Re: The Wizard of Oz

Saturday we did two shows and it got kind of interesting.  I thought
for sure we'd do perfect in the evening show having warmed up at the
matinee, but as it was people got punchy and things got silly.  There
were a lot of little glitches besides things SUPPOSED to be funny, in
the form of missed lines and whatnot.  We experienced technical
difficulties, among which were that the flying cow and chickens didn't
go off in the Kansas-to-Oz tornado, so poor Dorothy couldn't say any
of her lines except about the witch.  Then they went off (belatedly)
in the Oz-to-Kansas return sequence!  The Scarecrow *almost* slipped
off his pole before Dorothy could free him--and had to catch himself
with one foot.  There's usually a free-for-all in the tree
apple-throwing sequence, with a few stray apples flying into the
orchestra and becoming lodged in musical instruments, but this time
one of the trees totally nailed another tree!  During "If I Only Had
the Nerve," the Lion is supposed to move at one point to stand between
the Scarecrow and Tin Man.  He didn't do it--then made a sudden move
and this huge swish of his tail cut across the legs of those two and
Dorothy, almost taking out the three of them!  That tail had a mind of
its own--even going up Dorothy's dress once (knowing that Lion, this
may well not have been an accident.)  They must have inhaled WAAAY too
many interesting fumes in the field of poppies, because they arrived
at the Emerald City in a decidedly ditzy state--the Lion was totally
outta control, the Scarecrow and Tin Man had to pull him off a couple
of audience members and I feared for that end of the orchestra (which,
okay, happens to be me.)  Then in the Wizard's Chamber, the Wizard
blew his line about granting their request and the Lion had to arise
from his "faint" to say it.  Some parts, such as the notoriously
difficult "Jitterbug," went exceptionally well and the audience was on
the floor by the end of that and during much of the performance.  As I
said before, the head Monkey has to dump the basket to get Toto to run
away.  He usually accomplishes this with great dexterity, flipping it
quickly while the audience is distracted by the Witch being burned by
the ruby slippers, but this time it didn't flip right and he had to do
it two or three times.  The basket was halfway across the stage before
Toto was out (I was just hoping no activists were watching to call us
in for animal abuse!)  "Toto" really enjoys the attention and does
brilliantly--I swear after doing the same thing a number of times she
is "learning" the role!  In both performances, when the Wizard went to
hand out the prizes, the Tin Man's heart wanted to come out before the
Lion's medal.  At the evening performance he shoved it back and held
it in the bag as he extricated the proper one.  Then when the heart
came out, instead of the usual healthy "tick-tick-tick-tick" it went
"tick...tick...tick" with a long laboring pause between each.  Lion
couldn't resist saying, "I think you need to get that checked, Tin
Man."  On the balloon takeoff, the guard let go of the rope before the
Wizard could say "Don't let go of the rope," so the Wizard grabbed the
rope himself.  After Dorothy returned to Kansas (with the out-of-place
sound effects,) when the Scarecrow went to throw a blanket around her
it could clearly be seen to read "Gonzaga University."  "Next time get
one that says WSU," someone quipped afterwards.  The orchestra and
chorus, I think, were better than they have ever been, and the
applause was absolutely tremendous!  We'll see if it gets this
interesting tomorrow.