Yes, Dorothy, Toto is a real dog in Tucson 'Wizard of Oz' show

Two years after L. Frank Baum published his 1900 children’s book “The Wonderful World Of Oz,” he brought it to the stage as a musical comedy.

It premiered in Chicago and in 1903, with some revisions, it was on Broadway, where it ran for 290 performances.

Fun fact about the 1903 revision: Toto, Dorothy’s yappy canine sidekick, was replaced by Imogene the cow.

The producers felt it would be easier to fit an actor in a cow costume rather than a dog, and no one at the time was inclined to train an actual dog to play the role.

That won’t be the case when Tucson’s Saguaro City Music Theatre stages “The Wizard of Oz” Dec. 20-Jan. 5, 2025, at Berger Performing Arts Center.

The adorably cute cockapoo Sadie will make her stage debut alongside her neighbor, Olive Garcia Telles, playing the role of Dorothy.

Sadie, whose owner lives next door to Olive, is undergoing intensive work with a trainer, said stage director Drew Humphrey. Since joining the cast in rehearsals early this month, her theater handlers say Sadie has proven to be well-behaved in the midst of the stage hustle around her.

As extra assurance during performances, 15-year-old Olive will dole out treats to Sadie from pockets sewn into Dorothy’s costume.

This is Saguaro City’s first show featuring an animal actor and it’s their biggest production to date. The show has a cast of 47, 28 of them teens and kids from 5 to 12 years old playing Munchkins from Munchkinland.

Veteran Tucson actor Christopher Younggren plays Oz alongside Olive, a Salpointe Catholic High School freshman who landed the role after playing “Fate” in Salpointe’s production of “Hadestown: Teen Edition” in October.

“It was very exciting for us when we were in casting because one of the challenges in hiring Dorothy is (finding) a young teenage girl,” Humphrey said, noting that the role is often “played by someone in their 30s trying to get away with looking like a teenager.”

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“We really thought we struck gold with Olive,” he said.

Olive, who has performed with Arts Express and Kids Unlimited, was around 3 when she first saw Hollywood’s version of “Wizard of Oz” with Judy Garland. She has seen it dozens of times since, she said.

“I was obsessed with it since I was little,” Olive said. “My mom has a clip of me dancing in the living room when I was 3 in my ruby slippers. I just love singing ‘Over the Rainbow.’ It’s a classic.”

Other memorable songs from the show include “We’re Off to See the Wizard,” “Ding Dong the Witch is Dead” and “If I Only Had a Brain.”

While today’s young people might not have much of a relationship with “The Wizard of Oz,” many are familiar with the storyline through “Wicked,” the 2003 Stephen Schwartz musical loosely adapted from Gregory Maguire’s 1995 novel “Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West”; that novel is based on Baum’s original story.

Saguaro City’s production will feature several dancers including Juan Romero Muñoz, Noah Roderiques and University of Arizona ballet dancer Sophie McCutcheon.

Humphreys said the underlying message of “The Wizard of Oz,” of finding your way home, resonates this time of year.

“It is so very familiar and it has a lovely message for the holidays,” he said. “It’s a love story for finding your way home. There’s something for adults of any age to share with a younger generation that may not have been introduced to ‘The Wizard of Oz.’”

Performances are at 7 p.m. Fridays, 2 and 6:30 p.m. Saturdays and 3 p.m. Sundays (except Jan. 5 when it’s 1 p.m.) at the Berger, 1200 W. Speedway, on the campus of the Arizona Schools for the Deaf and Blind. The show runs two hours and 20 minutes with a 15-minute intermission.

Tickets are $26.50-$56.50 through saguarocity.org/tickets.