THE WIZARD OF OZ. To 3 February.
Leeds
THE WIZARD OF OZ
by L Frank Baum music & lyrics by Harold Arlen & E Y Harburg background music by Herbert Stothart dance and vocal arrangements by Peter Howard adapted by John Kane
West Yorkshire Playhouse (Quarry Theatre) To 3 February 2007
Tue-Sat 7pm no performance 2 Jan
Mat 27-30 Dec, 4-6; 11-13; 18, 20, 25, 27 Jan, 1-3 Feb 1.30pm
Sunday performances 7, 14, 21, 28 Jan 1.30pm
Audio-described 13 Jan 1.30pm, 25 Jan 7pm
BSL Signed 20 Jan 1.30pm
Captioned 27 Jan 1.30pm, 30 Jan
Runs 2hr 35min One interval
TICKETS: 0113 213 7700
www.wyp.org.uk
Review: Timothy Ramsden 21 December
Another fine Oz comes along.
Another Christmas brings more Yellow Brick Roads. This one, under Rachel Kavanaugh’s direction, began its mileage in Birmingham last year, and has swept up north in exchange for Leeds’ 2005 Alice in Wonderland. Like this year’s Leicester Haymarket’s Oz it uses film for the twister that storms Dorothy and her dog out of monochrome Kansas into the colourful fantasy of Munchkinland and the Emerald City.
This film insert focuses on the face of Helen Owen’s Dorothy. And, comparatively, Leeds/Birmingham gains over Leicester in its adult chorus. MGM had adults for all its Munchkins; here, they occupy at least the Munchkin civic roles, and most importantly the Wicked Witch’s jitterbug squad, which keeps growing in choreographed menace like Falstaff’s account of his enemies at Gad’s Hill.
Michele Moran’s splendid performance, resembling a black totem-pole menacing Dorothy’s Toto and later the girl herself, first as Miss Gulch then her fantasy equivalent, the Wicked Witch, makes clear how much more fearsome a female is in the role than Leicester’s female impersonation. This is meanness from surface to core, gloatingly triumphant, without a scruple of mercy.
Dorothy, thinking herself friendless and finding herself ignored at home, transposes her relatives and the farm-hands into her friends in Oz. But she takes her dog with her, illustrating that canines aren’t only man’s best friend. This Toto keeps alternating between live creature and toy-dog, and even in live mode is pretty still; no doubt Leicester wins out here. But both creatures elicit a spontaneous appreciative sigh from large swathes of dog-loving audience.
Owen’s Dorothy has a smiling innocence, a child’s insistence on justice for Toto and acceptance of not being listened-to herself in a home where she’s essentially secure. She sings ‘Over the Rainbow’ well, but it’s most resonant when quietly reprised when she’s been caged by the Wicked Witch (it's a problem for the musical that its big-tune comes before the song has much dramatic context).
Other performances are fine, and Kavanaugh’s staging swift and strong. Just when the first-act end seems anticlimactic, the Emerald City hoves into view on the horizon and all is well.
Dorothy: Helen Owen
Hunk/Scarecrow: Michael Cahill
Hickory/Tinman: Giles Taylor
Zeke/Lion: David Ganly
Aunt Em/Glinda: Helen Anker
Uncle Henry/Winkie General/Guard: Martin Callaghan
Wicked Witch/Miss Gulch: Michele Moran
Professore Marvel/The Wizard of Oz: David Burrows
Munchkin Mayor/Nikko: Thomas Aldridge
Munchkin Coroner/Apple Tree: Kirsty Malpass
Munchkin Barrister/Apples Tree: Nancy Sullivan
Munchkin Mayoress/Apple Tree: Sharon Wattis
Munchkin Headmistress: Lucy Garrioch
Crows: James Bisp, Harry Hepple, Nicolas Pinto-Sander
Toto: Tilly/Jasper
Director: Rachel Kavanaugh
Designer: Peter McKintosh
Lighting: Mark Jonathan
Sound: Alan Mathieson
Orchestration: Larry Wilcox
Musical Director: Stephen Ridley
Choreographer: Jenny Arnold
Dialect coach: Sally Hague
Flying: Freedom Flying
Twister Scene: Second Home Production
Dance Captain: Kirsty Malpass
Associate director: Thomas Hescott
Associate lighting: Andrew Fidgeon
Assistant choreographer: Michael Cahill
2006-12-25 23:38:59