Wizard Of (Sno)Oz(e)
@phileasphil managed to get hold of some free tickets for a preview showing of the new Wizard of Oz musical at the London Palladium last night and never having been one to look a gift horse in the mouth, accepted his invitation to go along with him to watch it.
I’m not a devotee of the original film, although the wife knows it inside out and can quote pretty much most of it if you let her, but it’s enjoyable nonetheless. The only problem for the wife was that as she loves it then this musical version had a lot to live up to, and ran the risk of ruining the film for her.
Obviously the story follows that of the film, Dorothy ends up in Oz and tries to get back home, meeting the cowardly lion, tinman and scarecrow along the way, defeating the WWotW and meeting the wizard.
While all of the songs from the film are included, there are a lot of other songs that have been written especially for the show by Andrew Lloyd Webber. And listening to them all put together, they just don’t seem to fit together. This is especially noticeable in the darker songs sung by the Wicked Witch of the West. They seem out of place.
The storm and twister sequence where Dorothy gets transported from Kansas to Oz was well done, and was probably the best part of the show. A bit ironic when the best bit of a show is a bit that doesn’t involve any acting from the cast!
Having Michael Crawford on the bill is going to be a big draw for the audience, but his performance wasn’t great, he fluffed his lines occasionally (I guess that’s what previews are for, to help get things right) but his singing voice wasn’t as good as it used to be. Maybe it’s the songs?
Keeping to the film should have been relatively easy but there were bits left out. One thing especially conspicuous by it’s absence was the “horse of a different colour”. A reference is made to it as they approach the Emerald City so you’d expect to see it. But no, it never makes an appearance*.
Overall I was disappointed by the show, it just didn’t captivate me in the same way that other shows have done recently. If you want to see a musical about Oz then go and see Wicked! it is far, far better!
The show will be a big hit, mainly due to the television show “Over The Rainbow” which was used to find the actress to play Dorothy. Kids will no doubt love it but fans of the film should steer clear.
*In the film this is quite an iconic bit, due to the fact that this was the first major motion picture to be in colour and so audiences would have been excited just by this fact, but when they see a horse change colour it would have blown the simpletons away! Despite it actually being three obviously different painted horses!