"There's no place like home." "I'll get you, my pretty ... and your little dog, too!" "Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain." Familiar lines all, from the great and wonderful The Wizard of Oz. The MGM flick ran on TV every year for three decades, yet even those familiar with all the songs and dialogue will find something new in Mum Puppettheatre's rendering of the tale, because director Robert Smythe drew heavily from the original book by L. Frank Baum. Smythe says Mum's production goes back "to an utter fantasy world where it is possible for a scarecrow to be split in half, or there's a lion that talks ... rather than have a man in a lion suit, we have a real lion." OK, not a real lion, but a puppet king of the forest that looks and acts like a lion, as opposed to a human with a mane and tail.

Certain special effects of the film are re-created: "We researched how they created the cyclone and we do exactly what they did in the movie ... it's actually pretty terrifying," says Smythe, who adds that the imaginative set, designed by Jorge Cousineau, is "like the idea of a pop-up book, where something that looks like something one minute kind of expands into something else."

The production is suitable for ages 5 and up, but it ain't just kid stuff—after all, it is part of Mum's evening, not family, series. Says Smythe, "We really think of this as a great night out at the theater."

The Wizard of Oz, Tue.-Wed., May 23-24, 7 p.m., $25-$30 (sold out through May 27), through June 17, Mum Puppettheatre, 115 Arch St., 215-925-7686.