Scarecrow, Dorothy, Lion and Tin Man follow the Yellow Brick Road to Oz in the 70th anniversary "Wizard of Oz."
The Orpheum run of "The Wizard of Oz" is impervious to change. This touring presentation carefully hews to the familiar, making it a fine choice for families who love the film and want to show their kids a stage version of the classic.
Slick and professional, the staging offers the comfort of predictability -- the songs, the characters, the oft-repeated lines, my pretty. There is plenty of flying going on, from monkeys in pursuit to witches descending and wizards ascending.
Scarecrow, Dorothy, Lion and Tin Man follow the Yellow Brick Road to Oz in the 70th anniversary "Wizard of Oz."
The favorite characters are all well represented, from Cassie Okenka's Dorothy to the Wicked Witch of the West, done with delicious evil by Pat Sibley. And yes, when the adorable Toto first scampers across stage, he's met with a blizzard of ahs.
Dorothy's three strange friends -- the Scarecrow, the Cowardly Lion and the Tin Man -- ably provide the bulk of the singing and dancing throughout and are well supported by a cast of crows, apple trees and Munchkins.
(Nice job, by the way, to the dozen youngsters from Performing Arts of Germantown who help fill out the population of Munchkinland).
There are the inevitable comparisons to "Wicked," which played at the Orpheum this summer. The imaginative back-story of the Wicked Witch of the West was a stunning production -- fresh and inventive from the opening scene to the closing song.
"Wizard," however, is old-fashioned, true to its source material and comfortable in its blue-and-white checkered dress.
Even the special effects are on the archaic side -- modest pyrotechnics, quaint film transitions to put us in the middle of a tornado, but not too scary for the little ones.
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"The Wizard of Oz"
At the Orpheum, 203 S. Main, through Sunday. 8 p.m. today and Saturday, 7 p.m. Sunday. Matinees at 2 p.m. Saturday and 1:30 p.m. Sunday. Tickets from $10-$75. Call 525-3000, or go online at orpheum-memphis.com.
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