Age is no barrier to enjoying the "The Wizard of Oz."


WHEN:2 p.m. and 8 p.m. today (may 22)  and 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Sunday, May 23
WHERE: Popejoy Hall, Center for the Arts, UNM campus
HOW MUCH: $35, $45 and $55 for the general public. Children 12 and under
$18.75, $23.75 and
$28.75 for the Sunday evening performance only.
Tickets available at all Albertsons supermarkets in greater Albuquerque and in
Santa Fe, or online at
www.popejoypresents.com or, if available, at the UNM Center for the Arts box
office.

Review

Age is no barrier to enjoying the “The Wizard of Oz.”

Never has, never will be.

At Friday’s performance of the stage musical version, the first of five this weekend at Popejoy Hall, a handful of little girls came to the show dressed in blue gingham dresses and ruby red shoes. Just as Dorothy wears in Munchkinland and in the Land of Oz.

Eleven-year-old Kyle didn’t don any character’s costume, but he loved the musical. Dorothy was his favorite character, with Toto, her trusty dog, a close second.

During intermission, one woman in the audience asked out loud, “Don’t you love this?”

And a grandfather attending with his son found the show “enchanting.”

This touring company production builds, in its own yellow-brick way, on the fame of the 1939 film version of “The Wizard of Oz,” which may be America’s best-loved movie.

The stage production succeeds with a mere cast of 20, plus 12 terrific local kids portraying

Munchkins and Winkies.

It’s a talented ensemble of performers who act, sing and dance their way into your heart. Cassie Okenka’s delightful Dorothy and her trio of buddies – Adam Jepsen as the Scarecrow in search of a brain, Peter Gosik as Tinman needing a heart and Jesse Coleman as the dandelion of a Lion seeking

courage – are surrounded by solid supporting cast right down to Pat Sibley as the Wicked Witch of the West. The fantastical/fantastic costumes and sets are candy for the eye, noticeably the shades of green of the populace in the Emerald City. Okenka won me over in her tender singing of the iconic “Somewhere Over the

Rainbow.” The big dance numbers, e.g. “Jitterbug” and “Merry Old Land of Oz,” are breezy throwbacks to ’30s film musicals.

The production made judicious use of pyrotechnics and strobe lights. The video in the opening scene in Kansas produced a believable tornado, though leading up to it, the trees blowing in the wind looked more like silly stick figures.