We went to see a production of The Wizard of Oz today, at the Children’s Theatre Company in Minneapolis.
These people continue to amaze me. The munchkins were played mostly by munchkins. There were kids who can’t have been over ten in this play, and a few older kids. The CTC appears to be a great place for kids who are interested in acting to get a start on it.
The production values are consistently incredible. I mean, they’re not quite as good as the Guthrie Theatre, but they’re pretty consistently good; in particular, they generally have good special effects. Everyone I know who saw their production of The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins was impressed. The memory stays with me to this day; I still don’t know how they did it, and that’s after they explained it and showed us.
Unfortunately for my readers, this was the last performance of this particular show. There will, however, doubtless be others. If you happen to be in the area, I recommend it as quality entertainment, and a genuinely good idea. If you’ve been ignoring it on the grounds that it’s probably just kids in bad costumes forgetting their lines, you have missed out on some truly incredible entertainment.
I hope they redo Hound of the Baskervilles some day; that was an incredible show, but it was a little spooky for me as a kid.