#1
Posted: 4/5/09 at 8:37pm
One can?t help but imagine disaster when it comes time to see a show at the WaMu Theatre at Madison Square Garden. First, you have the long, winding journey through the complex only to reach a barn of a room the size of an airplane hanger with a low ceiling and an awkward stage on one end that looks, and sounds, like a makeshift assembly of platforms on one end of a high school gymnasium. Then there is the inept staff of ?ushers? who serve more as space fillers; a ?program? is flung at you as you round a corner on the long journey to the house, then you have the ones at the door, who know little more than to point you toward the giant sign announcing the seats sections and are unable to direct you to a specific, and unnumbered on most cases, seat. You have the show vendors selling programs and souvenirs at stands in the lobby - one manned by a show employee who is cheerful and friendly, and a few others scattered around manned by MSG employees who want to be anywhere else, and we can?t forget the folks trolling the aisles hocking bottled sodas, Cracker Jacks and popcorn, cotton candy and other assorted goodies. The bigger problem is that instead of attempting to be personable, they sprint through the aisles like commuters at rush hour and mumble their wares under their breath like scalpers in Times Square. Yes, this is a trip the WaMu.
On the way in, I made the decision, and smartly so, to purchase a colorful and well put together souvenir program for $20 and made my way to my seat, being handed what serves as the complimentary program for the New York City run of the Wizard of Oz?. Settling in, I opened up the ?MSG Insider?, a collection of articles, news and calendars outlining upcoming events at Radio City and the Garden, only to discover that the only show information given out was on a bi-fold insert. A SMALL bi-fold insert with print that looked more like ?fine print? in a magazine ad than anything else. In the time light of the theatre, no chance of being able to read THAT. Not that there was anything to read, as it consisted entirely of the company billing (title) page and the company bios. No cast of characters, no scenes and musical numbers, no orchestra listing. NADA. A switched to the souvenir program and hoped to find more, but the only additional information I found there were headshots on an insert and the scene and musical numbers. Oh great. So, I spend some time examining the pre-show set up.. A nice, well made false proscenium that needlessly hammers the point home that yes, it is based on a film, the band situation in a box area high up at the right side of the auditorium, and a clear view between the curtain and the proscenium of the cast hanging out in the wings and Glinda?s bubble waiting patiently for it?s grand entrance.
This Oz gets underway with a rather long pre-show announcement made by Glinda AND the Wicked Witch about turning off cell phones, not taking pictures and not disrupting your neighbors since only ?Wicked Witches? would do those things. Well, by those standards, this audience surpasses Anjelica Huston is The Witches! The (what I have read elsewhere to be) nine piece orchestra strikes up the Wizard of oz overture and sounds remarkably fully.. and natural. A quick check of my insert at intermission reveals orchestral enhancement by Notion Music (Kudos to them for a natural sounding canned orchestra. Shame on Networks for not shelling out for even the LISCENSED 15 piece orchestration when they clearly aren?t spending the money elsewhere).
Half way through the overture, the show scrim (a plain white scrim with a projected logo) fades away to reveal a bare stage and a major fault of the production is revealed. An obviously computer generated projection of a spinning windmill materializes at center, and slowly expands to reveal a projected background of a desolate landscape that looks more desert than Kansas; but wait, something is even more off.. The projection is as wide of the stage, but there is a black bar across the top and bottom of the drop. Yes folks, Kansas is in letterbox!
Cassie Okenka bounds on to the stage and we are off.. And you quickly realize that like this moment, this Oz will be a VERY mixed bag. Ms Okenka has been made to running laps around the stage while delivering her opening speech, but you still see that yes, she will be a good Dorothy.
The big fault of the production lies mostly at the hands of Networks and an unwillingness to spend the money that this particular production needs. Some moments and wonderful, some are gravely disappointing. But even when it is wonderful, you can see how much more wonderful it would be had they been given the funds to give it quality realization.
To be sure, enough is wrong with the production that blame must also fall squarely on the shoulders of Director Nigel West and Choreographer Leigh Constantine. The entire affair has been directed with the broad strokes of children?s theatre, pandering to the lowest common denominator, and the youngest children, every step of the way. With lackluster and dull choreography, even the dance numbers don?t fly the way that they should. Things are worst when left in the hands of the show?s stage crew, who delivery some of the sloppiest work I have ever seen.. Visibly crawling into scenes and moving set pieces into the wings during scenes changes as though they were directed to just scatter and get them off at all costs.
