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music by Harold Arlen, lyrics by E.Y. Harburg & book by John Kane, directed by Rick Miller

Grand Theatre, London

November 25-December 31, 2016

Glinda: “You’re out of the woods

You're out of the dark

You're out of the night

Step into the sun

Step into the light”

The Grand Theatre holiday show this year is The Wizard of Oz and it is a real pleasure.  It boasts a starry cast and a fantastically imaginative design.  Director Rick Miller gives it a concept it could do without, but fortunately it does not inhibit one’s enjoyment.  Miller draws wonderful performances from the entire cast including very impressive work from the ten children who play a host of different roles.

Miller is using the 1987 stage version of the classic 1939 movie with a book by John Kane instead of the recent 2011 stage version with additional songs by Andrew Lloyd Webber with a book by Lloyd Webber and Jeremy Sams.  This is all to the good, because the 1987 version not only stays truer to the movie but fills out the story and dialogue with excerpts from L. Frank Baum’s original book.  The 1987 version also features only music by Harold Arlen including the lead-ins to songs that were cut from the film and in some cases entire songs that were cut.  The 2011 version annoyingly includes songs by Lloyd Webber and even is presumptuous enough to close with a Lloyd Webber number rather than one by Arlen.

The only flaw with the current production is that Rick Miller somehow feels the need to place the show within a self-referential context.  Most people know that The Wizard of Oz was a movie musical before it was a stage musical and that the stage musical is based primarily on the script for the movie rather than on L. Frank Baum’s novel.  Yet, Miller seems to think we should be reminded of this fact on a regular basis.  Before the action begins we see an old-fashioned movie camera sitting in front of the scrim and the logo for the production set inside a camera lens projected on the scrim.  Worse is that a character in a beret (George Masswohl), who presumably is the director, periodically moves in with the camera to shoot the action that is occurring on stage.  This we see projected as video on a screen covering the back wall of the stage.  His intrusions are not usually disruptive but Miller really should not have him come in for a close up when Dorothy is singing “Somewhere Over The Rainbow”. 

The main problem with this concept is that it is totally unnecessary.  Why exactly do we need to be reminded that The Wizard of Oz was a film?  Who cares and how does this knowledge help us, or especially all the children in the audience, understand the story any better?  The next problem is that it is foolish. The presence of the camera makes it seem as if what is occurring on stage is the classic movie as it is being filmed.  Yet, everyone knows that movies are not filmed in the chronological order of their scenes.  The stage version does not make a transition from black-and-white to colour as in the film.  And, since Miller doesn’t want the camera to hide the singers’ faces, most of what we see the camera filming is the singers from behind.  The view of Miller’s concept was well summed up by a parent behind me who exclaimed, “Oh, there’s that darned cameraman again”.

Luckily, the merits of this production vastly outweigh the annoyance of Miller’s concept.  The cast at the Grand is at least as starry as was the one Mirvish fielded for its presentation of the Lloyd Webber version in 2013.  Mirvish had then newcomer Danielle Wade play Dorothy, while the Grand has newcomer Michelle Bouey.  She has a pleasant voice and in acting does not attempt to imitate Judy Garland.  This makes her Dorothy come across as natural and unaffected.  She  sings “Somewhere Over The Rainbow” not as a old classic but as a brand new song and as a result it sounds absolutely fresh. 

All three of Dorothy’s travelling companions are equally excellent.  Kyle Blair, familiar from 14 season at the Stratford and Shaw Festivals, is ideal as the Scarecrow.  He has a wistful smile and delivery and physically he is able to make it seem as if he doesn’t have a bone in his body, usually having his posture sag and his arms dangling limp until they are absolutely needed.  His singing voice is as fine as ever and his ability to dance as if he were made of straw is a wonder. 

Marcus Nance, well-known from both musicals and opera, is an inspired choice as the Tinman.  His deep, rounded tone is perfect for a man who basically has a huge echo chamber for a chest.  While the Scarecrow’s longing for a brain is comic, Nance makes the Tinman’s longing for a heart much more tinged with sadness.  He is helped in this by Kane’s book which unlike the film provides us with the Tinman’s tragic backstory taken directly from the Baum’s novel.  The Tinman wants a heart not for its own sake but so he can love again as he once did. 

Bruce Dow, much loved during his stint at Stratford, is a wonderful Cowardly Lion.  The Cowardly Lion may be just a big scaredy cat and a sissy but Dow does not camp up the role.  In fact, Dow shows how the Lion almost unbeknownst to himself gains in courage as his adventure forces him to take on increasingly daring tasks.  He starts out his big song “If I Were King Of The Forest” as if he were imitating Bert Lahr, but after the short introduction he proceeds to make the song completely his own.  I will admit that this is my least favourite song in the movie because Lahr hams it up so much.  Dow’s low-key approach to the Lion’s fantasy, however, made me thoroughly enjoy it for the first time ever. 

