Western Expansion has rarely been as fraught with fun, frolic, and fantasy (not to mention music, dance, and audience participation) as it is in The Trail To Oregon!, the irresistibly entertaining guest production now rib-tickling audiences at the Wisteria Theatre.

If the title sounds nostalgically familiar to anyone who grew up in the 1980s or ‘90s, it should, thanks to the popularity of the educational computer game known from East to West as The Oregon Trail.

Both video game and its presumably unauthorized musical spoof take a typical pioneer family (Father, Mother, Son, Daughter, and Grandfather) on a manifestly destined journey from Independence, Missouri to the promised land known as Ore-gone, Ore-gun, Ore-goon, or Ore-shit depending on what word song writer Jeff Blim rhymes it with in the show’s opening number.

It’s also during “Gone to Oregon” that the audience gets to name the five family members, and at the performance reviewed here, I got to see “Father” Kyle Sanderson as Fart Mankey, “Mother” Sara Neal as Tits McGee, teenage “Daughter” Christina Jardine as Crunch Wrap Supreme, 7-year-old “Son” Annie Chase as Cum Sock, and “Grandpa” Nolan Monsibay as Old Bastard, names repeated again and again during the show and never failing to garner laughs either from the audience or occasionally from the cast members themselves.

Book writers Nick Lang, Matt Lang, Brian Holden, and Blim then take us on a journey familiar to Gen X gamers during which Father wastes the family’s hard-earned funds on a wagon with octagonal wheels, a deformed, blind, and toothless Ox (Benjamin Cross), and ammo instead of food.

Not only that, but disaster after disaster befalls them, not to mention the constant threat of an outlaw known alternately as McDoon or The Bandit King (Cross doing double duty).

All of this adds up to a musical spoof that even folks who’ve never played The Oregon Trail can savor, not the least because Blim’s catchy songs blend outrageous lyrics alongside tunes inspired by pop, rock, country-western, and Broadway.

And since a pre-show vote on who the audience wants to see die isn’t revealed until the musical’s eleventh hour (figuratively speaking since it runs a little over two), neither the audience nor the performers know who’s going to get to chew the scenery in The Trail To Oregon!’s show-stoppingly over-the-top death scene. (Chase’s ill-fated Cum Sock chewed it spectacularly the evening I attended.)

Director Clint Foley and an all-around fantastic cast milk every comedically outrageous moment, and under Bailey Bagheri’s expert music direction, each and every one of them show off vocal prowess along the way with Neal in particular earning cheers for her powerhouse “When the World’s at Stake.”

Performances snap, crackle, and pop like an ’80s video game, from Sanderson’s woefully incompetent paterfamilias Fart Mankey, to Neal’s level-headed family-anchoring Tits McGee, to Jardine’s romance-and-independence-craving Crunch Wrap Supreme, to Chase’s rambunctious, hyperactive Cum Sock, to Monsibay’s wacky, unhinged Old Bastard and McDoon-adoring sidekick Cletus, to production standout Cross in one fabulous featured turn after another, with specials snaps to his gleefully unhinged McDoon and the unfortunately deformed (and outrageously inappropriate) Ox.

Add to that Angeline Mirenda’s high-energy, tongue-in-cheek choreography, Emily Sonderegger’s 1980s video-game-inspired projections, Jack Cox’s deliberately spare set, Momma Sammu’s delicious blend of period and absurdist costumes, and sound designer Xanthe Huynh’s expert mix of amped vocals and the show’s live band (Drew Brown, Ben Ede, Austin Ho, Angel Mendez, Sarah Noel, and Lena Tufenkjian) and you’ve got a production that hits the entertainment bullseye again and again.

The Trail To Oregon! is produced by Jedi Katuala and presented by Up Next Productions. Brittany Bagheri is producing associate. Casting is by Abby Espiritu. Understudy Madeline Hatfield pops in occasionally as Darla. Robert Angell is stage manager and Nyah Vollmar is accomplice stage manager.

Never having played The Oregon Trail (or just about any other video game to be honest), I made sure to do a bit of pre-performance ChatGPT-ing before seeing The Trail To Oregon!, but even if I hadn’t, I believe I would have enjoyed it every bit as much. As for musical theater lovers who grew up playing the game, I can’t think of another show more destined to transport them to musical spoof nirvana!

Wisteria Theater, 7061 Vineland Ave, North Hollywood. Through September 20. See website for detailed performance schedule.
www.upnextprods.com

–Steven Stanley
September 10, 2026
Photos: Brittany Bagheri

Visit www.theatreinla.com/nowplayingrs.php for a review roundup of what’s now playing in theaters around Los Angeles.

Tags: Brian Holden, Jeff Blim, Los Angeles Theater Review, Matt Lang, Nick Lang, The Oregon Trail