In the last 20 years, pop culture parodies have won a strong following among St. Louis theatergoers. Cherokee Street Theater Co.’s latest entry in this category, “The Wizards of Oz(es),” is one of the most ambitious and one of the best. The delightful play was a headliner at the 2026 St Lou Fringe.
As the parentheses in the name suggests, “The Wizards of Oz(es)” is a spoof of more than one Oz story. The play begins in typical Cherokee Street fashion with a sendup of the opening scene of the classic 1939 film of “The Wizards of Oz” starring Judy Garland. The movie is so well known that few viewers will miss the humor here.
Cherokee Street strikes out in a new direction after a tornado picks up the Gale family’s Kansas farmhouse and drops it on top of Oz’s Wicked Witch of the East. Another Dorothy soon appears—the one who was transported from New York to Oz in “The Wiz,” which premiered on Broadway in 1975 and in movie theaters in 1978. The two Dorothys are then greeted by a witch from another OZ adaptation. The word mashups in her vocabulary identify her as Glinda from “Wicked,” a 2003 musical and a 2024-25 film.
Playwright Rob McLemore adeptly exploits the opportunities for humor in the interaction between Oz characters from different adaptations of L. Frank Baum’s original book. McLemore and Suki Peters jointly devised the story. Peters wrote the lyrics to the clever song parodies.
Near the halfway point, the play introduces a third Dorothy—one who has already been to Oz and is returning. She is the main character in “Return to Oz,” a 1985 film adapted loosely from some of Baum’s sequels to his first Oz book. The loosest part of the adaptation is that returning Dorothy is sent to a sanitorium for shock therapy to rid her of her delusions about Oz. She escapes during a storm and wakes up back in Oz.
I was not familiar with “Return to Oz” before seeing the parody, but this gap in my preparation was less damaging for “The Wizards of Oz(es)” than for other pop culture parodies I have seen. I did not recognize some of the characters and references, but the script was very entertaining on its own. I was particularly impressed with Glinda’s use of her hula hoop as a television-like screen to show returning Dorothy’s backstory to her namesakes.
Under Peters’ direction, the experienced Cherokee Street cast turned in fully committed, thoroughly enjoyable performances. The splendid actors and their roles were:
| Payton Gillam | Kansas Dorothy |
| Ryan Lawson-Maeske | Toto, Flying Monkey, TikTok |
| Katie Puglisi | Aunt Em, Mombi, and others |
| Mic Tayborn | Munk and Scarecrow |
| Rob McLemore | Hickory, Tin Man, and others |
| Luis Gabriel Aguilar | Zeke, The Cowardly Lion, and others |
| Maggie Wininger | Ms. Gulch and the Wicked Witch of the West |
| Patience Davis | New York Dorothy |
| Nancy Nigh | Glinda and others |
| Ted Drury | Munchkin, Billina, and others |
| Ronald Dean Strawbridge | The Nome King, Wizard of Oz, and others |
| Beth Graveman | Returning Dorothy, Mombi Also, and others |
| Stan Davis | Lead Wheeler, Jack Pumpkinhead, and others |
The accomplished creative team included:
- Costume designer Kayla Lindsey
- Sound designer Jeff Roberts
- Lighting designer Bradley Rohlf
- Dance choreographer Maria I. Straub
- Fight choreographer Ryan Lawson-Maeske
- Vocal coach Bradley J. Behrmann
- Graphics, poster, and program designer Stan Davis
- Prop and puppet designers Amy Kelly and Stan Davis
Last year, Cherokee Street produced a play at the Fringe and revived it in December at the Kranzberg Black Box Theatre. I hope the company can find a similar way to extend the run of “The Wizards of Oz(es).” Some of the comic bits are too raunchy for children, but the play would be a holiday treat for mature audiences.
—Gerry Kowarsky
Photo by Robert Crowe
Clockwise from the left, Payton Gillam as Kansas Dorothy, Nancy Nigh as Glinda, and Patience Davis as New York Dorothy in “The Wizards of Oz(es).”
