The Wizard of Oz at Asheville Community Theatre

What could be better than a stage full of Munchkins? Asheville Community Theatre’s new production of The Wizard of Oz brings together a true cross-section of our community, including a dozen or so enthusiastic youngsters portraying the little people familiar from the classic 1939 MGM movie musical, from which the stage show is adapted. All the Munchkins you know and love are there: the coroner, the Lullaby League, the Lollipop Guild and their animated leader, the Mayor (played by the super-energetic Henry Cowan).

And who’s this limber guy in the golden suit stepping smartly into Munchkinland? He’s the nonverbal spirit of the Yellow Brick Road (effervescent dancer Javon Brown), who — in the absence of an endless road of bricks — will lead Dorothy to meet the Wizard in the Emerald City. (He’s dubbed “Roadie” in the program.)

Audiences need to bring not only their fond memories of the movie but also a willingness to see the cinema magic translated into new characters who accomplish onstage what special effects and elaborate sets achieved onscreen. For example: a trio of apple trees (much sassier than those in the film), a field of dancing poppies, three nattily dressed and gleeful crows to needle Scarecrow, and so on. Another stage bonus: the grand “Jitterbug” production number, a dance scene filmed for the movie but cut out (the footage was subsequently lost).

With a limited capacity to create its usual sumptuous sets, since the locale changes every few minutes, the backdrops here are colorful and evocative without great detail, and the show relies more on its performances than on scenery. To that end, ACT has found a worthy Dorothy in Faith Creech, a 15-year-old from Burnsville, who’s thoroughly at home in the limelight and who makes the songs her own, easily bringing the audience along and setting aside reflections of that Judy person. (Her Toto, an actual pup who seemed agog at every moment, was also fun to watch.)

Dorothy’s three chief companions — Scarecrow (Dillon Giles), Tin Man (Mark Jones), and Cowardly Lion (John O’Neil) — are inspired by the movie actors’ performances to varying degrees, and to worthy effect. O’Neil layers his own rambunctiousness atop the Bert Lahr template and turns one of the movie’s less iconic numbers, “If I Were King of the Forest,” into a highlight of Act Two. He’s a scene-stealer, and the audience loved him on opening night.

Another scene stealer, appropriately so, is Missy Stone, playing Miss Gulch and the Wicked Witch with just the right touch of camp, since the stage witch has a dose of Witchiepoo self-awareness that Margaret Hamilton’s villain did not. Even her “liquidation” is staged to earn an extra giggle.

It’s not possible to mention every enjoyable cast member in this short review, but a couple other standouts include ACT newcomer Jared Wise, who’s funny and sweet at the Emerald City guard, and Ashleigh Phillips, who plays both Aunt Em and Glinda the Good Witch with charm and authority.

Director Jerry Crouch clearly kept in mind the family audiences expected at Wizard, softening some of its scarier edges — for example, turning the Witch’s guardsmen, the Winkies, into comic relief during Dorothy’s imprisonment. The show strikes a nice balance between the quasi-professional quality we expect from ACT and the inclusiveness of a true community production. Not every performance is smooth or suave, but all are sincere and smile-inducing.

Dancing is much more prevalent than in the movie, with songs such as “The Merry Old Land of Oz” that zip by with barely a notice onscreen becoming elaborate, often exciting production numbers. Choreographer Alexa Edelman has tailored her work to the range of abilities in the cast, but when true hoofers like Giles or Brown are centerstage, she goes all out (and so do they). Kudos also to dance captain Jacob Walas, responsible for much of the training of the nonprofessional cast.

The effort that went into this show is hard to imagine. Eighteen people are listed just under “costume construction,” working with costume designer Carina Lopez on a countless array of colorful outfits that continue to dazzle scene after scene. That also doesn’t include the ton of impressive makeup effects (which have to go on and come off during the run time), led by Sydney Blair; those versatile and mobile sets by Jill Summers; a gazillion lighting cues supervised by designer Rob Bowen; countless props — the Tin Man alone needs a hatchet and a heart — by Jean Fulbright; and sound design by Adam Cohen.

Opening night included a few brief sound flubs and a couple special visual effects that weren’t quite polished. But the music never flagged, with the talented but unseen live band playing nearly nonstop under the baton of musical director Sarah Fowler. The Wizard of Oz movie was a musical, certainly, but The Wizard onstage is a MUSICAL. It may take more imagination on the part of the audience to envision the wonders of Oz, but its immediacy is its own sort of spectacle. Or, as the people of the Emerald City sing it, “We give the roughest claws / That certain air of savoir faire / In the merry old land of Oz.”

The Wizard of Oz runs through October 27. For details and tickets, visit ashevilletheatre.org.

(Photo: Studio Misha Photography/Courtesy of Asheville Community Theatre)