Theatre Performances: Wizard of Oz at the Cheyenne Civic Center

I went to the Cheyenne Civic Center last night to see the touring production of The Wizard of Oz.

I seem to remember seeing the Wizard of Oz before...I think at the Minneapolis Children's Theater, and it was a regular play, not a musical. Or I may be confusing it with the Grinch, whcih I definitely saw there. Ah, sucks to get old and misplace your theater program collection.

Anyway, it was fun. It used most of the dialog and songs from the movie - including Over the Rainbow, but with a few additional lines and at least one scene - the Jitterbug scene that had been cut from the movie was done here.

Andrew Haserlat, who played the Scarecrow, didn't have the physical dexterity of Ray Bolger, but his physicality was okay and he had a good singing voice. Jesse Colman as Lion didn't try a Brooklynese accent a la Bert Lahr, but his Cowardly Lion did kind of make him stand out - excellent delivery of some comedic lines.

Pat Sibley as the Wicked Witch also did a good job.

We were far in the back and I hadn't brought opera glasses, so I didn't realize until today that the actress who played Aunt Em also did Gilda, and the actor who played Uncle Henry also played the Guard. As the guard, his vocalizations reminded me more of the guard from the movie Robots than from the movie - where Frank Morgan had played him, the Carriage Driver, the Doorman, and the Wizard of Oz.

Here, Robert John Biedermann played Professor Marvel and the Wizard of Oz. His best scene was of course the last scene where he is handing out the diploma, the testimonial, the medal, and so on.

Dorothy was played by Kate Bristol, Tinman by Beau Hutchings.

A projector had been set up that did the house rising and falling, Aunt Em calling for Dorothy changing into the Wicked Witch doing so, etc.

All in all, a very fun performance - all actors well up to the task, but those with the best lines of course standing out the most.

I checked out some reviews of the touring production and discovered that the actors who played the Munchkins were all locally recruited school kids. According to a letter written by a parent (3 years ago, for a New York production) - the local kids have to pay to be taught all the dance steps they are going to use in the performance - they are themselves not paid. Apparently they get a T-shirt and a line for their resume.

(Note the back of the program which says that the Munchkins had been trained by Lorraine Brown-Bassett and Andrea Rinne of EnAvant Dance Studio.

I also didn't realize that this was a one-night only show. I guess that's how they can be sure every performance will sell out, but gee, that's got to be hard on the actors, getting used to a new space every single day....