The Wizard of Oz

The Wizard of Oz. Image credit unknown.

***

You can’t improve on perfection. And there are few movies more perfect than 1939’s The Wizard of Oz. ‘So good it should never be remade or reimagined,’ claim the purists. Seeming to forget the 1974 musical The Wiz. Made into a 1978 movie staring Diana Ross and Michael Jackson, spawning the hit Ease On Down The Road. The Wizard of Oz reimagined in Harlem with an almost all black cast. The film a financial and critical flop, becoming a cult classic in later years. Now we have another reimagining, this one again bearing the title The Wizard of Oz. One following the story of the original movie but in the style of The Wiz. Delivering a car crash of kitsch, glitz, and wildly relentless energy in a production unlikely to become a classic.

In fairness, its target audience appears to be children and those with a less reverential relationship with the original. Judy Garland’s doe-eyed, innocent good girl replaced by Aviva Tulley’s girl boss Dorothy. An outsider with attitude growing up in depression era Kansas whisked to the land of Oz by a tornado. On an adventure to get home and standing up to anyone who gets in her way. Scarecrow, Tin Man and Cowardly Lion also given a more contemporary twist even as they recite large chunks of the original dialogue. Completely sacrificed is the charm and eccentric voices of the Muchkins whose Lollipop Guild give the first indication that if Dorothy’s not in Kansas anymore, we’re not in any recognisable Oz. Rather, Colin Richmond’s retro set suggests a first draft design for Fallout, its Las Vegas styled Oz heavily influenced by 50s Americana, including a pink moped for Glinda. Douglas O’Donnell’s video projections referencing Back to the Future: The Musical’s simulation technology, similar to that used on the Universal Studio ride Harry Potter and The Forbidden Journey. Whisking us through time and space and everything in between with barely a chance to catch your breath. All the while the stage resembles the docking port in a spaceship.

Whilst the Oz themed Wicked is a truly great musical, The Wizard of Oz proves to be pure pantomime. Its classic songs by Harold Arlen (music) and E.Y. Harburg (lyrics) drowning in a mix of uncharacteristically forgettable tosh by Andrew Lloyd Webber (music) and Tim Rice (lyrics). Tulley’s commanding presence and voice wasted on the duo’s half baked songs trying to raise feel good vibes. Tulley, along with a scene stealing Craig Revel Norwood as the Wicked Witch of the West, shouldering much of what makes The Wizard of Oz engaging. Norwood's Witch irresistible for being an unapologetic pantomime dame. Meanwhile, director Nikolai Foster keeps the action frenetic and energised. Foster deserving double his salary for shaping Webber and Jeremy Sams’ messy adaptation into something workable. Similarly Abigail Matthews’s War Horse inspired, puppet dog Toto. Matthews likely to need physiotherapy for slipped discs and Carpal Tunnel Syndrome in the years to come on account of the loveable mutt.

Fast, furious, but rarely fabulous, The Wizard of Oz might ooze Eurovision kitsch, yet next to Oz musical Wicked, coming to Bord Gáis Energy Theatre later this year, it's very much pantomime minus the audience shouting at the stage. Whirlwinds of colour delivering a musical theatre sugar rush, its technological touches and pantomime antics are likely to delight a much younger audience. Or those with an insatiable passion for kitsch. For everyone else, if this is what over the rainbow looks like, then there really is no place like home. Even so, Horwood and Tulley make it a trip worth taking.

The Wizard of Oz, produced by Michael Harrison Entertainment, runs at Bord Gáis Energy Theatre until June 8.

For more information visit Bord Gáis Energy Theatre