The Wizard of Oz

Reviewed by Holly Bartges

It’s not possible. It’s just not possible, and if it were, who would believe it?

To take a 66-year-old MGM movie as beloved as The Wizard of Oz, with skillions of showings on television, seen over-and-over-and-over again, and transform it onto the stage, playing it as though it had never ever been done before, is to ask the near impossible.

Scott Beyette as the Scarecrow, John Scott Clough as the Tin Man and Emily Van Fleet as Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz at Boulder’s Dinner Theatre.

With lines like “There’s no place like home,” “We’re off to see the Wizard,” and “Toto, I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore” repeated thousands of times each year on news broadcasts, comedy arcades, coffee shops around the world and expect anyone to say them once more with feeling as though they have never been spoken before is expecting too much from any actor no matter how brilliant he or she is.

The cast of Boulder’s Dinner Theatre has done exactly that: the impossible. They have grabbed hold of L. Frank Baum’s memorable story, transformed it onto the stage making it their own.

Who could forget Judy Garland as Dorothy Gale whirling from dismal drab Kansas into the bright Technicolor Land of Oz? Who could forget all of the magical creatures she meets: the impish little black dog, Toto, Munchkins, Scarecrow, Tin Man, Cowardly Lion, Wicket Witch of the West, Glenda, flying monkeys, poppy field, the nice man but a terrible wizard? No one can with images so burned into the brain as these characters.

However, Boulder’s Dinner Theatre under the auspices of Producer/Artistic Director Michael J. Duran, choreographer Duran and Mark Chmiel assisted by Alicia Dunfee, the Frequent Flyers Productions Inc., the aerial chorography by Nancy Smith, the mind-blowing set designed by Melissa (Mo) Schrank, and tons of talent in the cast who knows how to climb inside a character claiming it for their own, this production of The Wizard of Oz is unlike anything you’ve ever seen an perhaps will ever see again.

In plain and simple words, do not miss this production.

From the moment the lights come up on the Gale farm, Auntie Em, Uncle Henry, and a frightened Dorothy provide heart and soul-filled characters on the road to catastrophe. Alicia Dunfee and Brian Norber give hard working simple farm folk. The incubator has gone bad; the chicks have to be saved. There isn’t time to comfort a little girl frightened by a screaming hysterical Miss Gulch threatening to have the inquisitive Toto removed from the Earthy plain. Dunfee and Brian Norber snuggle down to the earthy demands of farm life. They don’t point toward their characters. They don’t come close to suggesting their characters. They are Uncle Henry and Auntie Em.

Bren. Eyestone Burron was originally scheduled to play Miss Gulch and the Wicked Witch of the West, but an emergency forced her to drop out. At the last minute Barb Reeves Kueppper stepped into the double role with ownership papers in hand.

Newcomer to Boulder’s Dinner theatre, Emily Van Fleet, a musical theatre student at UNC wraps herself so snugly in Dorothy’s heart and soul she becomes Dorothy. In the skillions of times I have seen the movie, never once did Miss Gulch’s threats to Toto or Dorothy’s terrified response to losing her dog, bring tears to my eyes. This moment did, so believable was the incident.

Flashing lights, heavy wind and rain rumbles, dancers dressed in black whirling colored ribbons, and black clouds threatening on the backdrop turns the theatre into a cyclonic pathway.

Wayne Kennedy melts into the demeanor of the kindhearted and wise Professor Marvel who sees through Dorothy’s façade of wanting to runaway from home, who also becomes the nice man but lousy Wizard of Oz. A frightened, insecure little man accidentally lands in the middle of the Emerald City, and proclaimed to be Wizard. He can fool most of the people most of the time, but he cannot fool the noisy curious Toto. Kennedy weaves the wisdom of Professor Marvel into the cagey but gentle and wise Wizard who has answers to all the questions, but one. Kennedy provides him with warmth, tenacity, and vulnerability as though the three aspects were attached at the hip.

In the Land of Oz, children dressed in rainbow colors appear in high-pitched giggles as the Munchkins, and munchkins they are. The children Ashlee Baldwin, Olyvia Beyette, Anna Hanson, Danny Irwin, Rosie Irwin, Tony Kava, Becky Kevin, Jenny McPherson, Marissa Rincon, Izzy Robie, Hayley Solano, and Evie Waterbury assisted by Joanie Brosseau Beyette and Shelly Cox-Robie maintain their Munchkin flavor even with verbal approval from the audience. Look closely, the lighting designed by Cietus Karamon, become a character in their own right. Yes, there is a rainbow. Flashing from a bank of lights.

