WIZARD OF OZ

The excellent orchestra, under the tight control of their Musical Director Cathy Sweet, set a full house audience on a journey down the Yellow Brick Road.

Sophie Wilkinson brought her own particular talent to the role of Dorothy.  Her diction was excellent, which is key to this role.  Her delivery of the lib was perfect, as all too often other “Dorothys” have garbled their way through the script and thrown away much of the storyline.  Toto was played by Oscar Gregson - and he stole the hearts of the audience.  He was brilliantly controlled for such a young puppy dog – just gorgeous.

Scarecrow (Will Sadler), Tinman (Jamie Wilkinson) and Lion (Alan Young) absolutely stole every scene as they went on their journey to find a brain, heart and courage. As a trio they complemented each other brilliantly and their comedy timing and delivery of their lines was absolutely perfect.

Glinda (Fiona Lane) and Wicked Witch (Jill Whitehouse) were the most excellent “good witch/bad witch” combination. The audience was most receptive to both performances with gasps of delight to compliment Glinda (and her utterly beautiful singing voice), and plenty of boo’s whenever the Wicked Witch made an appearance!

The line-up for this very talented cast was completed by The Wizard (John Waite), Aunt Em (Shirley Broadbent), Uncle Henry (Raymond Williams) and the Head of Munchkinland (Luke Armitage).  With a supporting cast, a set of dancers and 2 teams of “Munchkins” (I was privileged to see Team Emerald on the evening of my visit. Team Ruby had appeared at the matinee that afternoon, but I’m sure they were equally excellent) – they all had their part to play in Munchkinland, the Emerald City, the Haunted Forest and back home to Kansas.

The costumes were excellent, and I particularly liked the “sepia” effect of the costumes at the beginning of the show, which turned into a riot of colour after “the twister”.  There was clever us of colourful wigs to bring an extra dimension to Munchkinland.

This was an excellent production by Ted Oxley-Kirk, making his directing debut.  It was slick and extremely well cast.

I particularly loved the projections used throughout the show – and with excellent lighting and sound this was a technically tight performance.

Congratulations to everyone on an excellent evening’s entertainment “over the rainbow”!

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