It's been a week or so since we went to see this play. Hubby-Eric and I try to take in local productions of Oz plays whenever possible, and so when we saw that Robert Frost Elementary was putting on a production we got ourselves tickets and went to see the fun.
Like any elementary school production, the actors were a mix of uncertain, frightened, bold, and wild. The Tin Man and Dorothy were hard to understand, but the Lion and Scarecrow were loud at times. Dorothy was nervous and spoke her lines too quickly, while the Tin Man just couldn't project well enough for the packed gym.
This was a production unlike any I'd seen before. Apparently a local acting group, Studio East uses this adaptation for their presentation of Oz. It mixes elements of the MGM musical with "The Wiz", and throws in some extra parts just for fun. The result is a good change of pace from a standard version of the play, and more parts for more players.
For instance, in this version of Oz, like in the books, Toto can talk. Once Dorothy and Toto get to Oz, the kid playing Toto stood up and started spouting hilarious one-liners. When he met the good witches (yes, plural), he said "Hel-lo Nurse!" Another addition was Blanche, the not-so-evil sister of the Wicked Witch, who was in forced training to be a wicked witch and wasn't so good at it. Also, the idea for the Yellow Brick road was borrowed from The Wiz in the form of five dancing taxicabs who lead the crew.
Here's a picture of most of the main cast during their curtain call. The good witches are on the ends, next up are the Scarecrow, Tin Man, Dorothy, Toto, and the Lion without her mask on.
Some other last thoughts... Evillene, the Wicked Witch of the West gets to sing "No Bad News", which is one of my favorite Oz songs of all time. When she asks one of the flying monkeys if he has any good news, he said, "Well, I just saved a bunch of money on my car insurance by switching to Geico." Big laugh... The Tin Man got to sing "Slide Some Oil To Me", but he was hard to hear... This adaptation included "Jitterbug"... The tornado was done through a great "dance" in which most of the kids on the crew ran around the gym, down the aisles of seats and stomped around on the stage while waving little banners and yelling "WHOOOOSH!"... The taxicabs were one of the highlights of the show, with neat little dances during scene changes, but the if anyone stole the show it was Toto... Blanche turns out to be a great addition, as it's implied at the end that she tells the good witches how to work the ruby slippers so Dorothy can get home. In addition, the girl playing Blanche was excellent... I had a thought as to why Dorothy can't take the slippers off when the witch tells her to, I mean, she's been walking down this road all day, her feet must've swollen up a bit...
I'm sure I'm forgetting something, but overall it was a great production, especially for an elementary school. Apparently we're going to a production of "The Wiz" by a middle school soon... I'm looking forward to that.
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