Review: THE WIZARD OF OZ at Bank Of America Performing Arts Center

If you're a fan of the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz, you no doubt are aware of the screening at the Sphere in Las Vegas in which the film has been turned into a 360-degree multi-sensory spectacle, complete with swirling winds of the Kansas cyclone, falling props, the sweet smells of the poisonous poppy field, and seat rumbles that you can feel to your core. After that kind of an experience, is it a letdown to see a conventional stage version of the musical? After seeing 5-Star Theatricals' current back-to-basics production, I can heartily say that Oz has never been more magical than in director Richard Israel's current version of the show, which opened July 10 at the Bank of America Performing Arts Center in Thousand Oaks. 5-Star's production uses conventional painted backdrops instead of AI-generated projections and simple set pieces, leaving the acting, costumes, music, and the audience's imagination to work its magic. And work it does.

The lush overture is identical to the score used in the film, played by a nineteen-piece orchestra led by Anthony Lucca. This introduction alone will send audience members back to their childhood when they first saw the film. For older audiences, a screening of The Wizard of Oz was appointment television. It was long before DVDs and home video as family members young and old gathered around TV sets in the family room to watch the movie. The adaptation used by 5-Star was originally produced in 1989 for the Royal Shakespeare Company, with John Kane adding new dialog to the original 1939 screenplay by Noel Langley, Florence Ryerson, and Edgar Allan Woolf. Whereas the original film called for dual roles for Dorothy's three companions, the Wizard, and the Wicked Witch, the RSC production adds multiple roles for Auntie Em (doubling as Glinda) and Uncle Henry (as the Emerald City guard). To point out each alter ego, Kane's new dialog adds lines in the opening scene on Dorothy's farm, spoken by each actor portraying Oz characters in Dorothy's dream.

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Hannah Sedlacek, Becky Lythgoe and Cassandra Marie Murphy[/caption]

The catastrophic cyclone, which is the centerpiece of the Vegas Sphere production, is accomplished not by any theatrical trickery but through suggestion, with flashing lights, swirling music, and ensemble members running across the stage carrying pieces of picket fencing and haystacks. In the end, none of this really matters, because what has carried the film for over 80 years continues to do so: the sparkling, witty dialog, Herbert Stothart's vivid score, and Harold Arlen and Yip Harburg's memorable songs. One of the best aspects of the RSC adaptation is the addition of the rarely heard verses to Arlen and Harburg's songs. When Dorothy begins singing the verse to "Over the Rainbow," some audience members will shift uncomfortably in their seats, no doubt thinking, "How could they replace the song that virtually defines the story?" only to hear Dorothy's octave jump on the word "somewhere," which introduces the chorus. Although the verse to "Over the Rainbow" is not particularly memorable, Harburg's deliciously witty lyrics to the three "I want" solos sung by the Scarecrow, the Tin Man, and the Lion are wonderful. Also included in the adaptation is "The Jitterbug," a song filmed but cut from the 1939 movie because it distracted from the creepy mood of the scene in the Haunted Forest.

5-Star's production is populated with an extraordinarily talented cast, led by Hannah Sedlacek as Dorothy. Easily believable as a teenager, Sedlacek, who graduated from Pepperdine University's drama school two years ago, doesn't look like a grownup in pigtails and retains the wonder and enthusiasm Judy Garland so memorable exhibited in the film version. Her singing of "Over the Rainbow" is everything it should be: tender and reverent, validation of its status by the American Film Institute as the No. 1 motion picture song of the 20th century. One can't help but look around the theater to see a youngster hearing "Over the Rainbow" sung for the first time, 87 years after it was first heard.

At six-feet, two inches, Eric Stanton Betts amply fills out the lanky form of the Scarecrow, Lucas Alifano is the soft-hearted Tin Man, and Tom Anawalt plays the Cowardly Lion. Anawalt got one of the biggest ovations of the night with his rendition of "If I Were King of the Forest," channeling Bert Lahr in everything except Lahr's Upper East Side New York accent. All three deftly balance comic pratfalls with lovable sincerity without being mawkish. Noah Kaplan plays the dual roles of Professor Marvel and the Wizard of Oz using a clipped spoken delivery that makes one think of Seinfeld's John O'Hurley as J. Peterman. Mike Baker has a good turn in the expanded role of the Emerald City Guard who leads the cast in a spirited version of "The Merry Old Land of Oz." As the Wicked Witch and Almira Gulch, Becky Lythgoe was wise not to do an imitation of Margaret Hamilton but her performance still inspires shock through her sudden appearances. Cassandra Marie Murphy plays Aunt Em (barely disguised by a gray wig) and a particularly bubbly Glinda. Playing Toto is Winnie, an adorable three-year-old Papillon/Terrier mix who scampers on and off the scene on command (most of the time). Winnie is owned by Alison Stiteler, a licensed marriage and family therapist based in Westlake Village.

The costumes, supervised by Christine Steele and Gail Garon, perfectly evoke the charm of Oz, especially in the splendid Emerald City scenes, in which each ensemble member is dressed in green, with no two costumes alike.

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Cassandra Marie Murphy and Hannah Sedlacek[/caption][caption id="attachment_20522" align="alignleft" width="300"]

Becky Lythgoe as Almira Gulch[/caption]

Of all the songs in the score, the musical highlight of 5-Star's production is the multi-part "Munchkinland" sequence, written as an homage to W.S. Gilbert and Sir Arthur Sullivan, whose operettas mixed patter songs with rhymed dialog. When a walkway built over the orchestra pit lights up with illuminated yellow bricks, the audience responds with an enthusiastic cheer. (In order for the walkway to be deemed safe for the actors, safety netting had to be added alongside it.) Probably the loudest laugh came from a remark by the Tin Man that has acquired a new relevance in the age of Trump: "Some people without brains do an awful lot of talking."

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