“Oz” a thrill at Orono

Chances are that if you saw “The Wizard of Oz” last night at the Maine Center for the Arts, you are still somewhere over the rainbow thinking about Dorothy and her dreamland adventures. If you weren’t there, then you missed one of the largest productions ever to take place at the Hutchins Concert Hall. No, this was not a special showing on the big-screen TV. This was Musical America’s tour with Broadwaylike bigness and MGM-style greatness.

More than 35 actors and countless technical tricks brought Dorothy Gale and her Kansas tale to life. The orchestra kicked off the extravaganza — to the point of imitating the MGM lion roar — and Dorothy bounded onto the stage with her little dog, too.

The opening set painted an Indian summer day in the Midwest with tones of gray — just like the opening black-and-white scenes in the 1939 film. Caught in the eye of the storm, Dorothy’s house began to twitch — represented in this version by a miniature model twirling out over the audience. It finally pulled all eyes back to the stage which burst into color with Glinda, the Munchkins and wild sparks of light. As Dorothy said, this wasn’t Kansas anymore.

Indeed, for a full and rambunctious hall of children and adults, this was a magical evening with one of America’s favorite heroines. With the real-live Toto, a seven-person orchestra, masks and body puppets, pyrotechnics and funny double-entendres added to an already wry script, this show was a winner in the annals of family programming at the Maine Center.

But even if you stripped away all the glitz and glamour of this show, the cast was energetic and talented enough to pull it off anyway, particularly the five leads: Kim Smith as Dorothy, Matthew MacDougall as Hunk-Scarecrow, Brad Wills as Hickory-Tin Man, Lennie Watts as Zeke-Cowardly Lion, and the obedient Plenty as Toto. The actors blended their voices beautifully throughout the show and gave an added treat of a totally fun version of “The Jitterbug,” a song written by Harold Arlen and Yip Harburg for the original screenplay but cut from the film.

This stage version, developed by the Royal Shakespeare Company, couldn’t compete with the classic film, but it gave thrills and rapture as it brought the merry old land of Oz to Orono. Three cheers also to the sound crew for making us go no farther than our “own back yard” to hear good theater.