Would you rather meet a man in the woods… or a wolf?
Content notice: “Hello Little Girl” is a song about stalking, as well as physical and sexual violence against a minor. We will be discussing how to play someone capable of them.
Sondheim was known for writing intense, complex characters. Few of those characters are more interesting than his villains. Of course, many of his shows don’t have any villains in the classical sense. And some of his heroes are very much anti-heroes (Sweeney Todd and Mrs. Lovett are probably the most obvious). In fact, most of Sondheim’s main characters lie somewhere on a spectrum between “morally complicated” and “literally murdered Abraham Lincoln.”
But when Sondheim goes dark, he goes dark. Into the Woods has a lot of moral greys and a lot of out-and-out villains. One of those villains—the Wolf—is often played just for laughs. He’s a campy, silly joke, a song-and-dance man in a fairy-tale wolf suit, after all. But what if we took him seriously? If played with real menace and malice, the Wolf can be just as terrifying as any Judge Turpin. And if done right, it can set up a major theme that resonates through the rest of the show.
This requires an actor who understands what the Wolf really is, and knows how to go about playing someone truly scary. Let’s dig in.
To Catch a Predator
To set the scene, the Wolf sings “Hello Little Girl” near the beginning of Act I; it’s the first of many duets in the show, and the first song featuring a villain. It is very much a part of the first act as an adaptation of existing fairy tales (rather than all the twisting and subverting that goes on in Act II). But this song shows that we’re not dealing with Disney here. More than maybe any of the other tales in the show, this one is a statement of purpose, that these are older, no-holds-barred fairy tales. These are the 18th and 19th century tales penned by the Brothers Grimm, Charles Perrault, and others—dark, violent, even sexual.
Despite the darkness—or maybe because of it—these early stories were entertaining, sure, but also carried important lessons for their audiences. Little Red’s story is a warning about straying from “the path”, and the danger of trusting charismatic strangers. It’s a lot like the “Man or Bear” meme on TikTok—where women overwhelmingly said, when given the option between meeting a bear or a man in the woods. that they would choose the bear. Because the bear will only either leave you alone or kill you; the man could do far worse.
I’ll be blunt. Sondheim’s version foregrounds a particular interpretation of the folk tale—that it’s not just about violence, it’s about rape. Everything the Wolf says or sings can be easily interpreted as a twisted sexual innuendo. And Little Red’s song “And I know things now”, about losing her innocence, suddenly snaps into focus when you read it through that lens. No wonder that Patricia Zipprodt and Ann Hould-Ward, the costume designers of the original Broadway production, chose to make the Wolf costume anatomically correct.
It’s also no accident that the actor playing the Wolf is double-cast to play Cinderella’s Prince. In this world, charming Princes and Wolves are not so different, and creates a symmetry between the sexual violence loaded into this scene, and the dogged “no means yes” sexual coercion built into the scene that directly structurally mirrors this one: between Cinderella’s Prince and the Baker’s wife just before the end of Act II.
A Man of Two Faces
So, if you have been cast as the Wolf, you now understand what you’re dealing with. Just going for laughs is not the right call. So, let’s take the wolf seriously.
“Hello Little Girl” is a split-personality song. Those aren’t unheard of on Broadway (“Confrontation” from Jekyll & Hyde readily comes to mind), but they are rare and are a heavy lift for an actor. Thankfully, Sondheim helps you out with the music and structure of the song. Thankfully, it’s not just two different personalities, but each personality is talking to different people, and doing something different.
The two personalities of the Wolf are (#1) the one that is interacting with Little Red, who begins:
“Hello Little Girl, what’s your rush? You’re missing all the flowers! The sun won’t set for hours! Take your time…”
The other personality (#2) is the Wolf who is talking to himself (though more on that in a bit), anticipating the kill, who sings:
“Think of those crisp, aging bones; Then something fresh on the palate…”
With split-personality songs, there are a myriad of good ways you can play each personality, but it’s very important to make them as distinct as possible. The audience needs to immediately understand that they are looking at two very different sides of the person. That’s especially appropriate here. Think of men like Jimmy Saville or Bill Cosby, or many others who had a squeaky-clean public persona which they could put on to cover their monstrous other side.