In only a few minutes Dunfee has shed her drab dusty over-worked Auntie Am appearance into the stunningly beautiful Glenda, the Good Witch of the North. With the assistance of a white balloon spotlight gives the illusion she has rides her bubble into the midst of Munchkin land. The famed yellow brick road comes to life in flickering, checkerboard lights. Far more striking then if a yellow carpet covered around the stage.

The crow puppets, sung by Scott Severtson and Brian Jackson would steal the scene from Scott Beyette’s Scarecrow if it weren’t for the fact that Beyette embodies the Scarecrow with tenacious, gentle richness who wants a brain so badly he thinks about it. In an awesome costume John Scott Clough manuvers the Tin Man with his squeaky rusted joints in an astonishing performance if he only had a heart.

Hidden somewhere under the lion costume with a tail that has a mind of its own, A.K. Klimpke brings the Cowardly Lion to life with a ferocious whimpered roar and humored chicken bravery, He scratches giggles to an itch which cannot be ignored, a master of comedy, a master of flicking his whiskers, a master of wrapping bravery in shuddering cowardice.

Trees normally don’t have much opportunity to get mentioned in a review, but these trees are deliciously dressed, as trees, dance as no tree has ever danced before, with green leafy personalities and graceful limbs, even if they do throw their apples at Dorothy and the Scarecrow. Cindy Lawrence and Amy Grass give life to the trees anyone would love to hug.

From the harried Uncle Henry, Norber transforms into the Emerald City Guard dressed in green from head to toe. A master of loose-leaf comedic timing, Norber extends his energy even into his bushy mustache. Like the Lion’s, it appears to have a life of its own.

Of course, the quartet can’t reach the Emerald City without going through the poisoned Poppy field. Dressed in black with red ruffles, around the neck, head and cuffs, the individual personality of the poppies give new meaning to mischievous magic while they schmaltz with the weary travelers.

A song cut from the movie “The Jitterbug,” happily returns to the stage to engulfs the Haunted forest, and distract the four on their impossible mission. Stephen Bertles and Shelly Cox-Robie understand distraction as they bob, swing, and dance on Bungee cords alluding to happy-go-lucky Jitterbugs. The distraction works in more way then one, allowing the monkeys in their very monkey costumes to abscond with Dorothy and Toto for the Wicket Witch’s cackling pleasure. The Bungee cord provides airlift to the illusion of Flying Monkeys as Brosseau-Beyette and Grass chatter in monkey lingo, and fly.

The technical aspects to bring The Wizard of Oz to life have carefully been addressed with delectable eye-popping results.

Lyric, owned by Sheryl Bass, plays Toto with doggie aplomb. When it is not convenient for the barking, tail-wagging Toto to appear, a stuffed dog can been seen peeping out of Dorothy’s basket. Certainly with all of the detailed thought that has gone into this production, a far more realistic stuffed dog closely matching Lyric could be found. The small gray thing sticking out of the basket proved to be the only unimaginative element in the entire show. A small technicality, perhaps, considering the magnificent magical illusion unfolding on stage minute after tumbling minute, but it caught the eye.

With the orchestra under the direction of musician extraordinaire, Neal Dunfee, the oh so familiar songs “Over The Rainbow,” “Follow The Yellow Brick Road,” We’re Off To See The Wizard,” “Ding Dong The Witch Is Dead,” “If I Only Had a Brain,” “If I’d Only Had a Heart,” and “If I Only Had The Nerve,” along with the high expertise of the actors the theatre rocks with music, heart, soul and energy to a much beloved story continuing to carry its truth as fresh today as it did when Baum first penned the words.

An astonishing production from lights out to lights up, except for that gray thing pretending to be Toto, by a crew of unequivocal technical geniuses, a Broadway-quality cast of the highest degree, in no way should this show be missed from the young in limb to the young in heart. The Wizard of Oz is a masterpiece of technical and artistic genius weaving its gentle truth as softly as the ruby slippers corrals their secret.