That was fun!

Last night we went to see a community theater production of The Wizard of Oz which was based heavily on the movie. The cast was enormous - 40 children, and a total of 52 castmembers! It was also very much a community theater production: several siblings among the children, and many of their parents either on stage or backstage. In some respects it resembled a recital by the local school/dance studio, but in general it worked quite well.

It's been a long time since I saw the movie; I had forgotten how very much music there is in it, so the music director certainly had his work cut out for him. There were one or two slightly ragged places, but given the amount of music the cast had to learn, I thought they did an excellent job. This production even added at least one bit (The Jitterbug) that was cut from the movie and another number the director wrote to cover a costume/make-up change during Dorothy's return to Kansas. That extra number worked quite well and I'm sure was helped by the littlest singer, who repeated the refrain several times (surprisingly big voice for such a tiny child!) while the others exited.

The audience was full of families with small (perhaps 10 and younger) children, which was good to see, as community theater audiences, at least at the shows I attend, seem to have an ever-increasing median age. The director had the actors make several entrances and exits through the house, not just the wings, which both involved the audience members more and solved what had to be some pretty hairy traffic problems backstage, with all those cast members.

The music sounded good, the "crowd scenes" on stage generally worked very well, and the costumes for the principals were quite good. I was particularly impressed with those for the Tinman, Scarecrow and Lion. The Lion's suit looked quite good (in that small house, you can't get away with too many shortcuts), moved well, and allowed the Lion to move well. The Tinman's suit was an impressive reproduction of the movie version, and I was amazed at how much the poor guy inside was able to move (though he seemed to do more kneeling than anyone else, which had to be difficult in that suit).

The hall has new mikes, which have a wire that comes around the side of the face. I found them a visual distraction and unnecessary. Unless the quality of their sound reproduction was extraordinary, I didn't hear anything that sounded like it was being picked up on a mike. (The performing space is a concert hall, not a theater, so I'm assuming it's designed for optimal unmiked acoustics of what's on stage.)

All in all, a fun show full of laughs; just what I needed after the past couple of weeks. (Friend2 needs a mastectomy, but the Chief's brother had his surgery and is home recuperating.)