‘Wizard of Oz’ a glorious musical journey for all ages at Chicago Shakespeare

Almost 120 years after L. Frank Baum changed the world of children’s literature with “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz,” the adventures of Dorothy Gale remain as vibrant as ever. In John Kane’s musical adaptation of the 1939 movie musical inspired by Baum’s 1900 novel, Chicago Shakespeare has a joyous, captivating production.

For starters, Harold Arlen’s and E.Y. Harburg’s music and lyrics remain catchy and resonant. Are we all not — to quote Dorothy Gale — looking for “some place where there isn’t any trouble”? Has it ever been easier (per the Scarecrow) for “people without brains [to] do an awful lot of talking”?

Directed by Brian Hill with music direction by Kory Danielson, This “Wizard of Oz” has heart, brains, courage and spectacle enough to keep youngsters dazzled and their minders impressed. When Dorothy (Leryn Turlington), the Scarecrow (Marya Grandy), the Tin Man (Joseph Anthony Byrd) and the Cowardly Lion (Jose Antonio Garcia) set off to follow the yellow brick road, you’re happy to journey along.

The journey begins, of course, in the black-and-white Kansas farm of Dorothy’s Aunt Em (Emily Rohm, double-cast as Glinda) and Uncle Henry (Jared D. M. Grant, who also turns it out as a singing, dancing Emerald City Guard). A twister sets Kansas spinning, and soon Turlington’s intrepid Dorothy has plunked down in full-color Munchkinland, crushing the Wicked Witch of the East on impact and eliciting the awe and admiration of the Munchkins and Glinda the Good Witch.

Hill’s take is familiar and full of clever innovations. In Kansas, the only color in a sea of black and white is the blue-checked gingham dress on Dorothy’s rag doll. Costume designer Theresa Ham gives the talking, magical apple trees slinky trunks and befeathered branches that wouldn’t be out of place in the Ziegfeld Follies.

Mike Tutaj’s vertiginous projections, Lee Fiskness’ dramatic lighting and Scott Davis’ set (including a dollhouse farmhouse that hurtles through the air with impressive velocity) make the iconic twister spectacularly destructive. The ensuing wonderful world of Oz is a barrage of color, from the crimson poppies dripping down like psychedelic rain to the Emerald City’s gleaming greens.

Liz Lauren

With sound designer Christopher M. LaPorte, Tutaj and Fiskness collaborate to make the Wizard (William Dick, also marvelous as Kansas’ travelling fortune-teller Professor Marvel) seem truly great and terrible — at least until he’s unmasked as a humbug.

Dorothy and her companions are the squad you want to join you on any journey. Turlington brings wistful depths to “Over the Rainbow.” Grandy infuses her intuitive, intelligent Scarecrow with a hint of the late, great Jimmy Durante. Byrd’s tender-hearted Tin Man is a mix of yearning and unshakable loyalty. Garcia’s Lion has courage enough to take on any witch, even if he doesn’t believe it himself.

Dorothy wouldn’t get far without Glinda, who Rohm makes an understated master of shade. Her delivery of “Now begone! Before somebody drops a house on you too!” deserves to be a viral meme.

Also meme-worthy: The moment Hollis Resnik shows up as the Wicked Witch of the West, backlit by jagged spikes of lightning, manically cackling over thunder of Biblical proportions and demanding to know “Who killed my sister?” All reverence to Margaret Hamilton, but this is a role Resnik was born to eventually play.

There is one significant drawback. “Courage,” the Cowardly Lion’s big number from the movie, is missing. Lyrically (“What makes the elephant charge his tusk, in the misty mist or the dusky dusk? What makes the muskrat guard his musk?”) it’s a gem far superior to the lesser “Jitterbug,” (not included in the the movie) when Dorothy and friends fall under a dancing spell.

But even in the absence of “Courage,” the production (background music by Herbert Stothart, orchestrations by Larry Wilcox) is as solid as a brick, yellow or otherwise.

Kenny Ingram’s choreography is fabulous, both in his callbacks to the movie’s signature moments (The “Winkies March” and their menacing “O-ee-yah, e-oh-ah!”) and his original moves (the jubilant gymnastics of “Ding Dong, The Witch is Dead”).

Liz Lauren

At a taut 75-minutes, the “Wizard of Oz” has everything you want from young adult theater. It stays true to its beloved source while making Dorothy’s adventures evergreen.

Spoiler alert: If you are unaware of the fate that befalls the Wicked Witch, stop reading. Otherwise know this: The specter of Reznik melting into a puddle of billowing, bodiless lamentifying squalls will make you wish someone would do a sequel about what happens to her next.

Catey Sullivan is a local freelance writer.