Book: L. Frank Baum
Music: Harold Arlen with additional music by Andrew Lloyd Webber
Lyrics: E. Y. Harburg with additional lyrics by Tim Rice
Director: Nikolai Foster
Ru Paul Drag Race UK’s first winner The Vivienne; West End Royalty Gary Wilmot; a classic Hollywood movie; What could go wrong? Plenty it seems.
For a start, The Vivienne and Wilmot hardly feature in this touring production of The Wizard of Oz. Click your heels three times and you might miss Wilmot’s appearance on stage and, while The Vivienne stakes her claim as the villain for pantomimes ad infinitum, her wicked witch is dead before you know it. As the wizard, Wilmot has little to do once his disguise is blown. Still, the pair brings some star quality to which is otherwise a lacklustre version of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s 2011 adaptation of the perennial Judy Garland film. ALW has added a few songs to the scarce few numbers in the original, but they contribute little to the already overfamiliar story, which now seems thinner than ever.
It’s hard to see why this show, which admittedly did reasonably well at the London Palladium last year, has gone on the road. Colin Richmond’s set mainly serves as a video backdrop by Douglas O’Connell whose main inspiration seems to be an L.A. racetrack from the Super Mario games, The rest of the aesthetic is confused; 50s swing is mixed with Blade Runner and Steam Punk. The Munchkins look like German soldiers from the First World War. Characters drive on stage in scooters as if they were Mods in Swinging London. It’s not clear where we are but it sure isn’t Kansas.
As Dorothy, Aviva Tulley is in fine form, but in an effort to get the American accent right, Somewhere Over the Rainbow is rendered as Someweir Over the Rainbow. Tulley does well with a script that doesn’t really give her much to do especially as director Nikolai Foster seems to be in a rush to get everything done as quickly as possible. Benjamin Yates as the Scarecrow, Marley Fenton as the Tin Man and Nic Greenshields as the Cowardly Lion are solid support as Dorothy’s companions but there is little sense of jeopardy on their journey.
Nor is there much fun, save for the Lion’s dad jokes, and the occasional bark from Toto, a small puppet manipulated by Abigail Matthews. However, Toto is pretty small and most of his antics must be lost to those audience members in the back. It might be better to follow another yellow brick road.
Runs until 16 April 2024 and then continues to tour
The Reviews Hub Score
Lost its roar
