This ‘Wizard of Oz’ transports the audience

Unerring audience regard accompanies Civic Light Opera of South Bay Cities’ “The Wizard of Oz,” initiating the beautifully renovated Redondo Beach Performing Arts Center with a ha-ha-ha, a ho-ho-ho and more than a couple of tra-la-las. This impressively executed revival of the Royal Shakespeare Company adaptation of the 1939 MGM film is sure-fire family entertainment.

The show was a gold-plated hit in 1987 at the Barbican Theatre and again in its 1988 U.S. premiere engagement starring Cathy Rigby at Long Beach Civic Light Opera. RSC producer John Kane’s scenario follows Noel Langley, Florence Ryerson and Edgar Allan Woolf’s screenplay (from L. Frank Baum’s original novel) almost to the letter.

Stuck in a sepia-toned Kansas of epic flatness, schoolgirl Dorothy Gale (Juliana Ashley Hansen) yearns for a place “where there isn’t any trouble.” With a boost from a cyclone, she, her dog, Toto (Snickers, a canine virtuoso), and the Gale family farmhouse travel over the rainbow to the Land of Oz.

Flattening one wicked witch upon landing, Dorothy must dodge her accidental victim’s vengeful sibling (Carol Swarbrick) while seeking out the title character (S. Marc Jordan) for help in returning to Kansas. Aiding her are the Scarecrow (John Bisom), Tin Man (Chad Borden) and Cowardly Lion (Bob Amaral).

Under director-choreographer Jamie Rocco’s solid guidance, this may be the slickest production this company has yet mounted. The designs of Michael Anania (sets), Raun Yankovich (lighting), Gregg Barnes and Shon LeBlanc (costumes), Deanne Johnson (hair and wigs) and Bryan Wiersma (makeup) follow the film’s template without being slavish.

Special effects -- flying by ZFX, pyrotechnics by John Bordeaux -- are a textbook demonstration of old-school theatricality done with digital-age finesse, as is John Feinstein’s sound plot (greatly aided by the venue’s vastly improved new acoustics). Musical director Steven Smith pulls Broadway-worthy sounds out of his players, doing full justice to Larry Wilcox’s smooth orchestrations of Herbert Stothart’s background score and Harold Arlen and E.Y. Harburg’s songs. These include the show-stopping “The Jitterbug” and the emotional eleventh-hour reprise of “Over the Rainbow,” both cut from the movie.

Hansen’s Dorothy wisely avoids imitating Judy Garland while maintaining comparable earnest wonder and a water-clear voice of infinite charm. Bisom’s affable Scarecrow is suitably rubber-limbed; Borden’s acerbic Tin Man is agreeably brittle; and if Amaral’s leonine crybaby overdoes the anachronistic shtick, he carries the audience in his paw throughout.

Jordan’s sorcerer is expert, as are Doug Carfrae’s Uncle Henry and Cynthia Ferrer’s double-duty Auntie Em and Glinda.

Swarbrick’s wacky Witch is another audience favorite, although here as elsewhere the excessive emphasis on broad comedy undercuts the dramatic tension and blunts the stakes. This scarcely prohibits enjoyment, though, and certainly the young at heart to whom the show is dedicated may find it difficult to avoid singing along.

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‘The Wizard of Oz’

Where: Civic Light Opera of South Bay Cities, Redondo Beach Performing Arts Center, 1935 Manhattan Beach Blvd., Redondo Beach

When: Tuesdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 7 p.m.; Saturdays-Sundays, 2 p.m.

Ends: Dec. 22

Price: $35-$50

Contact: (310) 372-4477

Running time: 2 hours, 10 minutes