Well, I am just going to go ahead and say it. This performance was f****** terrible. I include that curse with purpose because the performers could not seem to get enough of using it. It does not look very professional in writing; try listening to it for an hour. My first complaint. Swearing has a time and a place and can be very effective when needed. However, that was not executed here. 

At first, I had high hopes for this performance upon walking in. The pre-life execution was excellent. There was creepy background music; think Freddy vs. Jason or Halloween style with some additional moaning incorporated. Seated at center stage was what appeared to be the (scarecrow?) cradling and stroking a dead fish menacingly. Promising, I know. When Dorothy came out on stage being played by a man, I was excited about the new spin. I thought it was going to be refreshing… and then he started speaking. And then the show started progressing. I think that the only way I can describe it is to think about yourself taking LSD and then watching the Wizard of Oz on a bad trip. It sounds horrible, but it is the best comparison I have. Think Oz gone crazy. Oz gone mad. Oz gone dystopian. 

The plot follows Oz as if it were in a dystopian society. Dorothy and her friends never found and defeated the Wicked Witch of the West and they were abandoned by the Wizard himself. Dorothy still has not made it home, and everybody holds resentment against each other for not being able to find the Witch and defeat her. Now, they’re on the Yellow Brick Road eating the innards of a rabbit (the sound of chewing guts included) and arguing with each other. Incidentally enough, I sat in the first row closest to all of them and it truly felt like the arguing was directed at me. Exploring deeper, this may be because the actor and actresses did not intertwine themselves with each other. They did not bounce off of each other like in some other performances I have seen. It was low energy, but loud screaming to compensate for it. In some parts throughout the performance they did audio from the original movie with spooky music in the background of that. Toto did not have dog barks for communication, but rather a human-robot voice. Also, imagine Toto not as a dog, but as an animal from a Tim Burton movie on the stage. Creepy, I know. You should have seen the eyes. 

After the performance, I instantly remember thinking, “Well, there goes another childhood movie ruined for me.” I was sad to say goodbye to such a special movie I held dear to me for so long. This performance had so much potential. I would have loved to see a horror version of The Wizard of Oz! Horror doesn’t need to be disgusting and distasteful, which is exactly what I found this to be. The theater company had its own merchandise and website. That helped build their ethos significantly. Lesson learned: You do not need to have talent to be established. I most certainly would not see this again, nor would I tell anybody else to.