THE WIZARD OF OZ. To 20 January.

Leicester

THE WIZARD OF OZ
by L Frank Baum music and lyrics by Harold Arlen and E Y Harburg adapted by John Kane

Haymarket Theatre To 20 January 2007
Mon-Sat 7.30pm except 26 Dec, 1 Jan 4.30pm Mat Sat & 20, 27, 28 Dec, 2 Jan 2.30pm; 10, 18 Jan 10am; 11, 17 Jan 2pm; no performance 25 Dec, 8, 15 Jan
Audio-described 3 Jan 7.30pm, 13 Jan 2.30pm (both preceded by Touch-Tour 90 minutes before performance)
BSL Signed 6 Jan 2.30pm, 18 Jan 7.30pm
Runs 2hr 45min One interval

TICKETS: 0870 330 3131
www.lhtheatre.co.uk
Review: Timothy Ramsden 12 December

One last look at Oz from the Haymarket.
“The End” says the final screened interlude in Paul Kerryson’s latest production of the evergreen Wizard. So it is, not only of the production, but of the Haymarket Theatre which has had a varied 4 decades at Leicester’s centre: an ace theatre (often) with quite a nice shopping-centre attached. It’s often surprised, sometimes in its strange brews: A Midsummer Night’s Dream with performance troupe The People Show as Shakespeare’s Mechanicals, or former co-artistic director Julia Bardsley bringing her physical animations to T S Eliot.

And latterly, artistic director Kerryson, arguably Britain’s best director of Stephen Sondheim, a musicals man to the core but also doing more than respectable work with big classics. For he’s the least pretentious of directors, bringing an honesty to all he does. When, come 2008 (if builders keep to schedule, and budgets don’t shoot up as they once did to nearly kibosh an earlier Haymarket regime), producing theatre reawakens under a new name, let’s hope he’s still around to ensure it gets back on its feet in style.

Nostalgia will doubtless vanish in the face of the new venue’s gleam and sheen. But it’s fair enough right now as the Haymarket’s final main-house show is itself a reawakened version of Kerryson’s earlier Haymarket Oz. From the opening black-and-white filmed cloudscapes, as the view swoops across arid Kansas to the Gale’s soon-to-be-windswept homestead, staying in monochrome as it moves to 3D, this is a bold, breezy show.

And whichever of Baz, Max, Paddy, Ted or Maisie it was playing Dorothy Gale’s beloved dog Toto all-but stole it. Throughout, there’s a mix of high energy and nice detail: good witch Glinda’s motor-scooter with its personalised number-plate (GL 1 NDA), the massive Emerald city skyscraper outlines in stark green. The songs come over beautifully, Dorothy’s friends are impressive.

Only 2 questions: hard as Ceri Dupree works as the Wicked Witch (lapping up the hate panto-style when required) the cross-casting somehow softens the nastiness. And, highly capable and disciplined as the youth cast-members are, they cannot supply the expertise the climactic Jitterbug really needs.

Still, here’s to the next time.

Dorothy Gale: Helena Blackman
Miss Gultch/Wicked Witch of the West: Ceri Dupree
Aunt Em/Glinda the Good Witch: Jacqui Dubois
Uncle Henry/Emerald City Guard: Greg Pichery
Hunk/Scarecrow: Tom Bradley
Hickory/Tinman: Jez Unwin
Zeke/Lion: Horace Oliver
Professor Marvel/The Wizard of Oz: Rex Obano
Toto: Baz/Max/Paddy/Ted/Maisie
Munchkins etc: Sophie Boulter, Thomas Brown, Ruby Chamberlain, Laura Chamberlain, Jaz Cox, Monet-Davies-Lambert, Oliver Draper, Jack Evans, Jodie Fortuin, Bradley Foster, Sophie-Anne Hamilton, Chelsea Heathcote, Mansi Joshi, Jinty Kotak, Charlotte Palmer, James Palmer, Daisy Richards, Elizabeth Smith, Jade Snelson-Eeley, Tansie Swithenbank, Niamh Synclerc-Cicinskas, Tojan Thomas Browne, Danielle Torr, Sophie Ward, Laura Wiselka/
Jodie Ball, Luke Barrow, Amy Bates, Elliot Borley, Lauren Cherry, Sean Dodds, Charlie Driver, William Green, Lucy Griffiths, Talitha Hepple, Chelsea Herbert, Loretta Hunt, Reannah Hunt, Paige Jackson, Francesca Jones, Ellie Lister, Dev Mistry, Ella North, Salvatore Scarpa, Paige Sealey, Francesca Tibbles, Ashley Tuckert, Ruby Tucker, Amy Van Walsum, Jodie Williams/
Charlie-May Bingham, Benjamin Bull, Jack Bull, Olivia Buswell, Ben D’Amore, Yasmine Dunkley, Luke Farnworth, Abby Ferguson, Jack George, Brittany Hennessy, Rebecca Hopper, Holly Hosie, Tilly-Mae King, Paige Lambert, Hayley Marvin, Hannah Millman, Charlotte Oxborough, Molly Panetta, Stephanie Powell, Natasha Rimmington, Helen Reuben, Khia Spencer, Tim Wilson, Aklice Witherington, Granger Wittering

Director: Paul Kerryson
Designer: Paul Farnsworth
Lighting: Jenny Cane
Sound: Ben Harrison
Dance/Vocal arrangements: Peter Howard
Orchestration: Larry Wilcox
Background music: Herbert Stothart
Video: Mark Lewis
3D Animator: Colin Hewitt

2006-12-17 21:55:50