Set in Kansas, and the magical world of Oz, Riverside’s Andrew Crabtree Stage brought the Wizard of Oz to life on April 18-20.
I had watched The Wizard of Oz a few times before I watched the musical, and the Riverside theater program did an amazing job following the story of the 1929 movie, which was based on the 1900 children’s book by L. Frank Baum.
The Wizard of Oz is a story about a girl named Dorothy (played by sophomore Delia Aguilar) and her dog Toto (senior Dio Parker’s dog, Button McKnight) who get swept away by a tornado and taken to the far away land of Oz.
In Oz, Dorothy meets the Scarecrow (junior Jake Foraker), the Tinman (senior Seamus Millet) and the Cowardly Lion (junior Finn Lueck-Wright), all of which are missing something that they want The Wizard of Oz to give them.
The lighting team did an amazing job, especially with the rainbow lights when Dorothy first arrives in Oz and gets greeted by Glinda Good Witch of the North (freshman Fay Schwankl-Jobe).
Dorothy and the Lion both played their parts similarly to how they were played in the original film.
All of the singers did an excellent job, especially Dorothy and the Wicked Witch Of the West (senior Claire Leslie).
The theater team played many songs from the original movie, and I think they did a great job singing them. The choreography in the dances was also very good.
The orchestra supported the vocals well, although sometimes the actors’ mics were too quiet so they were hard to hear over the instruments. There were also a few times throughout the musical where the mics stopped working for a few seconds, or had loud feedback. However it was still a strong production, considering the theater sound system is run by students.
Even though the theater program at Riverside is relatively small, they choose to perform many ambitious plays, including The Sound of Music, Little Shop of Horrors, and now The Wizard of Oz.
Watching this year’s musical leaves me excited to attend more fall and spring plays in the future.
