United Kingdom The Wizard of Oz: Cliffs Pavilion, Westcliff-on-Sea, Essex, 21.2.2024. (JPr)

A run of very fulfilling exhibits on the Cliffs Pavilion or close by Palace Theatre needed to finish someday and it did with this dreadful adaptation of the traditional 1939 MGM model of The Wizard of Oz with its music by Harold Arlen and lyrics by E. Y. ‘Yip’ Harburg and starring – as when you didn’t know – Judy Garland. It was based mostly on L. Frank Baum’s 1900 youngsters’s fantasy novel The Fantastic Wizard of Oz. As an introduction within the programme suggests, as a result of Baum’s story has ‘common themes of human existence – the everlasting wrestle between good and evil and the will to discover a higher place to be – it’s hardly shocking that The Fantastic Wizard of Oz has been interpreted for stage, display and tv many instances.’ Absolutely, it can’t have had an adaption earlier than that has so little respect for the supply materials. (I come to this having by no means learn something by Baum or seen the 1939 movie during, however I’ve seen sufficient clips through the years to make me virtually consider I had seen it.)

My mistake was to not discover – though this Wizard of Oz dates again to 2011 – (Lord) Andrew Lloyd Webber’s title hooked up to it, not solely in adapting it with Jeremy Sams but in addition offering music for some new songs to lyrics by (Sir) Tim Rice. Anyone who has seen and heard any musical with phrases by Tim Rice will recognise his (over-)acquainted use of rhymes within the new songs and a verse from Professor Marvel and Dorothy’s ‘The Wonders of the World’ ought to suffice:

There’s outdated popacatepetl
New York Metropolis, glass and metallic
Everest unconquered mountain
Over 5 miles excessive and countin’.

Certainly, there are too many songs now and never sufficient left of the story.

Final Christmas Joe Pasquale ditched most of J. M. Barrie’s timeless story of Peter Pan’s adventures and created an end-of-the-Southend-pier-style pantomime selection present for the Cliffs Pavilion. You possibly can anticipate that as a result of it was Christmas and that will be the best time of the 12 months for this Wizard of Oz. It now lacks lots of the fantasy components, a lot of the ‘coronary heart’ (!) and even the real sense of peril of the unique story of Dorothy and her canine being swept away from their Kansas house by a twister and discovering themselves within the magical land of Ouncesshe has dreamt up inhabited with characters that are variations of these in her actual life. When Dorothy and her new mates combat the now non-Flying Monkeys and the opposite minions of the Depraved Witch, I anticipated the viewers to have the sponge rocks you get to throw on the pirates in Peter Pan. As a result of she was simply an out-and-out pantomime villain goodness is aware of why these within the Cliffs Pavilion (together with many younger youngsters) by no means booed the Depraved Witch each time she got here on to the stage. Add in all of the puns, in-jokes and innuendo (The Cowardly Lion reveals how he’s a ‘good friend of Dorothy’) and pantomime has returned to the Cliffs Pavilion ten months early!

Lloyd Webber clearly wants one thing to earn him cash due to his diminishing West Finish field workplace returns in recent times; keep in mind Cinderella (or because it was equally unsuccessful on Broadway, Unhealthy Cinderella) or the revival final 12 months of Elements of Love, each ending their runs prematurely. The one actual cash spent on The Wizard of Oz – any star turns however – was on the embellished and vibrant costumes however look out for The Scarecrow’s ‘false arm’ scene after I would have anticipated one thing extra lifelike in a faculty play.

Most of this Wizard of Oz is in 2D and we’re endlessly made to observe Douglas O’Connell’s unsophisticated video projections that are akin to a steampunk online game and certainly the stage really appears to be like like a big pc display. It takes us from rural Kansas of the Despair period by the oil fields despoiling the panorama to Ouncess Emerald Metropolis which is part-Las Vegas, part-Occasions Sq., and alongside the best way there’s each doable use of ‘Oz’ resembling Ozdonalds, Ozbucks and Ozzo fuel stations. There are only a few props in a present lasting lower than two hours (excluding an interval). Following the Yellow Brick Street is botched by arrow-like platforms being pushed about by members of the ensemble in what restricted area there was obtainable onstage. And what about Toto, Dorothy’s canine, which Ms Gulch/Depraved Witch detests a lot; right here it’s a cute puppet completely dominated by Abigail Matthews who manipulates it. It doesn’t work, although I’m not positive what would. And what about these Munchkins, we all know what they’ll’t be within the 2000s, however what they’re now I had no concept.

RuPaul’s Drag Race UK first season champion The Vivienne because the menacing Depraved Witch zaps with an upgraded broom anybody who annoys her; nicely, that’s everybody together with me as a result of she shouts an excessive amount of. (In fact, the broom seemed like a piece of exhaust pipe you may see deserted on the facet of the highway.) The Tin Man (Marley Fenton) and The Scarecrow (Benjamin Yates) have been reimagined and never for the higher while Nic Greenshields’s The Cowardly Lion channels Bert Lahr from the well-known movie and proves the perfect of Dorothy’s three companions. The always-watchable musical theatre veteran Gary Wilmot is wasted as Professor Marvel/The Wizard nevertheless it’s a job and I don’t begrudge him – and all the very hardworking, all-singing, all-dancing solid – that. They’re supported nicely by a small band of ten underneath musical director Iestyn Griffiths, although I believe a few of what we heard was pre-recorded.

As a musical The Wizard of Oz wastes its most memorable music, ‘Over the Rainbow’, throughout the first ten minutes though it was splendidly sung by thrilling new expertise Aviva Tulley who was excellent as Dorothy and possibly too good for this present. One other standout efficiency was Emily Bull doubling as Aunt Em and Glinda, the Good Witch of the North, seen whizzing about in Barbie-like pink and on a equally colored scooter. Bull’s hovering vocals throughout ‘Already House’ ushers in Dorothy’s return from Ounceswhen – in the one actually efficient scene of the night – she bids a poignant goodbye to her mates, faucets the heels of her iconic crimson sneakers collectively, saying ‘There’s no place like house’, 3 times. If solely I may have gotten house as fast!

Jim Pritchard

For extra details about the present The Wizard of Oz tour click on right here.

Principal Solid:
Aviva Tulley – Dorothy
The Vivienne – The Depraved Witch of The West
Nic Greenshields – The Cowardly Lion
Benjamin Yates – The Scarecrow
Marley Fenton – The Tin Man
Gary Wilmot – The Wizard
Emily Bull – Glinda
Abigail Matthews – Toto
David Burrows – Uncle Henry

Creatives:
Music – Harold Arlen
Lyrics – E.Y. Harburg
Extra Music – Andrew Lloyd Webber
Extra Lyrics – Tim Rice
Based mostly upon the traditional movement image
and an adaptation of L. Frank Baum’s ebook by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Jeremy Sams
Director – Nikolai Foster
Choreographer – Shay Barclay
Set designer – Colin Richmond
Projection designer – Douglas O’Connell
Costume and Puppet designer – Rachael Canning
Lighting designer – Ben Cracknell
Sound designer – Adam Fisher
Artistic advisor – Mark Kaufman
Musical supervisor – George Dyer