The act starts when four scenes appear on stage: Cinderella wishing she could attend the King’s ball, Jack and his non-milk giving cow Milky White, the baker and his wife wanting a child, and Little Red Ridinghood thinking about her sick grandmother. Little Red Ridinghood buys bread from the baker while Jack’s mother pesters him to sell the cow, and Cinderella is told and teased that she cannot go to the king’s ball. The next door neighbor to the baker, the witch, tells the viewers a story of why the couple cannot have a daughter.
The witch cursed the family because the baker stole “magic” beans from the witch’s garden. The witch promises the couple if they can find “the cow as white as milk, the cape as red as blood, the hair as yellow as corn, and the slipper as pure as gold” and deliver them to the witch before the midnight in three days. All the characters head into the woods for they are deeds to be done.
Cinderella gets a beautiful dress and slippers from her mother’s grave, Little Red Ridinghood meets an untrustworthy wolf, and the baker finds his wife following him into the woods. The couple trick Jack into thinking they are magic, so Jack hands over Milky White for five of them. At Little Red Ridinghood’s grandmother’s house, she gets swallowed by the wolf. The baker kills the wolf, dragging Ridinghood and her grandmother from the wolf’s belly. Ridinghood is so pleased that she gives him her red cape as a present.
Meanwhile, Jack’s mother rejects the beans and tosses them out the window. Cinderella leaves the festival followed by the prince. The wife runs into Cinderella, and spots her golden slippers. The first midnight comes around. Jack tells his story of what happened when he climbed up the beanstalk, and tries to make the baker trade his cow for five gold pieces. He hesitates, so Jack goes back to get more.
The mysterious man comes onstage, taunts the baker, and steals the five gold pieces. The wife tells the baker that she has now lost the cow, so they go separate ways to search for it. Cinderella and Rapunzel’s Princes brag about their loves to each other. The baker’s wife tricks Rapunzel into letting down her hair, so she cuts off some of it. The mysterious man gives the cow back to the baker. The wife meets Cinderella again and tries to steal her shoes, but she runs off.
The baker meets his wife with three of the four items. Jack meets them and offers a chicken that lays golden eggs, but Milky White suddenly dies as the second midnight chimes. The witch found out that the prince has been seeing Rapunzel, so she begs her to stay with her. When she refuses, the witch cuts off her hair and banishes her to the desert. The mysterious man gives the baker money to buy another cow, and Jack goes up the beanstalk to get a magic harp. Cinderella looses one of her slippers to the prince. The wife tries to trade her shoes and the last bean for Cinderella’s golden slipper. She trades, throws the bean aside, and runs away.
... What?
