Gold Standards of Beloved ‘Wizard of Oz’ Conveyed in Tin

The 1939 film version of “The Wizard of Oz” runs 101 minutes. The current touring stage version of the film, which opened Thursday at the Pantages Theatre, shaves only a handful of minutes off that running time. Yet watching it is like whizzing through a videocassette of the movie on fast forward.

With the charm button off.

In its noisy, preprocessed way, the show may get by with its targeted family audience. (After the Pantages engagement it moves to the Orange County Performing Arts Center.) It’d be a shame, though, for anyone of any age to see this version before experiencing the movie. The stage edition’s a lot like the film, which is the idea. Yet it’s made of tin. It hasn’t much of a heart. And its only evidence of “noive,” as Bert Lahr’s sublime Cowardly Lion pronounced it, is the noive it takes to interpolate references to Austin Powers, “The Lion King” and Elvis Presley.

The chief offender on that score is Francis Ruivivar’s Cowardly Lion, who’s practically interchangeable with his less shameless colleagues, Dirk Lumbard’s Tin Man and Casey Colgan’s Scarecrow. (Heaven knows these three aren’t interchangeable in the movie; they’re wonderfully particularized.)

By contrast, Mickey Rooney--top-billed alongside Jo Anne Worley’s Wicked Witch--plays it more or less straight as the Wizard. It’s fun to see this sprightly, game performer again, even in mechanical circumstances. Like the film, Rooney is genuine Americana. He may not do much here, besides pushing the story along and adding some shtick, but he doesn’t buy into the general shrillness.

Nor does Jessica Grove’s Dorothy. Comparisons to Judy Garland are odious, but Grove goes her own modest way. If she overplays pretty badly the final lesson learned--the one about staying in your own backyard--she’s in there pitching, at least.

Worley’s Wicked Witch? Make that Jo Anne Whirly. She spends so much time flying above and across the stage, strapped into that patented Flying by Foy rig, she’s like an Emerald City El-train. I used to see this “Laugh-In” regular, along with various other “Laugh-In” regulars, at the Melody Top Theatre in Milwaukee. She was good. Still is, though you can barely tell here--Worley’s performance is all screaming. Projects such as this “Wizard of Oz” risk giving young audiences the impression that live theater equals screaming, plus over-amplification, minus timing.

It should be reported that opening-night patrons broke into applause throughout the show, even when the Munchkins weren’t encouraging them. “The Wizard of Oz” has generated a universe of goodwill over the last 60 years. Just hearing “If I Only Had a Brain” again, or whichever Harold Arlen / E.Y. Harburg song you happen to love best, compensates for a lot. Nice, too, to hear and see “The Jitterbug,” cut from the film.

In general, though, this bullet train through “Oz” recalls an earlier Arlen / Harburg collaboration. The show’s title: “Hooray for What?”

* “The Wizard of Oz,” Pantages Theatre, 6233 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood. Saturday, noon, 4 and 7:30 p.m.; Sunday, 11 a.m., 2 and 5 p.m.; Tuesday-Friday, 7:30 p.m.; Saturday, noon, 4 and 7:30 p.m.; June 27, 11 a.m., 2 and 5 p.m.; June 29, 7:30 p.m.; June 30, 2 and 7:30 p.m.; July 1-2, 7:30 p.m.; July 3, noon, 4 and 7:30 p.m.; July 4, 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. Ends July 4. $27 to $59.50. (213) 365-3500. Running time: 1 hour, 35 minutes.

Orange County Performing Arts Center, Segerstrom Hall, 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa. July 7-18. $29.50 to $49.50. (714) 740-7878.

Mickey Rooney: The Wizard

Jo Anne Worley: The Wicked Witch

Jessica Grove: Dorothy

Francis Ruivivar: The Cowardly Lion

Dirk Lumbard: The Tin Man

Casey Colgan: The Scarecrow

Judith McCauley: Glinda, the Good Witch

Tom Urich: Uncle Henry and the Winkie General

Music and lyrics by Harold Arlen and E.Y. Harburg. Background music by Herbert Sothart. Screenplay adapted by John Kane, from the L. Frank Baum story. Directed and adapted by Robert Johanson. Musical staging by Jamie Rocco. Musical direction and additional orchestrations by Jeff Rizzo. Set by Michael Anania. Costumes by Gregg Barnes. Lighting by Steve Cochrane. Sound by David R. Paterson and Mark Menard. Flying by Foy. Production stage manager Bill Roberts.