The Yellow Brick Road leads to Pasadena this week and next as Lythgoe Family Panto debuts its latest kids-friendly holiday musical spoof, a seasonally retitled The Wonderful Winter Of Oz.

Like last year’s Beauty And Beast: A Christmas Rose and previous Pasadena pantos A Cinderella Christmas and Sleeping Beauty And Her Winter Knight, The Wonderful Winter Of Oz (written by Kris Lythgoe) carries on the two-century old British theatrical genre known as panto, meaning that audiences can expect an amalgam of a beloved children’s bedtime story, English Music Hall, pop culture references, hit songs galore, a hero/heroine to cheer, and a villain/villainess to boo.

 This year’s heroine and villainess are brought to cheer-worthy/boo-worthy life by 14-year-old reality-TV star Mackenzie Ziegler as Dorothy and Broadway National Tour triple-threat Yvette Gonzalez-Nacer as the Wicked Witch Of The West, with Jared Gertner (of Book Of Mormon fame) eliciting plenty of audience interaction as pun-spouting farmhand Uncle Curly and later, once a December 24 blizzard (the result of climate change) has whisked Dorothy from Pasadena, Kansas to Munchkinland, Oz, as an equally brain-challenged Scarecrow.

 Dorothy’s two other traveling companions—Mad TV’s Phil Lamarr as Tin Woodman and Fuller House’s Juan Pablo Di Pace as The Lion—don’t show up until after Dorothy has been greeted by none other than Best Actress Tony winner Marissa Jaret Winokur as Glinda The Good Witch and set off on a journey to find her way back home.

Longtime panto fans will likely bemoan the absence of the usual man-in-drag (the genre’s requisite “panto dame”), minus whom there is far less of the kind of double-entendre humor that has made the very best pantos as entertaining for adults as for children.

Also missing is a handsome hero for our heroine to fall head over heels for, but hey, Dorothy is just fourteen and she’s got more important things on her mind than romance.

 Fortunately, in Gonzalez-Nacer, The Wonderful Winter Of Oz may well feature the most boo-eliciting villain(ess) ever, thanks in part to her added stage time as between-set-change filler but primarily because the Cuban-American stunner sells power ballads like Imagine Dragons’ “Whatever It Takes” and “Natural” and The Rolling Stones’ “Paint It Black” with like nobody’s business when not showing off violin prowess honed since the age of three.

 There’s also top-billed Kermit The Frog (yes, the Kermit The Frog!) as none other than the Wizard Of Oz himself, more than eager to launch into his signature, Oscar-nominated “Rainbow Connection”; the adorable Pickle C. Irwin, a Toto who is simply too-too cute for words; and last but not least some of the best young dancers in town to put the boogie in “Boot Scootin’ Boogie” and “Boogie Wonderland” and the dancing in “Dancing In The Street,” choreographed to music-video/pop-idol-concert perfection by Napoleon Buddy D’umo and his wife Tabitha A. D’umo, aka Nappytabs, of So You Think You Can Dance fame.

 Gonzalez-Nacer may be the evening’s most scenery-chewing, rafters-reaching stunner, but she’s got competition from the instantly ingratiating Gertner, who not only spouts pun after pun after pun (“My math teacher accused me of plagiarism once. His words, not mine.”) but handles the show’s requisite audience-kids-on-stage interview sequence with aplomb.

 Adding to the magic are the deliciously ditzy Winoker, the delightful LaMarr, a lucky audience child to oil his joints, the one-and-only Kermit, and who other than Argentine charmer Di Pace could sing like the King Of The Jungle and look drop-dead gorgeous even hidden by Lion makeup.

Ziegler’s sweet and spunky Dorothy gets to sing her very own single “Wonderful” as backup dancers Doran Butler, Armando Estrada, Chris Jensen, Jordan Laza, Hailee Payne, and Valerie Rockey prove themselves second to none in fancy footwork.

Completing the tiptop cast are Munchkins Harley Mattews, Lauren Norrix, and Bella Stine and child performers Yasmine Arya, Aaron Chang, Bryanna Fernandez, Josh Guerrero, Maddison Han, and Emmanuel Lewis at the performance reviewed, alternating with Jedd Berina, Brooklyn Bustamante, Cody Copley, Even Hernandez, Lexi Hernandez, and Camaron Steen.

 Perhaps not surprisingly, this year’s panto is one of the most gorgeous-looking ever, the Land Of Oz allowing costume designers Albermarle and Michèle Young, scenic designer Ian Wilson, and lighting designer Chris Wilcox to strut their saturated-color fantasyland stuff, and with musical director/arranger Michael Orland and fellow bandmates Jason Bravo and Brian Boyce providing backup and sound designer Christian Lee ensuring a crystal-clear mix, The Wonderful Winter Of Oz sounds as fabulous as it looks.

Jill Gold is production stage manager and Phil Gold is assistant stage manager.

 Since the Lythgoe family first introduced Angelinos to panto back in 2010 with Cinderella, the genre has quickly become an American holiday staple, with three other pantos currently running in cities near and far. The Wonderful Winter Of Oz is sure to delight tweens and under, and even grown-ups may well find themselves hard-pressed to resist.

Pasadena Civic Auditorium, 300 East Green Street, Pasadena.
www.thepasadenacivic.com

–Steven Stanley
December 14, 2018
Photos: Philicia Endelman

Tags: Los Angeles Theater Review, Pasadena Civic Auditorium, The Lythgoe Family