Written by Isabella Montemurro, Staff Writer
The Kenosha Uni ed School District theater arts program took audiences from Kansas to Oz last month with entertaining music and dance performances in its rendition of The Wizard of Oz.
Despite a few minor mistakes, the production successfully recreated the story of a young Kansas farm girl named Dorthy who is whisked away in a twister to the magical land of Oz. She embarks on a quest down the yellow brick road to nd her way back home while overcoming many obstacles with the help of quirky characters she meets along the way.
From the original book written in 1900 by L. Frank Baum to the iconic lm adaptation starring Judy Garland in 1939, the story with the message of “There’s no place like home” is culturally renowned throughout the world, touching the hearts of many generations.
The KUSD theatrical adaptation featured a large cast starring a number of auditioned younger kids playing the role of the munchkins in the first act. For its second time, a live orchestra pit of Indian Trail band and orchestra students were featured in a KUSD musical here at Indian Trail, the first year being “Ghost” performed back in January of 2019.
Under the conducting of Orchestra and AP Music Theory teacher Kevin Stewart, the pit rehearsed as a group since October to prepare to provide the sound effects and score for the musical as phenomenally as they did.
Another big highlight of the play was a jazz number featuring tap dancing and fast paced choreography called “The Jitterbug.” The entire song and dance number was actu- ally cut for the sake of time from the original 1939 movie but was included and t very smoothly into the storyline of the theatrical performance. It was the most choreographed and lively song in the show and really grabbed the attention of the audience.
As entertaining as the play was, the show didn’t come without its fair share of missed cues, forgotten props and lines, as well as a few minor microphone malfunctions. Some of these little mistakes were more noticeable than others, but the cast did an admirable job of quickly xing and playing off their mistakes.
Seeing that the play was primarily based off of the movie, I was delighted to see that some minor details and aspects from the book made their way into the show as well as a few funny jokes and side comments. The set wasn’t much to behold, as the backdrop screen had some continuity errors when it came to its interactions with the actors, but the costumes and makeup used in the show were spot on.
Overall I’d give the musical four out of five stars.