So, for the wolf, let’s call his two sides “the charmer” and “the monster”. The charmer might be easier for you to pull off, since there are so many similar men in the musical theater canon. Channel Gene Kelly, Dick Van Dyke, or for more-modern examples, Andrew Rannels or the late great Gavin Creel. He is a classic song-and-dance man, all smiles and endlessly earnest and optimistic. He wouldn’t hurt a fly. For the physicality, feel free to go “big”; whether or not your moves are actually choreographed, it should feel, perhaps, a little bit like a dance routine. Because it is.
The bigger and more outrageous you go with “the charmer,” the easier a time you’ll have it creating a knife-sharp contrast. Going big there gives you more room to go small with “the monster,” while still keeping it readable to the audience. The monster, then, could be serial-killer cold, or toying with its prey, or just creepy. Or maybe just make him seem “normal”. Whatever route you choose, your performance would be best when it is grounded, realistic, maybe even minimalist. If the charmer uses a playful leap, the monster is a single step—or none at all.
If the charmer deploys a neon smile, the monster only reveals a bare smirk. Where the charmer would use an arm, use an eyebrow. Put contrasts into the voice as well; if the charmer is legato, make the monster staccato (or vice versa). Experiment with vocal registers; if the charmer pulls more from your head voice, let the monster sink into your chest (since bass is often musical theater shorthand for “evil”).
Remember that the “monster” is the real Wolf, the “charmer” is the mask. Making the monster realistic makes him scarier. Play around with going as small with your acting choices as you can while still communicating with the audience. Get your director, coach, or a friend to help you test when it becomes too small for your audience.
Breaking it Down
Let’s look at how that could work moment-to-moment in the song.
The beginning of the song immediately gives you the opportunity to show the audience your hand. As the scene begins and Red enters, she discovers the Wolf. At this moment, he is all Charmer, supported by Red’s bouncing musical motif: “Good day, young lady.” She replies, “Good day, Mr. Wolf.”
When she skips down the path, the music takes a dark turn—with minor chords that wouldn’t be out of place in Sweeney Todd. The Charmer disappears instantly, replaced by the monster.
“Look at that flesh, Pink and plump. Hello, little girl. Tender and fresh Not one lump Hello, little girl… This one’s especially lush Delicious….”
As an actor, you have a few choices to make here. The first is: Who are you talking to? You might be tempted to answer “he’s talking to himself”. But as a general rule, I would avoid that approach. It risks making your performance too internal and closed-off from the audience—especially if you’re going with a grounded approach. More, it robs you of one of your best tools as an actor: agency, where you have to work hard to change someone’s mind.
So, you’re not talking to yourself. And you’re definitely not talking to Red. The only remaining option is that you are talking directly to the audience (which is pretty par for the course for this show).
But: Who are they to you? Whenever directly addressing the audience, it’s typically a good idea to invest them with an imaginary personality or relationship to your character. That will inform how your character behaves towards them and, more importantly, why they are talking to them at all.
So, the key question. In the “monster” sections of the song: What do you want? You might be tempted to answer “to eat little Red”. Yes, the Wolf obviously wants to do that in the long term. But what is the Wolf trying to do in this moment by singing these words to the audience?
By way of an answer, I’ll offer an anecdote.
As a man, I have occasionally had the experience where I’ve been talking with another man in mixed company with women. But, when the woman left, leaving the two of us alone, the conversation immediately took a misogynistic turn. Sometimes it’s in an obnoxious “bitches, amiright?” kind of way. But on a few occasions, I’ve found the other guy saying some truly, truly awful things, even about women who they were supposedly friends or even partners with. In that moment, the other man seemed to expect me to commiserate and reciprocate, as if (to them) of course you were thinking the same thing the whole time, right???
