WHIZZIN’!

Pissing on the Wizard

By JENNA SCHERER

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Margaret Hamilton, Idina Menzel, Mabel King, Miss Piggy—they've all smeared the green stuff on their faces and made with the cackling. It was bound to be Ryan Landry's turn next. Having played every demonic diva from Medea to Blanche Dubois, the Wicked Witch of the West was always in his cards. Or, in this case, the Wicked Witch of the South End.

That's right—a scanty two months after their blood-spurty production of Medea, the Gold Dust Orphans are at it again. Whizzin'! might just be Landry's most ambitious work to date. Not only is the show a blow-by-blow adaptation of the eminently adaptable Wizard of Oz; it's a freaking musical. And it works.

Per usual, Landry messes with the original storyline to hilarious effect. This Dorothy—played by actual girl Megan Love, expertly channeling Judy Garland—lives in a trailer park in Hyannis with her weed-farmin' Uncle Henry and Auntie Em. She's suffering from the urinary troubles (hence the show's title) that are still unresolved when a twister whisks her off to the land of Id.

The Orphans run with this one, of course. Our heroine is greeted by a drug addicted Glinda (Olive Another) and Munchkins with giant felt strap-ons the size of their torsos. Glinda grants Dorothy the ruby panties before sending her off on the Freudian Road—not so much an actual walkway as a giant vagina with teeth. Oh yes.

Of course she'll meet a Scarecrow (the adorable Scott Martino) who's glued to his cellphone, a laptop-toting Tin Man (Tom Terrific) with a cybersex addiction and a Cowardly Lion (Rick Park) who's jonesing for a sex change.

And who could forget Landry's Wicked Witch, all warted up and working it to the utmost. With her band of Sock Monkeys, she's determined to snatch the ruby panties from the virginal Dorothy—even if that means our girl getting plowed by a unicorn. Oh yes. And I'll give you two guesses as to how our incontinent protagonist manages to melt the Witch.

Landry and Billy Hough (who also plays Sigmund Freud) penned some pretty decent musical numbers for this one, competently belted out by the Orphans. Terrific probably has the best singing chops of the lot, and Love gives it her all on a cleverly altered version of "Over the Rainbow." If the instrumentals sometimes overwhelm the vocals, bear in mind that these guys are working without mics.

Costumer Scott Martino proves yet again that he may just be the best costume designer in Beantown with his campy riffs on familiar looks from the 1939 movie. Orphan standbys like Cheri Amour and Afrodite round out Whizzin'!'s talented cast. But the real discovery here is a blissed-out mutt named Rhoda, who spends a good chunk of the show slumped across Love's left arm as a living, breathing Toto.

A fine Orphans vintage, Whizzin'! is silly, smart, eager and plenty irreverent. And if a Dorothy who vanquishes her foes with projectile pee is all too much, you'll just have to get over it. As Glinda says, "Such is the bitchy humor of the Munchkins."

WHIZZIN'!

THU.-SAT., 5.15-5.17, 5.22.-5.24

GOLD DUST ORPHANS THEATRE

AT MACHINE

1256 BOYLSTON ST.

BOSTON

617.265.6222

8PM/18+/$21

GOLDDUSTORPHANS.COM