The Wizard of Oz
L. Frank Baum (Book); Harold Arlen & E.Y. Harburg (Music & Lyrics);
Herbert Stothart (Background Music)
Mountain Play
From the opening notes of the Overture, bits of familiar tunes brighten more than three thousand faces as toes tap and heart beats quicken. Young and old alike have made once again their way up Mount Tamalpais in yellow school buses and even on foot where for 113 years Mountain Play has thrilled audiences with annual productions of family-friendly musicals that feature huge casts, stagings full of surprises, and breathtaking views of San Francisco’s skyline. This year after a year’s hiatus of no production when there was some fear yet another Bay Area theatre was about to fall victim to post-COVID issues, Mountain Play has resurrected, reminding everyone “there’s no place like home” and no better way to kick off the revered company’s next era than a journey down the Yellow Brick Road to see The Wizard of Oz.
Immediately all of us adults who have grown up watching time and again on TV L. Frank Baum (book) and Harold Arlen and E.Y. Harburg’s (music and lyrics) classic will recognize like old friends most scenes as they unfold and will be tempted to mouth script lines long ago memorized or sing lyrics of songs that are encrypted in our banks of treasured favorites. Mountain Play’s stage version of The Wizard of Oz is the faithful-to-the-1939-movie adaptation that John Kaye penned for The Royal Shakespeare Company in 1987. Whether this venture over the rainbow is one’s first time or umpteenth time, Mountain Play’s Oz is sure to thrill and delight one and all.
As soon as she sings the first few notes of the iconic “Over the Rainbow,” Kyra Lynn Kozlenko settles any doubts that her Dorothy will fail to move our hearts and entertain with aplomb our inner child as did that first Dorothy played by Judy Garland. With a voice exuding a young’ girl’s innocently conceived dream of a world happier than hers, Dorothy’s notes flow with such ease and clarity, providing enough of her own interpretative embellishments of slightly sustained vibratos to give this universally cherished song her own fresh and unique interpretation. Throughout, Kyra Lynn Kozlenko will bring sparkle and spunk to her Dorothy while also playfully and affectionately bringing to full life her famous dog, Toto — a cuddly hand puppet.
Dorothy daydreams in song a land far away from Kansas because she is so upset that the snarling, screeching Miss Gulch (a fabulous Libby Oberlin whom we are going soon to see as the true witch she is) has taken Toto from her. To Dorothy’s dismay, that abduction via the old woman’s bike is largely ignored by Auntie Em, Uncle Henry, and their three farmhands.
After Toto escapes the mean hag, Dorothy and dog run away from home, meeting a friendly flim-flam man and his traveling sideshow, Professor Chester Marvel, played in full fun and flamboyance by David L. Yen. Using his scam of fortune-telling for the good, he convinces Dorothy to return to an Aunt who misses her, just in time for a Kansas twister to descend all around Dorothy and Toto.
An ensemble with long pieces of gray cloth attached to their spinning, twirling bodies creates a wind storm whose might sends flying by a rooster, a cow, and three men frantically rowing oars (one of many clever devices in which Director Dyan McBride invites our imaginations to recreate beloved scenes from the 1939 movie). After a house suddenly appears with two legs and their ruby slippers sticking out from underneath, Dorothy is greeted by the smiling Good Witch Glinda ballooned in pink chiffon and many sparkles — a transformed Aunt Em played with regal airs and attracting vocals by Safira McGraw.
Soon to follow are a host of joyful, dancing-in-circles Munchkins in all sorts of blue outfits — children actors who win audience hearts with their cute voices and playful manners singing to the claps of audience, “Ding, Dong the Witch Is Dead.” A Mayor’s extended “re-gal-ly” sung with animated self-assurance by a young Thor Townsend and a Coroner’s (Mackenzie Evans) boyish and charmingly declarative pronouncement of the Wicked Witch of the East’s “most definitely” demise set the scene for all Munchkins to send Dorothy and Toto on their way to “Follow the Yellow Brick Wall.”