That guy assumed that of course I believed the same things, even making me something of a co-conspirator based solely on my gender. And when I wouldn’t play along, they’d laugh it off as a joke, because of course, that’s all it was, a joke…
While, sure, #NotAllMen are violent misogynists, many wolves assume that all men are just like them.
Applying this to “Hello Little Girl”
As an actor, this gives you a framework. The Wolf believes that the audience are other wolves. He is not just telling them what he wants to do, but is actively conspiring with them. He is telling them to: “Look at that flesh…”. He’s inviting them to see the world as he does, to become a predator. Assassins does this often; think of John Wilkes Booth calmly and charismatically convincing Lee Harvey Oswald to murder JFK.
Some active verbs to use as the monster are: to recruit, to commiserate, to tempt, to entice.
Looking closer, he also repeats the line “Hello, little girl” three times. Whenever a song has a line that’s repeated multiple times, if you can, it’s always good to make sure that each time, it means something different. The final time he says it reveals his game—it’s his pre-canned “charmer” opening line. So, one good option might be that in the previous two repetitions he (#1) is coming up with the line, then (#2) rehearsing his approach (like a pick-up artist might), before finally (#3) deploying it against his target.
The music changes dramatically with the third “Hello, little girl”, so your switch to “charmer”-mode should be just as sudden. You might be tempted to blend the two personas, to show your hand as the monster while being the charmer for the audience’s sake.
I would recommend instead that you keep a clean separation between the two. Not only does that make your job as an actor easier (to know which hat you are wearing at any given moment helps keep you in the moment), but it further drives home the point that the scariest thing about monsters is often how good they are at hiding who they truly are, and how quickly they can turn the charm on and off.
So, when turning to the sections as charmer, that makes your job much easier than it might first seem. When you sing:
“Just so, little girl—Any path! So many worth exploring! Just one would be so boring! And look what you’re ignoring!”
You should play it absolutely straight—that you are a happy-go-lucky fellow who is trying to get an overanxious little girl to slow down a little and really appreciate and enjoy life. There are so many wonderful paths to explore, so many flowers to collect! The Wolf is not Wile E. Coyote trying and failing to catch the Road Runner; he does not display even a shred of ulterior motive. Some active verbs you could use for motivation during these sections might be: to share beauty, to empathize with her stress, to encourage her to be a kid.
The more genuinely kind the charmer seems, the more shocking it is when he turns just afterwards to:
“Think of those crisp, aging bones Then something fresh on the palate…”
Then the chord structure of the song turns, and we come to the climax of the song:
"Think of that scrumptious carnality twice in one day There’s no possible way To describe what you feel When you’re talking to your meal!”
All of the performances of this song I’ve seen have the Wolf roaring by the end of this phrase. And I definitely suggest ratcheting up the intensity—but might there be a way to keep the monster grounded during this section? I invite you to think of this moment less as an explosion, and more as a pressure cooker—where the Wolf is struggling to contain himself as he is trying to convince the audience of what a truly ecstatic experience it is to “eat” people.
Red interrupts him with a chirpy “Goodbye mister wolf!” And he flicks the charm switch: “Goodbye, little girl.” And then, one final time, he calls back his original tactic: “And, hello…”
Red wanders off the path. The monster celebrates with a howl. He has won! Not only has he has persuaded Red to delay, but he has shared the moment of the hunt with another Wolf.
Putting it Together
Like all of Sondheim’s songs, “Hello Little Girl” might seem simple, but it has some complex depths. Far from being a cartoon character, the wolf can be one of the scariest villains in the show, especially if you’re able to make them into someone that the audience recognizes from their own lives. If done well, it should not only give you chills as a performer, but make your ultimate undoing at the hands of Little Red and her Grandmother (with an assist from a passing Baker) all the sweeter. Portraying the darkness in this character well sets up Little Red’s whole character arc as she has to grapple with the morality of violence in Act II.