The Wizard of Oz (Youth Edition)

The Wizard of Oz must be one of the best-known stories in musical theatre, thanks largely to the 1939 film starring Judy Garland, based on L. Frank Baum’s 1900 children’s fantasy novel. Harold Arlen and E.Y. Harburg’s music and lyrics are very familiar and still as catchy and hummable as they ever were. It tells the tale of Dorothy Gale and her dog Toto who are blown by a twister to the land of Oz, and we follow her quest to return home, gathering a Scarecrow, a Tin Man and a Lion along the way, who all feel they are lacking in some respect but discover, by the end of the journey, that they had the qualities they felt were missing within themselves all the time.

For this production by Hayling Youngstars (the junior section of Hayling Musical Society), the set designers, constructers and painters (sorry, too numerous to mention) produced a remarkably simple but effective set, with a cartoon quality to it, beautifully painted, and each piece multi-purpose so that just reversing some flats produced a different scene. The ramps on and off the stage were a great idea, giving the characters somewhere to travel when walking down the Yellow Brick Road. My absolute favourites though were the apple trees. Ingenious.

Ian Pratt and Holly Sandford achieved some wonderful effects with the lighting design, making the stage look every bit as colourful and magical as the film. The costumes were a riot of colour and each one perfect for the scene. They were of such good quality and there were so many of them, I assumed they had been hired in. I was astounded to discover they’d all been handmade – please take big bow Kim, Emily, Maria and Sheila.

Daisy Harkness brimmed with confidence in the key role of Dorothy and swept us all along on the journey through Oz, stunning us with her lovely singing. It was a clever idea for Toto to be a puppet (beautifully made by Lisa Willis) in Kansas, transforming on arrival in Oz into Molly Plavenieks who gave an adorable performance, full of expression (and well done for picking up the dropped crown so discretely!) Evie Van Beers made a wonderful scarecrow, very loose limbed, tumbling around, and Erin Hartman was nicely stiff and squeaky as the Tin Man, while Amos Henson gave a masterly portrayal of the Cowardly Lion, always in character with knees knocking and a characterful voice. All three sang well, blending nicely and keeping in character even when dancing.

Bali Sherrington sparkled as Glinda, in a fabulous dress, every inch the good witch, while Hattie Urwin was perfectly evil as the Wicked Witch of the West, with super makeup. Indi de Vries delighted us with his characterful performances as Professor Marvel and The Wizard. I’m sorry that I don’t have space to mention everyone, because you were all brilliant – you put everything you had into giving a great performance that was full of energy and movement, and you all looked like you were having a great time.

Kim Budd, your imaginative direction made this show positively zing with energy. To be able to take a large group of youngsters, many newcomers to the stage, and bring them to this level of performance is a remarkable achievement – for you and for them! Choreography by Emily Harkness, Kim Budd, Hayley Wallage, Zoe Fisher and Charlie Creighton was superb throughout the show, looking far too difficult for me to manage! My absolute favourite was the Jitterbug – what a spectacular way to end the first act.

The sound qualities of the Community Centre are notoriously troublesome but, under Tom Davison’s control, everything was crystal clear and the balance with the excellent recorded music was spot-on. MD Sarah Jane Brown must be credited for bringing the singing to such a tuneful peak with excellent diction.

This was truly a community production: almost every single person involved with this show – on stage, backstage and the creative team - lives on Hayling Island. As an Islander myself, it makes me very proud to think that so much talent can be drawn from a relatively small population. Please keep up the good work, entertaining us to such a high standard without compromise.

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