The Wiz

Thank you for inviting me to report on behalf of Noda at Nailsea Musicals Saturday evening performance of ‘The
Wiz’. Although I am familiar with the background music and story, I have not seen a production of this show
before and was interested to see how it came over the ‘footlights’.
Firstly I must congratulate members of the production team for taking that huge leap from performing to
directing. It is thrilling when you first see your’baby’ come to fruition and hear the applause.
Taking the show at face value one might be forgiven in thinking it’s an easy show… ‘Just an updated Wizard of
Oz’. But remembering that the well known, well loved original has almost certainly been seen by 99% of the
audience as a film on TV every Christmas, ‘The Wiz’ has to convince an audience its worth changing. The
Saturday night audience at the Scotch Horn, were totally convinced, and the well deserved applause must have
thrilled the whole company.
The decision to combine the cast from the adult and youth groups of Nailsea Musicals was clever. You combined
the talents of both groups and gave us a cast that was was wholehearted, and sang and danced with energy and
enthusiasm and this… considering it was the second performance of the day. If, as the night wore on a few of
the much younger cast were yawning and appeared to have ‘had enough’ they could be forgiven and it was all
the more endearing to have included them.

The settings were simple and effective, greatly enhance by the graphics of the moving visuals on the ‘back
cloth’, sadly for the audience, there was a slight system failure in Act 2 which was recovered just in time for us
to see the Wizard fly off in his balloon. The lighting of this show was somewhat problematical…too much light
and you cannot appreciate the back projection, too little light and you can’t see the cast! Also the moveable
spots were very movable. Fixed spots would have allowed the performer to ’find their light’, instead of the spot
chasing the performer!
The movement and dance was perfect for the ability and age of the cast and executed well. I particularly like the
‘poppy field’ sequence - lighting, performance and costume looked most attractive.
The music was a delight (even if there was rather too much bass in the balance), accompaniment was sound and
the cast were musically well rehearsed.
The director had worked hard with a large cast to form good pictures and allowed the story to flow naturally.
The pace was good because of excellent dialogue delivery and also thanks to the many stage crew costumed to
fit into the story.
There were some real ‘stars’ of the evening and I greatly enjoyed the performances of the 4 leading characters,
Dorothy, Scarecrow, Tin Man and Lion. They were all confident and acted with excellent talent and timing much
above their tender years… very well done. The Wizard, played by an adult, gave us a talented ‘big’ performance
and added greatly to the fun of this show.
This warm and friendly company grows in stature every time I see them and I wish success for them in the future
and thank them all for a very entertaining evening.
Thank you for your warm welcome and hospitality.

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