1939 December 14 and 17

De. 14 3:00 p. m. and Dec. 17 8:00 p. m.

By Engelbert Humperdinck and Adelheid Wett
Adapted for children by Berta Elsmith

Dir: Barbara Quintard
Dir. of Music: Voltairine Block

Gretel: Lorraine Hull
Hansel: Leonard Nimoy
Witch: Jane Larsen
Mother: Eleanor Moulla
Father: Martin Rabinowitz
Dewman, Sandman: Harvey Elkin

Cookie Children: Anna Goldstein, Richard Smart, John Ingenue, Barbara Ostrosky, Daniel Lucas, Robert McGrath
 

When Gertrude, Hansel and Gretel’s stepmother comes home to their hut, she finds the children playing with their mates instead of doing their duties. This and the fact that they have no money for food drives her to a tough decision: She talks her husband into teaching the children a lesson: To leave the children alone in the deep forest far away from the hut.
With a heavy heart the father takes them along into the forest when he goes for his work – and leaves them there. The children’s playmates search for them in the forest. Witch Wicked snatches them and turns them into gingerbread children. Hansel and Gretel looking for the way home come to a house with candy and gingerbread children put up as a fence. The witch catches Hansel and Gretel too. Because Hansel is thin, she locks him up into a cage and feeds him to fatten him. Gretel she wants to roast in the oven, but Gretel and the children outsmart and destroy her. Then Hansel and Gretel break the spell on the other children and discover riches in the witche's house. With their treasures they go home – welcomed and by the joyful and relieved parents who’s troubles have an end now.