The 24-hour musical: where silence on the Cohen Auditorium stage is rewarded with raucous laughter and applause from the audience. We’re not in some polished, rehearsed Kansas anymore — we have landed in a raucous, occasionally ad-libbed Oz.
Torn Ticket II, a student-run musical theater group, presents the 24-hour musical every fall, and the show is one of the most highly attended and anticipated theater events in the Tufts yearly theater cycle. Students participating in the production find out the musical they are performing the night before, and they have 24 hours to determine how to perform it for a packed house. The entire show — from lines to cues to choreography to costuming — is scraped together in this remarkably tight timeframe. And the cast, crew and pit have only one shot.
The 24-hour musical remains a mystery to the audience until moments before the show begins, creating a particularly thrilling pre-show atmosphere. The audience buzzes with excitement, many speculating on what show has been chosen by considering popular musicals of the moment or the teaser poster that Torn Ticket II uploads to their Instagram, which this year featured six pairs of shoes in black and white.
The directors, senior Ana Muñiz Rodríguez and junior Clare Eddy, walk on stage and finally reveal 2025’s 24-hour musical to be “The Wizard of Oz.” It was a very trendy choice for a show, given the “Wicked” (2024) film frenzy that has only just begun to peter off. “The Wizard of Oz” is an iconic and timeless story, eternalized in the 1939 film starring Judy Garland. The iconic status of “The Wizard of Oz,” means that much of the audience in Cohen Auditorium is familiar with the story and expects certain beats to be hit. The tweaks and stumbles in Torn Ticket II’s staging of the story are especially apparent — and the show is all the more fun because of that.
The set of the show is, of course, very simplistic; Dorothy’s little yellow farmhouse in the opening is one of only a few pieces. The backdrop is presented in the form of a shifting rainbow of colors, helping to set the mood and establish the setting for each scene. It’s a very bare-bones approach by necessity, which thrusts even more of the spotlight on the performers.
The actors in the 24-hour musical are sleep-deprived, but that doesn’t stop them from putting on campy and lively performances. Dorothy, played by Lily Turcotte-Keen, sings the classic “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” beautifully, starting the show off on a high note. Turcotte-Keen’s Dorothy is also very funny — not only because of her classic execution of the material, but also as a result of her and the rest of the cast’s occasional confusion. The Scarecrow, played by Rocco Santo Pietro, has some especially great physical comedy Santo Pietro pulls off the character’s earnest, bewildered wit well in his portrayal of the character. The Cowardly Lion, played by Maddy McCarthy, is portrayed as especially whiny and self-pitying, a slight twist on his classic cowardice. The Tin Woodman, played by John Paszkiewicz, gives a standout performance — his brittle movements and melodramatic displays are impressively clean and calculated for a show with such a quick turnaround. The ensemble, too, brings a lot to the show — the munchkins, in their ragtag mob formation, have never been funnier.
The version of “The Wizard of Oz” that Torn Ticket II is staging here is likely unfamiliar to most of the audience, being akin to the 1942 Muny Version, which deviates from the 1939 film that forms the collective schema of “The Wizard of Oz.” Most notably, the ruby slippers and Dorothy’s dog Toto play no role at all. The story in this version feels rather rushed and stilted, despite the addition of a few new songs, such as “The Jitterbug,” which features an entertaining ensemble dance number, and “Evening Star,” as well as some new characters.
Much of the charm of the 24-hour musical lies in its makeshift nature. Executions of lines, costumes and choreography are often approximate and have an improvisational feel to them. There is also great creativity on the technical front — for example, The Wizard of Oz, played by Jack Wilan, first appears as a looping, green-tinted video on the backdrop. It’s one of the most effective bits in the show, eliciting the most laughter from the audience.
The 24-hour musical is a real gem of the Tufts yearly theater cycle — raw, alive and spontaneous in a way that painstakingly rehearsed theater just can’t be. The actors, crew, pit band and audience alike lean into these unique circumstances. It’s rare to be able to experience theater in such an ephemeral state, and it’s truly a joy.
