‘Wizard of Oz’ in Antioch a hilarious twist on the classic

“We’re Off to See the Wizard.” “Over the Rainbow.” “Ding Dong! The Witch Is Dead.” Odds are, as soon as you saw the song titles, you began humming or singing the melodies from a classic Judy Garland film, “The Wizard of Oz,” based on the story by L. Frank Baum. In Antioch, a new PM&L Theatre production of the Royal Shakespeare Company adaptation of “The Wizard of Oz” includes those memorable songs and all the familiar characters (Wicked Witch of the West, Dorothy, Toto, Scarecrow and the others), but it takes the actual delivery of the familiar plot from the sublime to the ridiculous – and for someone who loves to laugh, like me, that’s not a bad thing at all. If you see this “Wizard” before it closes March 3, the laughs will be plentiful.

If you don’t have a large theater – and PM&L doesn’t, with each main-floor row having only six to 10 seats for audience members – tackling a well-known show with multiple sets and special effects can be daunting. What director Mark Audrain, producer Betsy Grindol and the rest of the staff have done is to embrace their limitations of space and budget in ways that generate laughter, whether the official script calls for it or not.

First, though, let’s talk about what hasn’t changed: the essence of the plot. Dorothy Gale (Madison Hartman) still lives in Kansas, of course, loved by her Uncle Henry (Matthew Craig), Auntie Em (Sharon Price) and farmhands Hunk (Ki Kennedy), Hickory (Kevin Connerty) and Zeke (Chris Hagendorn). Her best friend, though, is her dog, Toto, whom mean-spirited Almira Gulch (Justin Charles) detests. When Miss Gulch legally takes Toto (a stuffed animal in the PM&L version) away in a basket on her bicycle, Dorothy is heartbroken that her relatives and friends would allow it. When Toto escapes from the basket (“Last time I buy anything from a charity bazaar,” Miss Gulch mutters), Dorothy runs away from home with her pet, only returning after a traveling showman, Professor Marvel (Jeff Harding), convinces her that her aunt may be suffering emotionally and physically. With everyone on the farm having to seek shelter in their storm cellar, a late-arriving Dorothy and Toto are taken by a tornado to somewhere “over the rainbow:” Munchkinland in the land of Oz. Dorothy’s farmhouse has crushed the Wicked Witch of the East, earning the ire of the deceased’s sister, the Wicked Witch of the West (Charles). To get back to Kansas, good witch Glinda (Price) suggests that Dorothy and Toto follow the Yellow Brick Road to the Emerald City to see the Wizard of Oz (Harding). On the way, Dorothy befriends three other Oz residents who might want the Wizard’s help: the brainless Scarecrow (Kennedy), heartless Tinman (Connerty) and cowardly Lion (Hagendorn).

What’s different about the PM&L production? Here are several examples:

• Overhead projector transparencies are used – for a live marker-drawn “Surrender Dorothy” skywriting sign and many other times (such as the tornado with silhouettes of a cow, Miss Gulch on her bike, and even a Waffle House sign).

• When the Lion talks about his childhood, he says that shortly after he was born, he was lifted high by his father near a cliff in Africa, and the audience hears the opening notes of a song from a famous Disney cartoon and stage show.

• Unlike the little people actors seen in the movie, none of the residents of Munchkinland are particularly height-challenged, but the actors all carry hand puppets to signify their shorter-in-stature characters.

• Toto – when in Oz – is played by a silent adult male actor (Rick Schultz) whose constantly changing T-shirt shows references to the rock band Toto. One sight gag involves him walking out with a box of Dunkin’ Donut Hole Treats dubbed Munchkins.

• Scarecrow, Tinman and Lion are life-size puppets carried and voiced by Kennedy, Connerty and Hagendorn.

• When an image of the Wizard is projected on the screen to Dorothy and her friends, it’s not Harding’s face, but an unexpected character that may be familiar to those of a certain age.

A couple of concerns about this intentionally cheesy, hilarious production:

• I sat in seats on the side of the theater in front of a speaker that was playing the recorded accompaniment. At times, such as parts of the early Kansas scenes, it was difficult to hear the actors above the music.

• Because the accompaniment is recorded, the live singers don’t have a conductor to watch. At one point, the first word in “We’re Off to See the Wizard” was sung too long as they waited for the recording of the song to start.

If you go off to see this “Wizard,” watch and listen closely to spot all the punny lines, sight gags and enjoyable performances. What “Airplane” was to disaster movies, this “Wizard of Oz” is to the original 1939 film. It’s Toto-ly fun.

• Paul Lockwood is a local theater actor, singer, Grace Lutheran Church (Woodstock) and Toastmasters member, columnist and past president of TownSquare Players. He and his wife have lived in Woodstock for over 23 years.

IF YOU GO

• WHAT: “The Wizard of Oz”

• WHERE: PM&L Theatre, 877 Main St., Antioch

• WHEN: Through March 3

• INFORMATION: pmltheatre.com, 847-395-3055