The Wizard of Oz Pantomime

This year’s panto offering from the Bradford Players is an absolute cracker and brings some real colour to shake away those winter blues and a great start to the festive season. After directing the stage show and of course watching the original film I was looking forward to seeing friends and familiar faces perform the Pantomime version.

As Glinda, the wonderful Richard Barran delivered a larger-than-life performance, engaging with the audience as all good dames should. I would say his performance was one of the highlights of the show, but actually there were no highlights as such, as the whole cast brought their A-game to give perfect panto performances.

Julie McGovern as the Wicked Witch filled the theatre with her evil presence – and the boos and hisses were well-deserved. Her sidekick, Winkie (Oonagh Boselli) brought a fantastic comic element, which completed this evil pairing.

As Dorothy, Kerri Anderson barely left the stage and her interaction with all the characters was a delight to watch.

In a nod to the screen version, the story begins in black and white, but there is a burst of colour when the twister hits – not least in the clever use of projection, a new staging element for the Bradford Players but worked very well.

The fabulous comedy trio of Scarecrow (Graham Atkin), Tin Man (Mattew Boselli and Lion (Gerica McMullen) were a delight to watch and when all three came together along with Dorothy and Toto or course went down the Yellow Brick Road delivering wonderful numbers, and a fantastic storyline to young and old in the audience. Congratulations too to Peter Coates who played the Wizard.

Finally well done to the Junior and Senior ensemble who filled the stage as Munchkins, Ghosts, Monkeys and everything else that you can find in the land of Oz. They clearly had a great time being on stage.

There are some key elements to deliver a perfect panto, in my opinion, and The Wizard of Oz at The Bradford Playhouse Theatre had it all.

Corny jokes – tick; audience participation – tick; a delightful dame – tick; a wicked witch of a character – tick… I could go on, but I will sum it up by saying this show, written by Tom Whalley, has it all.

Well done to the production team, Director Emily McCormack, Musical Director Corey Kilshaw and Choreographers Luke John and Jo Taylor in delivering a great show.

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