The Wizard of Oz

I was really looking forward to seeing Tom Whalley’s Wizard of Oz and to see what the Panto People did with it – I was not disappointed!

Before the show opened, there were members of the chorus selling programmes in costume, already drawing the audience in. Also, literally leading the audience in was the lovely yellow brick road covering the aisle in the audience.

As with the MGM blockbuster, the show opened in black and white but that was the only absence of colour, the opening number was Footloose and the dance routine was full of life and energy with dancers tumbling across the stage.  The vocals were very strong and with very pretty harmonies,  it was a brilliant opening.

The black and white costumes were really effective and these included a team of chickens and cows being milked in the first scene. The set was also effective with the picket fence and opening to the  bunker and the front of the Gale’s house. The house was rather cleverly hinged and I suspect it reappeared, repurposed, later on in the show.

Dorothy is in traditional costume and her first song is a very sweet ‘Astonishing’ which the audience enjoyed. It’s always interesting to see how the company will manage the Toto character, and this group opted to go down the incredibly cute option of a young lad playing the part with absolute concentration throughout, he was excellent. Uncle Henry and the farm hands Hickory, Dickory and Doc were full of fun and Aunt Em, also the Dame entered to Abba’s Does Your Mother (Auntie) Know with an entertaining broom dance.  

Characters firmly established, (including the clearly evil Miss Gulch), the weather changes and the imagination of the director was on full display as the stage is swept with the dancers who usher out Kansas with their dance of the twister.

As we arrive in the gorgeously colourful Munchkinland, the stage lights up with the munchkins and their mashup of We Built This City and We’re Not Gonna Take It, there were some lovely performances from the munchkins, particularly their retching reaction to the demise of the Wicked Witch of the North which was very comical.

Glinda (formerly auntie Em) then arrives in a cloud of bubbles and smoke and the Munchkins send Dorothy off to the Emerald City to another Oz film’s sounds of Ease on Down the Road – inspired choice.

This was a show with lots of memorable moments, one for me was the introduction of Scarecrow. The lights came up to an extract of Grieg’s Peer Gynt heralds the arrival of dawn and there, in the rising sun is Scarecrow ready to climb off his perch. It was a lovely enriching moment and the lighting and scenery as well as sound were perfect. The dancing crows were very funny and one or two of the actors had really put some work into the mannerisms of the bird population with some lovely results.

Scarecrow was a lovely character, a very physical part as the creature of straw and he had a lovely solo Think and although he carried it beautifully I feel it would have been fun to make a backing group out of the crows. The Tin Man also sang a fabulous solo, I Wanna Know What Love Is which the audience really enjoyed.

This was a strong cast, Dorothy a confident and highly competent performance with some good vocals, her talented team of Toto, Scarecrow, Tinman, the lovely, funny scaredy cat of a Lion and the wickedly funny Glinda were all very entertaining and worked well together.

The Wicked Witch of the West was deliciously evil and this was a really enjoyable performance as was her Monkey sidekick who brought real personality to Winkie the Monkey.  The Wizard was also a nicely played character.

The Chorus of Trees, Munchkins, Poppies, Ghosts, Dancers, Emerald Citizens were full of energy and created a superb foundation for the stunning song choices and imaginative choreography.

The backdrops were superb, beautifully created and the costume department is (frankly) enviable!! This show glittered with the imaginative and extravagant costumes, including (as I have mentioned before) the Dame’s (Em and Glinda) incredible wigs.

What a superb show, Panto People – congratulations!
 

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