap in a Broadway show — usually it takes Broadway years to catch up to what’s happening in pop music.”

But if you go to see U-M’s production, don’t expect a hip-hop version of “Woods,” or any other concept, for that matter.

“We went back and forth on that, trying to think about a vision for the show,” said Madama. “At first, we thought maybe we’ll set it in the ‘60s, and Cinderella could be Jackie Kennedy, and the prince could be Jack Kennedy. But then it all became so encumbered. It’s already a concept show, so to add a concept onto concept — it would be hard to become involved with the characters that way. So finally, I just thought, ‘Let’s do “Into the Woods,” where the characters are who they are.’”

Jenn McKee is the entertainment digital journalist for AnnArbor.com. Reach her at jennmckee@annarbor.com or 734-623-2546, and follow her on Twitter @jennmckee.