As I said previously, Cassie Okenka is a great Dorothy. She plays the role very young, and very spunky.. a little girl lost, as it should be. Her vocals are on the bright side, very sweet and wholly appropriate to her portrayal. Gladly, she keeps ?Over the Rainbow? simple and direct and doesn?t trying to raise the rafters in un needed ways. Noah Aberlin is a serviceable Scarecrow, standing out mostly when it come to prat falls and physical comedy. Jason Simon was a crowd favorite as the Cowardly Lion, but I found his severely lacking, giving a third rate Bert Lahr by way of Nathan lane impersonating, injecting no originality into the role. Of the three friends of Dorothy (funnily thanking his wife in his bio), Chris Kind fares best, turning in a winning Tinman, even if he is hampered by the poorly used reigns of the direction.
Caitlin Maloney stand out best in the Kansas scenes as (a very young) Aunt Em, but falls to the wayside in Oz, resorting to the sugary sweet Billie Burke-esque vocal timbres that didn?t fit with her portrayal of the role. Matters aren?t helped when, once again, Nigel West and Networks sabotage the poor girl with bubble that looks rather rickety and condemning her to only earthbound entrances or off-stage voice-overs, cutting her stage time, from here on out. Robert John Beidermann is merely serviceable as the Wizard, but a stronger Marvel. Pat Sibley disappoints as the Witch and Miss Gulch, and the show screeches to a halt any time Bruce Warren?s Uncle Henry / Emerald City Guard makes an appearance to turn in a performance worthy of middle school spring musicals.
The ensemble does bang up work with when little they are given. I wish I could tell you who understudies whom and who portrays which Ozian, but I can only piece together limited things from what I have seen online and efforts to match face to character.
William Berloni does his usual great work with Princess and Snickers as Toto, here handled by Jennifer James. The problem with Toto in this production is that it is plainly obvious to me that Nigel West trusts neither Berloni or the canines. I have seen these two dogs in Oz before. I know what they can do. Here though, once Dorothy gets to Oz, we barely see Toto except for a literal sprint across the stage at the end of each scene up the Yellow Brick Road. It is most painfully obvious in the Witch?s castle? Dorothy releases him from the basket, but only after sticking the basket through a doorway to conceal the opening and a lack of dog, and again when the three friends come to the rescue and Dorothy says she is glad to see Toto, who is nowhere to be found.
The sets and costumes for this venture lack every step of the way.. A few good concepts, but lots of bad execution. The Munchkinland and Emerald City wigs seem like Party City sale items, the Crows, Apple Trees, Snowflakes and Poppies and Flying Monkeys look in NO way like what they are meant to be, with nothing to even clue you in. the sets are very bare bones and flimsy. I did appreciate the concept of old world that ran throughout the sets - A Munchkin land ?Hollywood? sign and an Emerald City Town Square that recalled the old MGM studio gates. Color never seemed to occur to designer Tim McQuillan-Wright though, as Glinda mentions the Munchkins loving blue, yet showing us nary a speck of blue in Munchkinland, and an Emerald City gate with nary a speck of green.
Special effects weren?t very special. The flying was subpar, with the witch bouncing up and down like a yo-yo while the broom literally hung BEHIND her, a bubble that rocked around, one flying monkey who swooped it, only to drag a ground-stuck Dorothy across the stage, and a Wizard?s balloon that no balloon.
The Pryo effects were equally a let down.. A lot of quick flashes, nothing of substance, and a few times executed by a stagehand sitting on the floor at the side of the stage in very plain sight.
The Tornado, for the most part, was first rate.. The downstage scrim descends as the house moves center stage and spins around to reveal Dorothy inside, as projections envelop the front and back of the stage to create the vortex. Throughout the scene, a stagehand plants himself on the upstage side of the farmhouse, ?destroying? the porch to create the post Tornado look and an a large array of fans around the proscenium blast the first section of the audience with a steady stream of (very welcome) wind.. The only problem was the scene felt long.. Only due to the fact that the same three objects kept flying past the window.. Including a Miss Gulch / Witch who looked remarkably different in design than the American production?s Witch.. It seems that they opted to lift the video from the original production directly.
Snow was abundant during the poppy field sequence, but these had to have been the loudest snow machines that I have ever encountered. The hiss managed drown out almost everything. Red confetti fell from the rafters as well, to signify the poppies, but some of it barreled down in large clumps and tufts of the stuff wafted down throughout the entire performance.
The Wizard himself looked like a 1950s B-movie reject.
The projection for the Witch?s crystal ball was impressive, until an actor or two would open the door in the castle set and reveal the projector and beam of light creating the effect.
The Witch?s melting was much more technically successful, having her melt into a raised platform that was open beneath. No mirrors could be seen here, but for the technical minded, it was not too hard to figure out. The only glitch here is when Pat Sibley?s Witch collapses to her knees at the start of it, giving the proceeding a bit of an awkward feel.
