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We’re off to see Oz again
By Amar Singh, Evening Standard 10.04.08
Enchanting: Hunk the Scarecrow (Ray Bolger), Dorothy Gale (Judy Garland) and Hickory the Tin Man (Jack Haley) in The Wizard of Oz
New take: Southbank Centre artistic director Jude Kelly
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A new production of The Wizard Of Oz will be premiered at the Royal Festival Hall this summer.
It is the first major staging of the musical in the capital for more than 20 years.
Jude Kelly, artistic director of the Southbank Centre, will direct the Royal Shakespeare Company's stage version, which closely follows the classic Metro-Goldwyn Mayer film of 1939, starring Judy Garland.
The show will run from 23 July to 31 August, and during this period the Festival Hall will be bathed at night in green light, while a yellow brick road will guide visitors to the venue.
Kelly, an award-winning director of more than 40 productions, said: “The Wizard Of Oz has left an indelible impression on more than four generations. From its beginning as an American folk-fairy tale, it has grown into something that lies at the very heart of what we feel about courage and homecoming.
“With its stunning visual iconography, glorious music and the unabashed vulnerability of its cast of characters — be they lions, wizards or men of tin — it fulfils the evergreen role of a true classic. I've directed The Wizard Of Oz once before and the great thing about it is that it responds equally well to the imagination of theatre-making as to the wonderful Technicolor of film.”
The stage show will have 30 actors but the leading roles have not yet been cast. A 20-piece band will play Arlen and Harburg's classic songs such as Over The Rainbow, We're Off To See The Wizard and Follow The Yellow Brick Road.
This version of the story, adapted by John Kane from the movie, was premiered by the Royal Shakespeare Company at the Barbican in 1987, with a young Imelda Staunton playing Garland's role of Dorothy Gale. The production comes after the West End success of Wicked, a Wizard Of Oz spinoff musical, which tells how Elphaba and Glinda came to be the Wicked Witch Of The West and the Good Witch Of The North respectively, familiar to the millions of people who have seen the film.
