The Wizard of Oz RSC Version

Written by L. Frank Baum. With Music and Lyrics of the M.G.M. Motion picture score Harold Arlen and E. Y. Hartburg.

This is an almost impossibly HUGE show, firstly hats off to everyone involved in bringing this production to the stage at the Rep, the lighting plot alone was scary. I was reliably informed that this was worked on well into the early hours of Monday morning. It was time well spent, as the lighting was visually stunning, absolutely sublime at times.

A massive credit to the Production Team Keith Ragdale and Ed Costello and all of their back stage staff all of whom are to be congratulated for taking on such a challenging production.

The scene changes came thick and fast, as did the classic songs from the movie, very ably backed by the orchestra under Musical Director Keith Ragdale's direction.

Dorothy played by Katy Ernest really echoed the role made famous by Judy Garland in the film of the same name, she also had a lovely co-star Bella as Toto, it was almost a tie in the cuteness scale between Toto and the Munchkins. Her partners for the journey on the impressive yellow brick, Scarecrow, Sam Harrison; Tinman, Mike Blakemore and Lion, Oliver Bennett all gave great performances helping to reinforce very fond memories of these wonderful tunes.

Katy was very well aided in her portrayal of Dorothy by the rest of the lead characters, most of which played two roles; all performed well. Mrs Gulch/Wicked Witch, the broomtastic Abby Evans was also on the top of her game.

In the early scenes there were some diction issues which seemed to sort themselves out possibly this was first night nerves from the young cast.

There were some great production numbers, Munchkin Land and The Emerald City for example. The Jitterbug standing out in particular in The Haunted Forest scene, which was very well presented and captured the fantasy aspect of this story.

As if bringing OZ to the stage wasn't challenging enough, Ed Costello also had to fight the sound mixing desk, which developed a fault on the radio mic main volume slider, which kept turning itself off, I was very impressed how he managed to pull it off without awareness from the audience, he did this whilst simultaneously operating the lighting desk. Great sound, a really well balanced mix.

Costumes were absolutely spot on. Vibrant and colourful. Great sets.

This was a very challenging undertaking, despite a few technical hiccoughs they really pulled it off well.

 

 

 

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