Through any fault, though, The Wizard of Oz will always manage to find a way to get inside you and leave you misty eyed as Dorothy says goodbye to her new friends. What is it about this story that is so deeply inside us? The power of Baum and the MGM screenwriters will always prevail.
I would have been much happier to have seen the ACTUAL Mayflower Theatre production that this tour is based on. Even with what faults would remain, it looks to have been a much more pleasing thing to see. Nonetheless, a trip to Oz is always welcome, so click your heels, Dorothy. I?d still game for another trip over the rainbow..
I am happy to answer any specific questions about the production to the best of my memory.
On the way in, I made the decision, and smartly so, to purchase a colorful and well put together souvenir program for $20 and made my way to my seat, being handed what serves as the complimentary program for the New York City run of the Wizard of Oz?. Settling in, I opened up the ?MSG Insider?, a collection of articles, news and calendars outlining upcoming events at Radio City and the Garden, only to discover that the only show information given out was on a bi-fold insert. A SMALL bi-fold insert with print that looked more like ?fine print? in a magazine ad than anything else. In the time light of the theatre, no chance of being able to read THAT. Not that there was anything to read, as it consisted entirely of the company billing (title) page and the company bios. No cast of characters, no scenes and musical numbers, no orchestra listing. NADA. A switched to the souvenir program and hoped to find more, but the only additional information I found there were headshots on an insert and the scene and musical numbers. Oh great. So, I spend some time examining the pre-show set up.. A nice, well made false proscenium that needlessly hammers the point home that yes, it is based on a film, the band situation in a box area high up at the right side of the auditorium, and a clear view between the curtain and the proscenium of the cast hanging out in the wings and Glinda?s bubble waiting patiently for it?s grand entrance.
This Oz gets underway with a rather long pre-show announcement made by Glinda AND the Wicked Witch about turning off cell phones, not taking pictures and not disrupting your neighbors since only ?Wicked Witches? would do those things. Well, by those standards, this audience surpasses Anjelica Huston is The Witches! The (what I have read elsewhere to be) nine piece orchestra strikes up the Wizard of oz overture and sounds remarkably fully.. and natural. A quick check of my insert at intermission reveals orchestral enhancement by Notion Music (Kudos to them for a natural sounding canned orchestra. Shame on Networks for not shelling out for even the LISCENSED 15 piece orchestration when they clearly aren?t spending the money elsewhere).
Half way through the overture, the show scrim (a plain white scrim with a projected logo) fades away to reveal a bare stage and a major fault of the production is revealed. An obviously computer generated projection of a spinning windmill materializes at center, and slowly expands to reveal a projected background of a desolate landscape that looks more desert than Kansas; but wait, something is even more off.. The projection is as wide of the stage, but there is a black bar across the top and bottom of the drop. Yes folks, Kansas is in letterbox!
Cassie Okenka bounds on to the stage and we are off.. And you quickly realize that like this moment, this Oz will be a VERY mixed bag. Ms Okenka has been made to running laps around the stage while delivering her opening speech, but you still see that yes, she will be a good Dorothy.
The big fault of the production lies mostly at the hands of Networks and an unwillingness to spend the money that this particular production needs. Some moments and wonderful, some are gravely disappointing. But even when it is wonderful, you can see how much more wonderful it would be had they been given the funds to give it quality realization.
To be sure, enough is wrong with the production that blame must also fall squarely on the shoulders of Director Nigel West and Choreographer Leigh Constantine. The entire affair has been directed with the broad strokes of children?s theatre, pandering to the lowest common denominator, and the youngest children, every step of the way. With lackluster and dull choreography, even the dance numbers don?t fly the way that they should. Things are worst when left in the hands of the show?s stage crew, who delivery some of the sloppiest work I have ever seen.. Visibly crawling into scenes and moving set pieces into the wings during scenes changes as though they were directed to just scatter and get them off at all costs.
As I said previously, Cassie Okenka is a great Dorothy. She plays the role very young, and very spunky.. a little girl lost, as it should be. Her vocals are on the bright side, very sweet and wholly appropriate to her portrayal. Gladly, she keeps ?Over the Rainbow? simple and direct and doesn?t trying to raise the rafters in un needed ways. Noah Aberlin is a serviceable Scarecrow, standing out mostly when it come to prat falls and physical comedy. Jason Simon was a crowd favorite as the Cowardly Lion, but I found his severely lacking, giving a third rate Bert Lahr by way of Nathan lane impersonating, injecting no originality into the role. Of the three friends of Dorothy (funnily thanking his wife in his bio), Chris Kind fares best, turning in a winning Tinman, even if he is hampered by the poorly used reigns of the direction.
