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Review: There's No Place Like 'Oz' For Musical Theater

By KEVIN WALKER | The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 15, 2008

TAMPA - The stage production of "The Wizard of Oz," which opens the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center's 22nd season, is an excellent way to introduce children to musical theater. On opening night, children made up a good quarter or more of the audience, a testament to the movie's lasting appeal.

But more than anything else, the stage production shows the enduring power of songs written by two gifted songwriters, Harold Arlen and E.Y. Harburg. Just phrases such as "if I only had a brain" or "ding, dong, the witch is dead" put a tune immediately into your head. That's an amazing accomplishment for Arlen and Harburg.

The main pleasure of this show is to lose yourself again in those songs, this time performed by an orchestra and a talented set of singers. Foremost among them is Cassie Okenka as Dorothy. Her first test comes quickly: singing "Over the Rainbow" while sitting next to a dog and not being Judy Garland. She performed wonderfully, as she did for the rest of the show, earning a standing ovation.

Another standout is Noah Aberlin as the Scarecrow, a demanding role in that it requires a lot of physical comedy, which he pulled off (even at his curtain call). The other two principal characters, Chris Kind as the Tinman and Jason Simon as the Lion, also were excellent, with Simon making the most of a wealth of good lines for the "cowardly" king of the forest. The best is a joke that references "The Lion King."

The additions for the musical, such as singing crows and sultry trees, all hit just the right note. The show also featured kids from across the Tampa Bay area playing munchkins.

The only criticism is not with performances but the show. One forgets most of the great songs are in the front half of the show, which may be one reason many children in the audience were looking sleepy in the last half-hour or so.