Puppets, shadows and a compact cast: CRT’s inventive ‘Wizard of Oz’ is less spectacle, more vaudeville (review)

Cortland Repertory Theater in Preble Michelle Gabel | [email protected] Michelle Gabel | mgabel@syracuse

Those heading down yellow-lined I-81 to see “The Wizard of Oz” at Cortland Repertory Theatre will find a tight, compact, startlingly unique retelling of the familiar tale in a production unlike any other. It’s the exact opposite of what Disney is doing with its fairytale musicals, going full-out spectacle with vast casts and bombastic brio. The CRT show is more like a “Wizard of Odds,” its odds-and-ends aesthetic of found objects repurposed into props, costumes, and set design elements curiously intriguing.

Co-directed and choreographed by Matthew Couvillon and Joseph J. Simeone, the two-hour musical uses puppetry and shadowplay, a revolving caravan centerpiece, and a tiny cast of nine actors who play everything from Munchkins to flying monkeys, Ozians to Winkies. Likewise, Music Director Nicolás Guerrero conducts a minimalist four-member pit, an approach that nonetheless evokes the soundscape of Oz fully and satisfyingly. In brief, this “Wizard of Oz” has the off-kilter feel of Pee-Wee’s Playhouse done vaudeville-style with Art Nouveau references.

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