When I arrived the show had already started because, directionally challenged as I am, of course I got lost trying to find the place in the dark and the rain. Nevertheless, I made it in one piece.  The unfortunate part was that once the show started there was no way to get in without practically being on the stage, as the only entrance to seating was in the front…how embarrassing!  So instead I stood in the side hallway until there was an appropriate blackout to sneak in.  Soon there was one… a very long one… and it was a preview of the way the rest of the show would be as well; a series of very long not-so-black outs that would make the show seem to go on forever.

Now with that being said, I was impressed from the bit I watched from the sidelines that the large number of very small children who comprised munchkins were not only well rehearsed but they also each held character and used voices straight out of the movie.  Their consistency was amazing for that age range. 

As each of the main characters was introduced some stood out in quality of performance more than others. 

Audrey Battah was wonderful in the role of Dorothy - sounding every bit like Judy Garland.

Jeremy Bustin as the scarecrow and Collin Norman as Tin Man gave grand efforts to their characters, but the one that stood out was Brent Rodgers as the Cowardly Lion. His performance was the source of the evening’s over-the-top comic relief.  The only problem I had with his character was the fact that the fourth wall came and went depending on how much the audience was to help with the shtick.  So you never quite knew what perspective you were watching the show… were we there with them in Oz or were we an audience watching a show?

Smithfield Little Theatre obviously spent a good deal of their budget on fabulous scenery and costumes. The flying monkeys actually flew on and off stage as did the Wizard’s hot air balloon. Obviously, a lot of time and effort went into creating some brilliant special effects.  However, with all this extensive scenery they couldn’t quite get a handle on the transitions of it all.  Some scene changes took exorbitant amounts of time as we were left watching, in only semi-black outs, people still in costumes try to stick poles into little holes in the stage to create the next scene.  Perhaps I would have been a little less perturbed if I didn’t have to watch munchkins and random other people not in black give little sense of urgency in getting to the next scene. 

With all the money spent they should have spent some on more stagehands.

As the lights went up for intermission I finally got to take stock of the room.  It is a charming theatre in a charming town.  The house was full of people who all seemed to know each other and the average age was considerably older than the median.  They are clearly a tight community helping to support each other.  The lady next to me turned to her friend and said “this is just wonderful!” and then proceeded to talk about how so-and-so was the daughter of this person and how this little boy was in her daughters class in school, etc.

The second half of the show went pretty much same as the first in terms of timing and scene changes but it was also when most of the special effects were used and, therefore, seemed to go a little faster and held my attention longer. Not to mention that Toto came to life in the form of a real black puppy who played his role as scared Toto to the hilt!  So, in case you have been living under a rock, Dorothy makes it back to Kansas, and lo and behold the Lion, the Scarecrow, and the Tin Man have all been transformed back into their human counterparts in record time offstage and all is right in Kansas again.  If only we could all learn life lessons in dreams like Dorothy then we might not need so much Prozac.

All in all it was a fun time with a familiar story…if you have enough patience to sit through all 3 hours of it.

The Wizard of Oz run through November 18th at Smithfield Little Theatre, 210 North Church Street, Smithfield, 757-357-7338.