THE WIZARD OF OZ by L. Frank Baum, music and lyrics by Harold Arlen, E.Y. Harburg, background music by Herbert Stothart (Young Peoples Theatre, 165 Front East). Runs to May 15. $10-$45. 416-862-2222, youngpeoplestheatre.ca. See listing. Rating: NNN
Youll have fun travelling down the Yellow Brick Road at Young Peoples Theatre, even though the trip is sometimes a bumpy one.
John Kanes stage adaptation of L. Frank Baums classic The Wizard Of Oz, with the familiar MGM film songs by Harold Arlen and E.Y. Harburg, brings us the characters we know well: Dorothy, her three sidekicks, Toto, the Wicked Witch of the West and the Wizard himself…or, in this version, herself.
Director Joey Tremblays production has a simple winning quality, with a set by David Boechler that turns things from Dorothys Kansas farmhouse to oversized versions in Oz: a dollhouse is transformed into the house that falls on the Witch of the East, a wood stove resembles the Wizards costume, a globe lamp echoes the balloon in which the Wizard flies off, the Tin Mans hat is a tea kettle, and stovepipes define the Wicked Witchs castle.
Vanessa Sears is a passionate Dorothy, sweetly singing Over The Rainbow under Reza Jacobss tight musical direction, using the tune to calm herself when Totos taken away. But this wide-eyed girl also reveals a tart side when she confronts her snippy neighbour, Miss Gulch (a nicely nasty Amy Matysio, who later appears as the Wicked Witch in a black costume resembling an insect carapace).
Sears gets good support from Matthew G. Brown, who has warmth to spare as the heart-deprived Tin Man, Justin Bott as a very funny cowardly Lion (his King Of The Forest number, with a kind of doo-wop backup group, is a winner) and, perhaps best of all, Nathan Carroll as Toto. Carroll is a puppeteer in the Kansas segments, operating a mechanical dog, but in Oz he brings Toto to life as a flesh-and-blood mutt.
Also fun are Jamie McRobertss tap-dancing Glinda, who knows just how far to stick her tongue into her cheek and send up the goodie-goodie witch, and Jonathan Ellul as a put-upon Uncle Henry and a fussy official in Oz.
Too bad the appeal of the Scarecrow (David Coomber) feels forced Coomber doesnt make much of his characters new lines toward the end of the show when the Scarecrow gets his brains. And though Alana Hibberts Auntie Em has a properly starched quality, her turn as the Wizard good doubling here is broad and charmless, even given that the Wizard is a huckster.
That characterization might be Tremblays choice, and if so its one of several problems with his direction, which would benefit from tightening. The early humour with the farmhands isnt funny, and the Wizards first appearance could be more threatening.
Robin Fishers Oz costumes are large in a good way, especially the many-hued Munchkins garb, and Dayna Tekatchs choreography is inventive and fun, notably a square-dance version of The Merry Old Land Of Oz and a rousing song, The Jitterbug, cut from the film. Omar Forrest dances that character, a minion of the Wicked Witch, energetically, though the number goes on rather too long.
