The Wizard of Oz

The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum, with music & lyrics by Harold Arlen and E.Y. Harburg and based on the motion picture owned by Turner Entertainment Co by Warner Bros.

Director Becky North has a great cast for this production of Wizard of Oz. Everyone from the largest part to the smallest, knew exactly what they had to do to get the story across and they worked well together. There is a lot of nice ensemble work. The main characters are well cast.

It's always nice to have a live band and this was perfect, just two for the size of the hall. Musical Director Matt Timmins has worked well with the singing. 

The costumes are just right, bright and colourful, the scenery is effective and props are good. It always amazes me how they fit everything in, well done stage crew. Mary Hyde the scenery artist has painted the backdrop it was quite stunning. 

Some numbers really stood out with lovely, strong singing and dancing, such as the scene with the trees - I really liked that number, also the jitterbug and farewell to Oz. 

With the Wizard of Oz you need a strong Dorothy, and this wasn't a problem, Danielle Morris was lovely in the role, she had good humour and facial expressions, and a very likeable character. There was great chemistry with the three fellow travellers Scott Douglas as Scarecrow, Tom Buxton as Tinman and Steven Reynolds as the Cowardly Lion. They were all perfectly cast in the roles, bringing exactly what you would expect with this show.

Ann Clark was fabulous as the Wicked Witch of the West. She really had us all booing and was perfect with different levels of evil and a great cackle. A real character that you loved to hate.

When the show started we wondered if there would be a dog for Toto. Toto was in fact a puppet, and it really worked, what a great idea. He was puppeteered very well by Angela Gregory. There were times when I just felt myself watching what Toto was doing as he was always so well animated.

There are lots of smaller characters within the show who should also get a mention, as they all played their roles very well, Glinda the good witch was played by Caroline Windsor, Andrew Chappell was the Wizard, Angela Chappell played Aunt Em, Peter Ansell as Uncle Henry, and Oscar Trehane as the Guard and other multiple roles. 

Well done to you all.

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