The Wizard of Oz, presented by John Frost and Suzanne Jones
Adelaide Festival Theatre, until April 29
Review by Honey B
What a spellbinding ride over the rainbow it was at the opening night of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s
new production of The Wizard of Oz at the Adelaide Festival Centre on Thursday, April 5.
This colourful, high-tech and lavish production was based on the 2011 London Palladium version
and it is pure musical escapism to another, much-loved world.
The show remains faithful to the original L. Frank Baum tale and the 1939 classic film starring
Judy Garland.
Beginning in sepia tones the harsh Kansas farming landscape is brought to life before our young,
unsuspecting heroine and her adorable dog, Toto are swept up into the twister.
The video projection of the twister was mesmerising and the thunder and lightning had audience
members jumping in their seats.
With Dorothy no longer in Kansas and her house having wiped out the Wicked Witch of the East,
her journey begins to find the Wizard of Oz, who is said to be the only one who can help her get
home.
Samantha Dodemaide as Dorothy fills those sparkly ruby red slippers brilliantly as she brought a
wide-eyed innocence and a streak of feistiness to the role. Her rendition of Over the Rainbow
was nothing short of spine-tingling.
The young Dodemaide has a smile that rivalled her co-star Lucy Durak (Glinda the Good) and
Dodemaide proved that she could sing, dance and act in an endearing performance.
However, the two little Australian terriers playing Toto outshone the whole cast and won plenty of
“oohs’’ and “aahs’’ from the audience. The perfect pooches, Trouble and Flick, were trained by
Luke Hura and share the role every night.
With the colourful Munchkins telling Dorothy to “follow the yellow brick road’’ it was not long
before she came across her three travelling companions – Scarecrow (Eli Cooper), Tin Man (Alex
Rathgeber) and Lion (John Xintavelonis).
Cooper, Rathgeber and Xintavelonis were all charming in their roles and kudos go to the super
floppy Cooper as Scarecrow. Cooper had brilliant comic timing and his physicality was superb.
Just like Dorothy, Scarecrow/Cooper won a special place in my heart.
With the good versus bad theme, Durak as good witch Glinda was bristling with sparkle, while
Jemma Rix as the Wicked Witch of the West was gloriously and gleefully wicked. With both ladies
having starred previously in Wicked their strong connection was obvious.
Rounding out this all-star cast was Anthony Warlow as Professor Marvel/The Wizard and what a
joy it was to see Warlow transform as the mighty, all-powerful Oz to the bumbling carnival man
with all of his ticks and odd behaviours.
While this production featured all of our favourite Wizard of Oz songs by Harold Arlen and E.Y
Harburg from We’re Off To See The Wizard to If I Only Had a Brain and Ding Dong the Witch Is
Dead, there are now eight new songs by Lloyd Weber and Tim Rice included.
Most of these new songs add to the character’s arc, however are not as memorable as the
original pieces.
There are a few exceptions which include The Wizard’s Bring Me The Broomstick and Red Shoe
Blues written for the Wicked Witch. Glinda’s Home Is a Place in Your Heart is a bit more sweetly
sentimental.
Ding dong, don’t be left green with envy and see this superb cast in a musical magical realising
of The Wizard of Oz.