The Wizard of Oz
Frank Baum (Book); Harold Arlen & E.Y. Harburg (Music & Lyrics);
Herbert Stothart (Background Music)
American Conservatory Theater
Let’s be clear: Not only are we not in Kansas anymore, in the current American Conservatory Theater production, we are also definitely not in the same version of L. Frank Baum’s The Wizard of Oz that we read in school or that we watched on TV year after year in our living rooms. We are now in a color-explosive, creativity-gone-wild, kids’ playground of hula hoops, bubbles, kazoos, Tyco playhouses, googly eyes, and even a Twister game where the look is more drag queen than not, where the Mayor of Oz is a fax machine, and where the town meeting spot is at the water cooler. In both this Kansas and Oz, there is a blend of people of all colors, multiple races, and genders mixed and non-conforming. And under the spell cast upon us by Sam Pinkleton’s constantly surprising, over-the-top, and imaginative-beyond-description direction, our sides and cheeks are soon aching from laughing so much.
But let’s also be clear: This Wizard of Oz has all the genuine heart – and maybe even more – of any Oz we may have visited in the past. For all the loud guffaws, there will still be some tears as Dorothy expresses her loving farewells for new friends found on the Yellow Brick Road. And throughout the fantastical, often bizarre, even silly journey, the magnetic draw of home prevails – as witnessed by surrounding columns in Oz consisting of children’s drawn pictures of their concepts of family and home (as also seen in the lobby upon entering A.C.T.’s Toni Rembe Theater).
Never is it more sure that in this Oz our hearts will be moved as much as our inner child will be entertained than when Dorothy – as magnificently played by in her Vans slip-ons and Batman tee – early on sings “Over the Rainbow.” With a voice exuding a young’ girl’s innocently conceived dream of a world happier than hers, she sings with such ease and crystal clarity, providing enough of her own interpretative embellishments to thrill us with the iconic song we cherish and yet one with a freshness unique to this Dorothy. Throughout, Chanel Tilghman is a wide-eyed, youthful, daring, and determined Dorothy who brings twenty-first century look and feel to a girl of color we all remember as a Depression Era kid from all-white Kansas.
When the alarms ominously sound that a storm is approaching, huge, electric fans appear; torn paper pieces by the hundreds fly everywhere; cast members twist and turn often with haystacks carried over their heads; and sheep fly through the air as a host of kids’ toys become a hilarious part of the melee – just one of several stage-engulfing, eye-popping scenes that Director Pinkleton creates that often spill into the audience and continually raise the level of fun and flurry. As the Kansas-plains house of cut-out cardboard flies away, we, Dorothy, and her too-cute puppet dog, Toto, are soon in a land of carnival-like lights and magic where houses are kid-like small and colorful. The little people we know as Munchkins soon appear of the googly-eyed sorts that one cannot imagine until seen. Oz becomes a land that maybe a kid might imagine and that super-talented adults with kid-like spirit and spunk actually have created.
After Dorothy’s house has landed on the Wicked Witch of the East (and I am not going to give away what she looks like in this playland of Oz), her highly upset sister appears. The WW of the West is not the expected green witch in all black we might expect but is in this case a purple-haired, whitest witch possible in both skin color and in her western rodeo wear and boots. Courtney Walsh is a deliciously devilish, highly cynical, snobbily pompous Witch (and the earlier, bike-riding, dog-hating Miss Gulch). She is both beautiful and bad; and the underlying message of her all-white, domineering presence amongst such a mixed-race land is quite clear.
Her evil is countered by the Good Witch Glinda, who arrives by air wearing layers upon layers of pink fluff and flutter to send Dorothy on her way to see the Wizard. But before Dorothy leaves, Katrina Lauren McGraw’s larger-than-life presence as Glinda with much personality and pizzazz delights us singing “Come Out.” Her multi-octave, sustained rounds of laughter recall and honor Beach Blanket Babylon’s Louis XIV as once played so many years by Curt Branom. That homage to one of San Francisco’s most honored icons of the past is coupled by opening-night, on-stage appearances of two of SF’s present treasures – Sister Roma of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence and the San Francisco Lesbian/Gay Freedom Band.
