When director Jan Glasband and music director Gary Poirot get together, their aim is not just "Let's put on a show." Rather, it's "Let's put on a good show."

They do the trick with "The Wizard of Oz" with the help of co-director David Daniels, choreographer Kristina Stieffel and vocal director Matthew Park.

Actors' Repertory Theatre of Simi aims high and manages to get an entire community of actors and families involved in a meaningful way. The result is an "Oz" that hits all the essential notes with a Dorothy (Tessa Grady) who can sing, dance and act while holding an amiable pooch in her hands, a trio of cohorts who are amusingly convincing as the Scarecrow (George Kralemann), the Tin Man (Jodi Wurts) and the Cowardly Lion (co-director David Daniels), and a really witchy witch in Kathleen Silverman.

Couple that leading talent with lots of kids who obviously take their performance tasks seriously, and a clever use of screened backdrops and effects, and the result is an "Oz" that works, even if at considerable length as it glides to a conclusion around 10:45 at an evening performance.

With a cast of 31, you might expect some clunkers, but if they exist, they aren't conspicuous. Everybody, including some very young Munchkins, seems to know when to move, and when and how to speak and sing.

Thirteen-year-old Grady is already a professional, which shows. She has a voice that she allows to turn gracefully sweet in the iconic "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" while still full of zest in "Off to See the Wizard" and "Ding Dong the Witch Is Dead." And in a quick dance solo, Grady shows that she's at least as good a dancer as she is a singer.

The hands-down winner in the trio of friends who follow Dorothy to Oz is Kralemann as the Scarecrow, a role in which he does everything right.

Wurts is a sturdy and amusing Tin Man and Daniels enters perhaps too enthusiastically into the Cowardly Lion's faux pugnacious attitude, working for laughs when they'll certainly come on their own. Given his successful directing chores, he probably deserves a little indulgence.

As a final central character, Chris Carnicelli makes the most of his role as super salesman Professor Marvel, and its further mutations.

Some of the dancers are standouts, inevitably including the Jitterbugs, who really go for broke, especially Francis Cabason, who also contributes to the clever Scarecrow scene along with Austin Miller and Chase Snyder.

The result of all the skill and discipline involved is that the show doesn't just draw laughs and applause from friends and relatives; it's a show that everybody can love as long as they buy into the fantasy and charm of L. Frank Baum's story and characters, who find their way home after a marvelous ride.