Some children's stories are just classics.  Timeless, imaginative and freakishly memorable.  That's what makes it so fun to see them reinvented by folks who are equally clever.  And there has been some imagination to spare this summer.    For some true perspective on these classic children's tales, I took my 9 year-old to see Wicked (at the Fox through July 11) and OTSL's The Golden Ticket.

The Golden Ticket is musically intricate, with a familiar libretto that made it fairly easy to follow.  For a child's first foray into opera, it was reassuringly recognizable.  Frankly, for an adult it was a little boring -  a friend commented, "you won't come out of it humming any tunes."   Still, I liked it more than I thought I would.  The combination of music and staging created a spectacle.  Crammed onto that little stage, the Wonka factory chugged, wheezed, oozed and gum-dropped musical bon-bons.  Visual eye-candy, literally.  But the marvelous voices assembled felt trapped in the narrative, I wish there had been more moments of musical fancy - and less just singing of the story.

Wicked, is of course, the backstory to the Wizard of Oz.  What I had forgotten was how heavily it actually leans on the story of Dorothy, Toto and the gang to supercharge the storyline.   A 9-year-old who has not seen it a million times on TNT, has a whole different take on what's happening on stage.  It's a much more present show, a simple personality duel if you will.  Just some crazy green chick and a comically spastic blonde dukeing it out for a boy. "One Short Day," resonates more to kids than "Defying Gravity," and it's hard to explain why the Wizard is a power-hungry jerk, and not a wise and kindly goofball who gallantly offers to escort Dorothy back home.    But like Golden Ticket, it's the music and staging that grab young and old alike, only with Wicked everyone walk out humming.