2/28/08

Oz maintains its magic in Savoyards' latest production

by Sam Severn

Somewhere over the rainbow, there’s a person who hasn’t taken a trip down the Yellow Brick Road, or met Dorothy, Toto, and “The Wizard Of Oz.”

Whisk that person off immediately to Everett’s PUD Auditorium.  From there they’ll be transported to a magical land of dreams by Northwest Savoyards’ spellbinding production of the L. Frank Baum classic, that has become America’s best-loved fairy-tale musical.

Director/Choreographer John Edwards’ version sweeps you up, up and away in a twister of magic.  He takes the small downtown Everett stage and conjures up a witches’ brew of talking trees, singing lions, flying monkeys, and jitterbugging tin woodsmen.  It’s as close to living inside the classic MGM movie as you can get for one night.

You might think this ambitious production would suffer by comparison.  But the show shimmers like Dorothy’s ruby slippers, and at the same time reminds audiences just how brilliant the original movie was.

Dorothy is played by spunky 14-year-old Sabrina Otness.  She’s a rosy-cheeked dream, hoofing it up like a Kansas hoedowner one minute, and singing “Over The Rainbow” like a prairie angel the next.  Following Judy Garland’s footsteps is a tough act, but the teen is pure gold in the role.  The magical moment she appears wearing the ruby shoes in Oz, we are hers for the evening.

Her three Yellow Brick Road companions — Scarecrow (Roger Bare), Tin Man (Noah Dorson), and the Cowardly Lion (Mark Abel) — are just as enchanting.  Each could have stepped right out of Baum’s books.  Bare’s Scarecrow is a dancing delight, whose rubber-legged routines will have you rubbing your eyes in wonder.  And when Abel’s Cowardly Lion gets creeped-out in the Haunted Forest, you will believe in spooks, you will, you will, you will!!

Gina Wilhelm as the Wicked Witch and Dutch Heetbrink as the Wizard are also perfectly cast.

Toto is played by a rascally Shih Tzu named Bayle.  She never misses a cue, or a chance to steal the show. 

Munchkinland’s inhabitants are played with zest by a moppety mob of cute children.  And portraying the wise-cracking Guard of Oz, Steve Detry — a Belgian exchange student — hams it up like a seasoned trouper, and is an uproarious hit. 

Behind the scenes everything in the Emerald City sparkles.  Barbara Anderson’s costumes are super-imaginative, and a delight to the eye that will linger in your memory long after leaving the theater.

The sets and props by Mike Olson, Kathi Donald, and Norma Kvarda suck you right in to this make-believe land.  Special-effects wizardry makes the magic of melting witches and a Kansas cyclone come alive.  And Aunt Em’s “talking head” morphing out of a crystal ball is an absolute hoot, and one of the night’s highlights.

David Spring and his orchestra conduct the original MGM musical score.  From its first sweeping notes the music lifts you up, and brings the merry old Land of Oz to life on the stage.

“The Wizard Of Oz” rekindles that warm place in your heart, where dreams come true, and there’s  “no place like home.”  This Savoyards show has it all in one eye-popping, toe-tapping fantasy that leaves the audience, young and old, begging for more.

The play runs through March 9th.  For tickets and information, contact the Northwest Savoyards at (866) 811-4111, or online at www.northwestsavoyards.org.