The Wizard of Oz

While I am very familiar with the musical The Wizard of Oz, it was my first visit to see a production by this youth drama society. I received a warm welcome from the front of house team, and had the pleasure of walking up the yellow brick road to my seat. I enjoyed how the centre aisle was used so much within the show, taking the action up and down within the audience, gave a real sense of arriving at different locations when the characters went onto the stage.

Lola Weaver was delightful as Dorothy, very likeable as a character and hardly ever off stage, she handled the emotional ups and downs, and sang well in Somewhere Over The Rainbow, and when leading Jitterbug. Annie Wise played Auntie Em / Glinda as a mature calming influence, there seemed to be a real fondness between Dorothy and Auntie Em, and as Glinda, Annie showed off her lovely singing voice. Benji Walker was confident in leading the song The Merry Old Land of Oz Guard, though I would have liked him to have been aged up a bit with some theatrical makeup as Uncle Henry. Ava Cullen played both Miss Gulch and the Wicked Witch with the necessary forcefulness, and had my favourite outfit in elegant black velvet. Ava used a piercing drawl voice (quite like Erica in the cartoon Captain Underpants) and it worked well as a contrast to others.

Scarecrow was played by James Hale with impressive stage presence and physicality, when stumbling around and in energetic dancing. With his confident dialogue and clear strong singing voice, he lead and supported others in scenes. Liam O’Brien as Tinman held his character well, and Olivia Thackery as Lion switched effortlessly between faked bravery and genuine nervousness, and did very well with the tricky song King of the Forest. When with Dorothy they were a charming set of friends, and their costumes were spot-on, thanks to the talented in-house costume team. Well done on the super quick change by James, Liam and Olivia back into their Kansas characters for the final scenes.

Although important to the storyline, the role of Professor Marvel / Wizard of Oz is rather small, but Charlie Orchard really sold the ‘well-meaning and likeable humbug’ character, especially in the first half. I must also mention the remarkably intimidating green Wizard head built by the KYDS crew, 6 foot high, with glowing eyes and moving jaw, framed with moody lighting and smoke. Having a background in technical theatre I really wanted to get up close and see how it was made and operated! The distortion effect on the wizard’s voice was a bit too heavy to clearly hear his lines, though I expect that was tweaked for further shows. 

Although this report is too short to mention everyone by name, the ensemble added so much to the show, with some nice character moments within Munchkin Land and the Emerald City, with good energy and a lovely variety of costumes. I particularly liked the pesky crows, the trees with attitude, and the Jitterbug dance routine and costumes. The styling and marching for the Winkies was also very effective. The melting of the Wicked Witch was well handling, nicely creative. And of course, a special mention for the guest performer, Yogi the dog as Toto.

Music was provided using backing tracks, giving useful instrumental music for the scene changes, and worked well generally for the ensemble songs, but proved difficult in terms of timing and pitch for some of the lead character songs. If using tracks in future productions, maybe something to bear in mind is to link up the MD and sound tech earlier, to give the actors more support and preparation time with the tricky parts.

Coloured lighting was used effectively for different characters and to indicate peril, though the front of the stage was often quite dark, maybe due to the position of the bars and stands available to position the lights. Dorothy’s house, with optional witch’s legs, and the hot air balloon were large build items that really added interest to the set, I enjoyed watching the miniature house travel on the zip line during the storm. Congratulations to KYDS on this lovely production of The Wizard of Oz.

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