Once on her way down the Yellow Brick Road (aided by us as audience, as we are oft encouraged to join in song and in helpful actions like waving yellow napkins), Dorothy begins encountering the mates we highly anticipate her meeting. With a mop and crumpled milk carton for hair and hat and wearing a colorful, croqueted outfit bursting with straw, Danny Scheie’s Scarecrow is the first friend she meets. A tumbling body as flexible as rubber, a tendency toward soft-shoe dance, and voice that sings “If I Only Had a Brain” with terrific exuberance – all are just a few of the aspects that make this Scarecrow special and a crowd favorite. His drawn-out, slightly nasal accent of Kansas origin and his dead-pan humor as heard in his frequent one-liner remarks made on the sidelines are just two more memorable reasons Danny Scheie once again proves why he is a Bay Area favorite on the stage.
But not to be outdone are equally treasured actors of local stages, Darryl V. Jones as Tin Man and Cathleen Riddley as Lion. In a suit and captain’s hat of all silver, Darryl Jones’ side-to-side, roaming eyes are all that moves as the rusted man of tin before Dorothy applies the needed oil. Immediately, he springs into a highly expressive, hugely smiling man of the woods with just a hint of swish in his step and hips. A rich, reverberating baritone hits the mark in his “If I Only Had a Heart.”
Likewise, Cathleen Riddley’s furry-legged and long-tailed Lion is appropriately cowardly but totally animated as she sings her wishes for a heart. Later in the Land of Oz, the Lion’s “If I Were King of the Forest” is given a sound much different from Bert Lahr’s loud, vibrating version. This Lion brings a more feminine interpretation – wonderfully pensive and yet deeply powerful.
As a threesome, Scarecrow, Tin Man, and Lion are a trio reminiscent of the one we know so well yet also unique in many wonderful respects. Each brings personality-plus to the role.
Along the way and afterwards in the City of Oz, the three meet another threesome played with laugh-out-loud, comedic flair via many costume, wig, and make-up changes by Ezra Reaves, Beth Wilmurt, and Travis Santell Rowland. From corn stalks plagued by crows to stingy trees full of apples (held in their buckets) to green citizens of Oz, each time they appear, the costumes designed by David Zinn are more outlandish than before. In song and dance, in skits short and snappy, and in scenes once scary but now side-splittingly funny (imagine the witch castle guards as walking, jack-in-the-lanterns), the three time and again reign supreme.
But wait: The Guard at the gate of Oz must have their time in the spotlight; and oh my, they do! Another Bay Area standout over and again on the stage, El Beh opens the second act with a front-of-curtain, high-diva, Barbra-mocking (but lovingly so) time at the mike to be followed by a fabulously funny, highly dramatic in every way Guard of the Gate. Clumping about in hugely high, wooden heels, the Guard does not make the slightest move that is not huge in motion and range and is always rib-tickling. Their hilarity is mirrored in outlandish manners by Ada Westfall who plays camp to the highest as Professor Marvel and later at the Great Oz herself.
Ada Westfall also plays a hauntingly beautiful, musical saw that accompanies Dorothy’s “Over the Rainbow” – one of several actors who take turns on stage playing various string instruments to enhance the five-piece, electronic band under direction of David Möschler.
Believe it or not, this review only covers a fraction of the spoofs that spew onto the stage from all directions during every minute throughout this two-hour, forty-five-minute extravaganza. From kids old enough to sit through a live theatre production to their grandparents needing help down the aisles, American Conservatory Theater’s The Wizard of Oz is guaranteed to bewitch, thrill, and totally charm all lucky enough to grab a ticket to this must-see, dream-come-true night.
Rating: 5 E, MUST-SEE
A Theatre Eddys Best Bet Production
The Wizard of Oz continues through June 25, 2023, in production by American Conservatory Theater in the Toni Rembe Theater, 415 Geary Street, San Francisco. Tickets are available online at http://act-sf.org , by box office phone at 415-749-2228, or by email at tickets@act-sf.org.
Photo Credits: Kevin Berne