Once on her way, Dorothy begins encountering the mates we highly anticipate her meeting. Cornfields roll out with squawking crows (more puppet magic) plaguing a scarecrow stuck on a pole among them. Once Dorothy releases him, the straw-stuffed Scarecrow tumbles and fumbles his way trying to stand after many falls, with Lucas Michael Chandler endowing his Scarecrow with a bubbly and endearing persona and singing his “If I Had a Brain” in a voice dynamic and delightful.
As the Scarecrow heads down the road with Dorothy, they encounter a field of human apple trees not too eager to share their fruit. Hiding among them is a rusted man, whose muffled cries for help and big eyes full of pleas results in his being oiled up, with Cole Bryant wonderfully embodying the precariously leaning, jerky moving Tin Man whose chest rings loud and hollow. His rich baritone hits the mark as he sings “If I Only Had a Heart” while the now friendlier and singing apple trees dance all around him.
In yet another of Bethany Deal’s plethora of whimsical costumes that abound in wondrous and imaginative touches, a lion appears with bits of fur in all the right places along with a tail that sometimes scares his own cowardly nature. Danny Georgiev is hilarious as the blubbering Cowardly Lion who becomes much more frisky and friendly when he learns he can maybe gain some courage in Oz. Later in that land, his royal pomp and his resoundingly deep voice with “r’s” that roll in wonderful waves are a winning combination for the Lion’s “If I Were a King of the Forest.”
Each of this terrific trio plays his part to the hilt, especially in continuing to move about with unsure legs that seem always ready to collapse (Scarecrow), with robotic-like starts and stops (Tin Man), or with a hesitancy to take the next step out of sheer terror what might happen next (Lion). Each also brings personality-plus to the role.
From high above Andrea Bechert’s multi-layered set that is a mass of green gears of all sizes, often appearing to instill terror in our travelers is the green-haired, black-attired Wicked Witch of the West, with the former Miss Gulch now even more hideous in manner and looks as Libby Oberlin sends throughout the massive amphitheater her rounds of cackling, razor-sharpened laughter. Red-capped Poppies; purple-clad-and-helmeted Winkies; insect-like, dancing-up-a-storm Jitterbugs, and evil Flying Monkeys galloping about on all-fours are just some of the evil tricks she pulls out of her billowing, black sleeves — all more proof of teamwork of director, costume designer, and choreographer (Meredith Joelle Charlson and of the multiple-faceted talents of the large ensemble who all take on many different roles.
Unfortunately, at least during opening day on June 7, sound issues plagued the production way too many times. From the Wicked Witch’s banter and bluster to a bustling-voiced and engaging Emerald City Guard (Sean O’Brien) to a fast-escaping Wizard on his bike topped with giant balloon (David L. Yen) to a number of others, both spoken and sung lines were too often dropped in important moments, leaving everyone except those of us in the first few rows of the huge arena unable to hear. It was frankly a shame for some otherwise well-sung numbers to lose their impacts due to mikes either crackling or working only intermittently. (These same issues were present when I last attended a Mountain Play opening in 2024. I know it must be difficult in such an outdoor setting, but solving this issue once and for all is a must in my opinion.)
That said, there is so much to love about Mountain Play’s 2026 Wizard and enough heart still to draw a few tears in Dorothy’s departure from her friends in Oz and in her reunion with family and friends in Kansas. Amidst a scenic wonderland of Mount Tam, glimpses of both the Pacific and of all the Bay itself, and a journey to get there through towering redwoods, it does not get any better for kids or adults than an afternoon picnic while watching Mountain Play’s The Wizard of Oz.
Rating: 4 E
A Theatre Eddys Best Bet Production
The Wizard of Oz continues 1 p.m. June 13, 14, and 21, 2026, in a two-hour, thirty minute production (with intermission) in production by The Mountain Play at the Cushing Memorial Amphitheatre in Mount Tamalpais State Park, Marin County, California. Information concerning the journey to and from the site as well as tickets is available online at https://www.mountainplay.org.
Photo Credits: Eileen Grady