Caitlin Maloney stand out best in the Kansas scenes as (a very young) Aunt Em, but falls to the wayside in Oz, resorting to the sugary sweet Billie Burke-esque vocal timbres that didn?t fit with her portrayal of the role. Matters aren?t helped when, once again, Nigel West and Networks sabotage the poor girl with bubble that looks rather rickety and condemning her to only earthbound entrances or off-stage voice-overs, cutting her stage time, from here on out. Robert John Beidermann is merely serviceable as the Wizard, but a stronger Marvel. Pat Sibley disappoints as the Witch and Miss Gulch, and the show screeches to a halt any time Bruce Warren?s Uncle Henry / Emerald City Guard makes an appearance to turn in a performance worthy of middle school spring musicals.
The ensemble does bang up work with when little they are given. I wish I could tell you who understudies whom and who portrays which Ozian, but I can only piece together limited things from what I have seen online and efforts to match face to character.
William Berloni does his usual great work with Princess and Snickers as Toto, here handled by Jennifer James. The problem with Toto in this production is that it is plainly obvious to me that Nigel West trusts neither Berloni or the canines. I have seen these two dogs in Oz before. I know what they can do. Here though, once Dorothy gets to Oz, we barely see Toto except for a literal sprint across the stage at the end of each scene up the Yellow Brick Road. It is most painfully obvious in the Witch?s castle? Dorothy releases him from the basket, but only after sticking the basket through a doorway to conceal the opening and a lack of dog, and again when the three friends come to the rescue and Dorothy says she is glad to see Toto, who is nowhere to be found.
The sets and costumes for this venture lack every step of the way.. A few good concepts, but lots of bad execution. The Munchkinland and Emerald City wigs seem like Party City sale items, the Crows, Apple Trees, Snowflakes and Poppies and Flying Monkeys look in NO way like what they are meant to be, with nothing to even clue you in. the sets are very bare bones and flimsy. I did appreciate the concept of old world that ran throughout the sets - A Munchkin land ?Hollywood? sign and an Emerald City Town Square that recalled the old MGM studio gates. Color never seemed to occur to designer Tim McQuillan-Wright though, as Glinda mentions the Munchkins loving blue, yet showing us nary a speck of blue in Munchkinland, and an Emerald City gate with nary a speck of green.
Special effects weren?t very special. The flying was subpar, with the witch bouncing up and down like a yo-yo while the broom literally hung BEHIND her, a bubble that rocked around, one flying monkey who swooped it, only to drag a ground-stuck Dorothy across the stage, and a Wizard?s balloon that no balloon.
The Pryo effects were equally a let down.. A lot of quick flashes, nothing of substance, and a few times executed by a stagehand sitting on the floor at the side of the stage in very plain sight.
The Tornado, for the most part, was first rate.. The downstage scrim descends as the house moves center stage and spins around to reveal Dorothy inside, as projections envelop the front and back of the stage to create the vortex. Throughout the scene, a stagehand plants himself on the upstage side of the farmhouse, ?destroying? the porch to create the post Tornado look and an a large array of fans around the proscenium blast the first section of the audience with a steady stream of (very welcome) wind.. The only problem was the scene felt long.. Only due to the fact that the same three objects kept flying past the window.. Including a Miss Gulch / Witch who looked remarkably different in design than the American production?s Witch.. It seems that they opted to lift the video from the original production directly.
Snow was abundant during the poppy field sequence, but these had to have been the loudest snow machines that I have ever encountered. The hiss managed drown out almost everything. Red confetti fell from the rafters as well, to signify the poppies, but some of it barreled down in large clumps and tufts of the stuff wafted down throughout the entire performance.
The Wizard himself looked like a 1950s B-movie reject.
The projection for the Witch?s crystal ball was impressive, until an actor or two would open the door in the castle set and reveal the projector and beam of light creating the effect.
The Witch?s melting was much more technically successful, having her melt into a raised platform that was open beneath. No mirrors could be seen here, but for the technical minded, it was not too hard to figure out. The only glitch here is when Pat Sibley?s Witch collapses to her knees at the start of it, giving the proceeding a bit of an awkward feel.
Through any fault, though, The Wizard of Oz will always manage to find a way to get inside you and leave you misty eyed as Dorothy says goodbye to her new friends. What is it about this story that is so deeply inside us? The power of Baum and the MGM screenwriters will always prevail.
I would have been much happier to have seen the ACTUAL Mayflower Theatre production that this tour is based on. Even with what faults would remain, it looks to have been a much more pleasing thing to see. Nonetheless, a trip to Oz is always welcome, so click your heels, Dorothy. I?d still game for another trip over the rainbow..
I am happy to answer any specific questions about the production to the best of my memory.
