Review: THE WIZARD OF OZ at Moorestown Theater Company

The Moorestown Theater Company has done it again, transporting us to Oz and back, with their 66th Summer Stage Musical, The Wizard of Oz, Youth Edition, directed by Jody Haggerty and featuring a talented cast of children ranging from ages 6 to 14.  The company never disappoints because whether Mainstage or Youth Edition, each production displays a high degree of professionalism on every level from costumes to casts to choreography and staging.  In this production, there are also some characteristic humorous touches that make you smile, such as when the huge and pulsing face of terrific 11-year-old Sander Reid (who doubles as Professor Marvel) is projected onto the screen as the Great and Powerful Wizard of Oz.

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (which was shortened to The Wizard of Oz in the 1939 film adaptation) was actually the first in a series of 14 books by L. Frank Baum and the film became a beloved classic that made an icon out of Judy Garland as Dorothy Gale.  From a book that opens with Dorothy lamenting how “gray” everything was in Kansas, as far as the eye could see, with even Aunty Em having her youthful sparkle taken away over time to be replaced with a sober gray, the story has taken on deep and timeless themes about the pursuit of happiness and dreams and the development of self-reliance.  Some have speculated the book featured political allegories regarding the plight of the Midwest farmer in the 19th Century.  But whatever Baum’s original intentions were, the story has come to represent the longings of just about everyone for that magical, unattainable life just “over the rainbow.”  Dorothy and her little dog Toto are caught up in a hurricane and transported to the colorful and magical Land of Oz where she encounters new friends the Scarecrow, the Tinman and the Cowardly Lion and each determine to travel to the Emerald City and ask the Wizard for whatever it is they are lacking – a home, a brain, a heart, the nerve.  Dorothy has inadvertently made an enemy of the Wicked Witch of the West, however, when her house landed on the Witch’s sister during the tornado.

MTC’s Wizard of Oz is well cast and delightful from principals to the ensemble, the youngsters portraying their characters as convincingly as any adults could do, just as the simple sets manage to evoke whole worlds effectively.  The tornado, in fact, which transports Dorothy’s house into its eye and ultimately to Oz, is quite effective and spooky with a real tornado projected onto a backdrop as cast members swirl in the maelstrom, including the cackling Miss Gulch on her bicycle.  Utterly delicious are the way children are used to portray trees in the Haunted Forest (the costumes by Carol Ann Murray are always a highlight in MTC shows) and then surface in other scenes.  These children play multiple roles, in fact, including munchkins, winged monkeys, crows, jitterbugs, and/or Winkies.  The munchkins, portrayed by children as young as 6 years old, have amazing voices and make you believe when they sing “Follow the Yellow Brick Road.”   There is also a song I’ve never heard before in any stage production and which is not part of the film version, “Jitterbug,” which allows for a great ensemble song-and-dance number featuring some of the youngest members of the cast and choreographed superbly by Brenna McQuoid.  “Jitterbug,” in fact, was one of my favorite moments.  Large-scale dance numbers are always thrilling.

Sophia Capprotti, age 14, is a perfect fit for Dorothy with a strong voice that carries to the back of the theatre and the right blend of sweetness and spunk and farm-fresh prettiness.  It’s amusing when the Wizard snaps at her, “Silence, whippersnapper” when she confronts him in the Emerald City.  Equally delightful and effective is 8-year-old Olivia Salvitti as Toto.  13-year-old Avery Carter shows a wonderful maturity as Aunty Em and sings beautifully, doing a duet with Dorothy in one scene.  You can believe she is the careworn and kindly aunt.  14-year-old Giovanno Barcia doubles as Hank and the Scarecrow and has the appropriate nimble quality and dexterity.  She gets to shine with “If I Only Had a Brain.”  14-year-old Dylan Wilson who doubles as Zeke brings out all the humor of the Cowardly Lion as he laments that he can’t sleep and can’t count sheep because he’s afraid of them.  The other member of the foursome, the Tinman is played by 13-year-old Chase Engelson Hickory who convinces us that he has been frozen solid in a forest for many years and finally able to let loose with “If I Only Had a Heart.”

Although each principal suited their role perfectly, my favorite performance came from 13-year-old Sophia Diamond in the dual role as Miss Gulch and the Wicked Witch of the West.  Hers is one of the juiciest roles in both film and stage versions and the villainess everyone loves to hate.  Diamond does her justice, doing a great imitation of the film Wicked Witch, Margaret Hamilton’s voice and “beautiful wickedness.”  Her entrances are always surprises and lots of fun.  The character no doubt inspired Disney’s colorful villainesses like Ursula in The Little Mermaid and Cruella de Vil in One Hundred and One Dalmations. 

Her antithesis, Glinda, The Good Witch of the East, was beautifully embodied by 13-year-old Lucy Allen who has a lovely, ethereal voice (evoking her film counterpart Billie Burke) and radiates something golden and good.  She first appears in one of my favorite set pieces, the colorful land of Oz where the munchkins lurk.

And who can leave the theater with a dry eye when Dorothy finds herself back in her own bed in Kansas and comes to the realization: “Oh, Aunty Em, there’s no place like home”?

Moorestown Theater Company recently received the 2023 Cultural Access Network Innovator Award from the New Jersey Theatre Alliance and the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, as well as having been chosen from among 150-plus venues as New Jersey’s Outstanding Community Theater of the Year for 2022 by the New Jersey Association of Community Theatres.  The accolades are well-deserved.

The Wizard of Oz will play at the First Methodist Church of Moorestown, 446 E. Camden Avenue, Moorestown, NJ – Tuesday, August 22, 2023 - 7 PM; Wednesday, August 23, 2023 - 11 AM & 7 PM; Thursday, August 24, 2023 - 11 AM & 7 PM; Friday, August 25, 2023 - 11 AM.

Photographs by Mark Morgan.

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