Photo by Debora Robinson/SCR
Written by Daniella Litvak
Life got you down? Is the world looking a little too gray? Does home feel like the last place you want to be? The cure for all of that is a trip to Oz. These days you don’t have to depend on a tornado for transportation. You can the read book, watch the movie, or go see Oz 2.5.
So what new features does this version of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz have? For starters, Dorothy has been upgraded from a sweet 20th century child to a 21st century teenage brat with the nickname Dee. She hates living on her Aunt Em and Uncle Henry’s Kansas farm and only wants to spend her time playing Oz 2.0 on her tablet. Fortunately for her, a tornado transports her into the game. Now she must follow the yellow brick road and defeat the Wicked Witch of the West(ern Realm).
Oz 2.5 surprised me with how much it put its own unique spin on the story instead of following what
Photo by Debora Robinson/SCR
other adaptations have done. For instance, Toto is a fellow player instead of a dog and The Wicked Witch doesn’t have green skin. I kept waiting for some allusion to the 1939 film, but I don’t recall any.
The computer game concept is hit or miss. The show really does feel very much like a game. Health stats needed to be replenished. Dying meant Dee had to go back to the last checkpoint. And of course, there was a boss fight. Still even with all of these great features added, the story felt compressed, I didn’t get a sense of accomplishment when Dee progressed onto the next level. The combat sequences (except maybe the final one) didn’t reach epic levels.
Emily Yetter’s Dee is a likable brat. Celeste Den plays Aunt Em and the Wicked Witch, which definitely shows off her range. Amin El Gamal and Micheal Faulkner are great in their multiple roles. Larry Bates’ Cowardly Lion was a crowd favorite. But my favorite performances were from the Scarecrow (Joe Fria) and Tin Man (Christopher Rivas).
The costuming in this production is exciting. The Wicked Witch has flamboyant style. While the Tin Man looked like he was wearing a suit of armor, which was appropriate since he did most of the fighting. The only disappointment was the Cowardly Lion’s costume, which looked slightly bland.
Oz 2.5 is fun and enjoyable, but it’s not the best trip to Oz I’ve experienced.
Side note: One of the funniest moments of the entire show was a relatively lengthy reference to Wicked.
6.5/10
May 22 – 29, 2015
WOW!! This was a great production and I loved seeing it with my family LOL It was super funny and…