Carly Street, known for several shows for Canadian Stage, is a very different Wicked Witch from Margaret Hamilton’s in the movie.  Street is, in fact, more frightening as the inflexible Miss Gulch, who wants to have Toto put down, than she is as the Witch.  Because of this we can understand why Dorothy would see her as the Witch in her dream.  Street plays the Wicked Witch of the West not so much as an all-powerful figure, but as a grown-up spoiled child whose meanness, inconsiderateness and propensity for imitating others puts her more on a level with Dorothy than with Glinda.  This may not be correct in terms of reflecting the actual power structure of Oz, but it does feel right since it makes the Witch more clearly the exact antithesis of Dorothy.

George Masswohl is a delight both as Professor Marvel and as the Wizard.  He reveals Marvel as a compassionate old charlatan who uses his “magic” ball to give the runaway Dorothy sensible advice.  As the outward face of the Wizard he is frightening, but as the real person Masswohl shows the Wizard is just as sympathetic as Marvel.  This is not the doddering conman of the movie, but, more like Baum’s original, a fellow Kansan who has had to pretend to be “great and mighty” to please the local populace.                      

John Kane’s book for the 1987 version goes the classic film one better.  In the movie the Miss Gulch, Professor Marvel and the three farmhands Hank, Hickory and Zeke, all appear as different characters in Oz.  As a bonus in Kane’s stage version so do Aunt Em and Uncle Henry.  Marie McDunnough makes the hardworking Auntie Em and the ethereal Glinda, the Good Witch of the North, so entirely distinct you might think the roles were played by different actors.  McDunnough, who has performed with Opera Atelier, has a lovely operatic voice and exceptionally graceful movement.  She makes “Optimistic Voices”, heard only as a chorus in the film, one of the most memorable songs of the evening.               

Newcomer Trevor Patt also distinguishes his two roles as the kindly Uncle Henry and the gruff, Scottish-accented Imperial Guard.  The audience favourite among the children, of course, is Neddy Shevchenko as Toto who has appeared in that role more than 350 times including 300 for the Mirvish production.  He is an old pro at his work and is unbelievably patient about sitting cooped up in Dorothy’s basket or perched on a tractor seat.  Most memorably he shows he really wants that sausage that Professor Marvel is roasting over a fire. 

Miller’s best idea for this production is to have chorus of children not only play the Munchkins, but also the townsfolk of Oz and, quite amusingly, the troops of Winkies who guard the Wicked Witch’s castle.  These ten children – Alec Dahmer, Maia Dempsey, Isabela Filice, Oliver Gamble, Emerson Gamble, Manya Hegde, Luke Krawczak, Zoë Lacey, Kingsley Smith and Hannah Thomas – are incredibly talented and reinforce the show’s theme of the power of children more profoundly than when Dorothy is the only nominal child in the show.  The children’s speaking and singing voices are strong, their acting is confident and their dancing is great as shown in the wonderful sequence called “Jitterbug” where our heroes are infected with an unstoppable urge to dance.  This is a scene that was filmed for the classic movie but cut before release, so it is a real pleasure to see it on stage. 

Bill Layton’s designs for the show are supremely imaginative.  He does not stray far from the movie or book illustrations for Dorothy, the Scarecrow or the Tinman, but he does reimagine the Cowardly Lion as a type of Cavalier-era Falstaff, with jerkin, pumpkin breeches and a brown Louis XIV wig for a mane.  Munchkinland itself he has given the look of a pre-school playroom with the Munchkins dressed as fantasy hybrids of insects and flowers.  The Ozians are in 1920s outfits in all shades of green and the Winkies are clad in red and black with Spanish-style morion helmets.  They are no quite so fearsome as the Winkies in the film since they are so much shorter than our heroes, but that is just part of the fun.  As the Jitterbugs they are in jazzy pink and purple outfits with bug-eyed sunglasses.  Three of the children are given great outfits as the crows who plague the Scarecrow before Dorothy frees him from his post and three more are fantastically dressed as talking apple trees who can throw their own apples. 

Rick Miller makes much use of Rory Leydier’s projections both on the front scrim, on the back screen and on a cutout drop representing a forest.  On the back wall we see distant landscapes whether of Kansas, Munchkinland or Oz, while the front scrim is used primarily for tornado effects.  While the closeups supposedly taken by the director add nothing, the vignetted closeups on the back screen representing what Dorothy sees in Marvel’s magic ball or in the Witch’s crystal ball are very effective.   

Since one can so easily ignore the concept that Rick Miller has tried to give the production, the show as a whole is a great success.  Miller’s finest contribution is his exemplary direction of the children whose talent and assurance will simply amaze you.  No fans of Kyle Blair, Bruce Dow, Marcus Nance or George Masswohl will want to miss them in this show, but indeed, no fan of the movie will want to miss this stage version so abundant in warmth, good humour, superb performances and inspired design.     

                     

©Christopher Hoile

Note: This review is a Stage Door exclusive. 

Photos: Michelle Bouey, Kyle Blair, Trevor Patt, Marcus Nance, and Bruce Dow; Marie McDunnough, Carly Street, and Michelle Bouey; Munchkins with Michelle Bouey and Marie McDunnough. ©2016 Claus Anderson.

For tickets, visit www.grandtheatre.com.