Reviewing The Wizard of Oz at Theatre Cedar Rapids

 

The Wizard of Oz at the Theatre Cedar Rapids is spiced up by some sizzling performances while being taken down a few pegs by glitzy overly busy lighting effects and a second act that goes on about fifteen minutes too long. The younger viewers around us started getting pretty antsy as the endless and not well integrated Jitterbug and reprise went on and on. The choreography overall was not quite as rousing as the high voltage hoofing in last year’s Cabaret, but still was pleasant enough to keep us involved.

All of the performances were competent while the standouts were well worth the ticket price. My favorite was the sprawling gangly Scarecrow of Jenup Wan and second by a hair goes to the creaky movement and strong voice of James Odegaard’s Lion.  Kudos also to Jessica Link as the nasty Miss Gulch and the Wicked Witch.  Rhylee Larson’s Dorothy had the mature voice of a pro, but I felt she did not quite manage to portray the youthful vulnerability of the Kansas Dorothy as well as she might have or maybe Judy Garland’s performance in the movie was still a haunting presence for me.

 The costumes were spot-on with fanciful touches in hats and hair. I loved it when the apple trees started throwing their fruit.

 Now I come back to the lighting and special effects. Flying actors are always special and this was done with expertise and safety though perhaps it could have been done a few less times to keep it special. This goes for the lighting as well. The jazzy projections were simply not enough to keep me from feeling that the “Jitterbug dance and reprise in the 2^nd act was too long. It was not all clear to me what the dancers were doing for so long or why. In any case I do wonder if the moving projections and wild color changes were overused in the show. The score is more mellow and romantic than frenetic and boom-boom. This “hit em hard” ambiance was also evident in the miking of both actors and orchestra at what I felt was an ear-splitting level. This may be part of the reason I had some doubts about Rylee Larson’s Dorothy. Over-amplification gave her voice a grating harshness at times that was at odds with the tenderness of her character.

My doubts may also be the result of my many years as a play director. I detected a sense of even though the show has plenty of “wow” all by itself, let’s juice it up some more by overusing the special effects until they begin to pale from repetition. Not knowing when to stop is a disease that afflicts actors, directors, and designers as well as gamblers and drinkers.

 In spite of my quibbles, this was a fine afternoon at the theatre and I continue to admire the Theatre Cedar Rapids’ work. They have a fine mix of reliable adult talent both in front of and behind the curtain and they are giving younger performers a chance to work in what is clearly a talented ensemble.

 

   

 

Review McCall Smith Alexander The Private Life of Spies and The Exquisite Art of Getting Even

 

Alexander McCall Smith is like a warm comforter in a chilly room. The last books I’ve tackled, in particular Barbara Kingsolver’s Demon Copperhead, have been stuffed with so much negativity, violence and despair that I was starting to cry “enough already.”  I know the world is a nasty place, but I also need a lighter lift once in a while and McCall Smith is the author who can deliver that. This is not another edition of one of his wonderful series like the Mma Ramotswe No 1 Ladies Detective Agency books. This is a group of droll short stories that illustrate the catch-all title of espionage and revenge. The heroes are pretty kind and the villains more often puffed up with themselves than sinister. As always the vignettes teem with philosophy, history, humor and spot-on character development.   

 

Section one features five stories about espionage. “Nuns and Spies”, for instance, deals with a male German spy in WWII who parachutes into England and ends up disguising himself as a Catholic Nun. It is based on a real but unproved rumor and McCall Smith re-makes the story into a delightfully absurd adventure.  In “Filioque” a young theology student in Rome is recruited by a Cardinal into the dark and secretive Vatican Secret Service—again with some unusual results. 

 

The second half of the book has four stories about various types of comeuppance. My favorite was “The Principles of Soap” a story of an actor/waiter in Australia who manages to strike it reasonably rich with a continuing role in a TV soap opera. Along the way he survives an attempt by a former nemesis and classmate from his old acting school to derail his career and replace him with her lover. The story is filled with fun, coincidences, and plenty of ironic humor about actor training and the theatre business. I liked that one for obvious reasons. 

 

If you feel the need to escape for a time from the horrors of today’s news, I suggest you try a dance in the sunshine with this Alexander McCall Smith collection. It will surely lift your heart and tickle your funnybone. I give this collection a solid 4 out of 5 stars.  

The Overnight Guest by Heather Gudenkauf

 

The Overnight Guest, a 2022 novel by Iowa author Heather Gudenkauf, mines a genre that I personally am getting sick of. Sure, the world has sadistic killers who specialize in binding and torturing women and children, but far too many writers today seem to find this particular horror and the detailed description of its painful and bloody results to be a mainstay.

 When you combine this with another modern writing convention of popping back and forth constantly between times and characters, you have a novel full of already overused conventions.  The plot tells the story of a bloody family massacre that reverberates over many years. It depends on the improbable meeting of two of the victims and continuous descriptions of fear, dread, and violence. Of course, it is “a dark and stormy night in a secluded farmhouse and the power (wait for it) just has to go out etc. and etc. The imprisoned must also pick this night after years of sick torture to try an escape. To be sure there is the requisite final twist at the end, but I remain convinced that you should pick this book up only if you have nothing better to do. I am going back to Agatha Christie and Sherlock Holmes.