 On
a beautiful Sunday afternoon, over 100 people, young and old,
gathered to enjoy a delightful family-friendly program. The
day was beautiful, the sanctuary of the Northwest Hills
United Methodist Church was a large and welcoming space, and
a very good time was had by all. The talents of our Society
members were well displayed in a program devoted to Magic in
many and
various forms. Performers included our Artistic Director, Ralph
MacPhail, Jr., and our Music Director, Jeffrey Jones-Ragona,
along with Carol  Brown, David Fontenot and his daughter Katy,
Dan Girardot and his daughter Michelle, Eva Laskaris, and Janette
Jones. Martha Dudgeon, our Lady High Pianist, played the accompaniments.
The show was put together and directed by Eva and Janette.
There were clever costumes and a few props, and some of the
young girls
in the audience especially enjoyed the ladies’ dresses.
 President Libby Weed greeted us, wearing an enchantingly frothy
pink dress, representing Glinda, the Good Witch from The
Wizard of Oz. She welcomed us to a magical experience
to raise funds to support our June production of Gilbert
and Sullivan’s Iolanthe in the lovely new theater at Travis
High School. Then she turned the proceedings over to “that
excellent Master of Ceremonies,” Chris Buggé,
wearing a green hat. He immediately established himself as
our resident Brit, saying “Good Ahftanoon” in
his charming British accent.
 He told us that we would later enjoy the adventures of Dorothy
and excerpts from The Wizard of Oz. But first he introduced
the Magician, Professor Marvel, with his crystal ball and
fantastic sleight of hand.
Professor Marvel, none other than
Ralph MacPhail, Jr., our Artistic and Stage Director,
then proceeded to astonish us
with his magical tricks, all the time telling us, “Don’t
believe anything I say” and “Don’t believe
anything I do.” He ran through one trick after another,
always demonstrating that “the impossible” was
actually  happening. He repeatedly informed us that after
these sample tricks the magic show would begin. But of course
they
were the magic show. About halfway through his show he began
to invite children from the audience to come up to hold a
rope or a piece of paper, and have it change shape before
their
eyes or mysteriously jump out of their hands. Although this
must have been disconcerting to these brave youngsters, they
managed the situation very well. Perhaps some of them will
later be inspired to learn some  magic tricks themselves.
We all know that Rafe MacPhail is a skilled and knowledgeable
director, and that he is a phenomenal source of information
about Gilbert and Sullivan. It turns out that he is also
a
charming, skilled, and very effective performer.
A pleasant
intermission encouraged us to consume delicious bites of
Pat Hobbs’ best cakes and other munchies, with
a tasty green punch to wash it all down. Then we all trooped
back for the second part of our show, “Act 2, The Emerald
City” -- based on L. Frank Baum’s well-known
story, The Wizard of Oz.
 I
have to confess that although I have seen an amateur staging
of The Wizard of Oz, I am shamefully
ignorant of the movies
and musical versions. However, it is evident that it was
so popular that, like The Mikado, it has inspired
the compliment of imitation and revision, including the hit
currently playing
on Broadway, Wicked, by Stephen Schwartz, and much
earlier, a black version called The Wiz, music
and lyrics by Charlie Smalls. Our show drew heavily on the
original with
seven songs, music by Harold Arlen, and lyrics by E.Y. Harburg.
There were five songs from Wicked, and only  two
from The Wiz. With these songs and dialogue the
cast told the story.
Janette opened, singing the well-known “Over the
Rainbow.” The rest of the cast, Eva, Carol, Dan, David,
and Michelle, entered singing “We’re off to see
the Wizard.” Katy came on representing Dorothy, and
remained on stage throughout, politely listening with hardly
a word to speak. Eva sang “The Wizard and I” and
Carol sang “Popular,” both
from Wicked. Dan did the songs of the Scarecrow
(“If
I only had a brain”) and the Tin Man (“If I only
had a heart”)
and David did a  wonderful
Lion, singing “If I only had
the nerve” and “If I were King of the forest,” all
from the original Wizard of Oz.
Then came the two songs from The Wiz: Janette sang “Believe
in yourself” and all joined in to sing “Ease
on down the road.”
All left the stage as Jeffrey entered
to sing “Wonderful” from
Wicked, with clever comments interspersed: “Back where
I come from people believe a lot of things that aren’t
true --it’s
called History,” and “The most celebrated are
the rehabilitated.” Jeffrey moved upstage as Eva entered
to sing, “Defying gravity,” which began “I’m
tired of accepting limits, just because someone says I must,” from
Wicked. Eva moved  back as Michelle and Dan entered
to sing “For
Good,” also from Wicked -- “I have been changed
for good, because I knew you.” As they moved back,
Carol entered to sing a reprise. “Believe in yourself
as I believe in you,” from The Wiz. And then the whole
cast moved downstage to end the show singing the familiar
refrain, “Somewhere
over the Rainbow,” from The Wizard of Oz. All took
several bows from an enthusiastically applauding audience.
 And
thus ended our show, certainly popular with the younger members
of the audience. But I was left to muse on the apparent
contradictions. A Magic Show delivering the message “Don’t
believe what I say, don’t believe what I do,” followed
by the children’s story of The Wizard of Oz,
and the invitation to our June production of Iolanthe,
where the audience must suspend disbelief -- Theater depends
on that.
Whatever
appears on stage, that is real -- right now. And the delightfully
humorous fairy tale Iolanthe, or the Peer and the Peri --
perhaps that is magical.
Photos by Steve Schwartzman
|
