Review: THE WIZARD OF OZ, London Palladium

After a Christmas season at Leicester’s Curve Theatre, The Wizard of Oz has followed the yellow brick road (well, the M1) to its first venue, some 12 years ago, in the ULEZ-green, if not quite emerald, West End and the palatial London Palladium - after all, there’s no place like home. 

The heart of the show isn’t in doubt and you don’t need much in the way of brains to understand why a playbill with this level of name-recognition might entice a cash-strapped audience to fork out, but is it courageous? Well, Andrew Lloyd-Webber might say that he tried bravery with the bad Bad Cinderella, so he’s entitled to go back to his 2011 hit, apply a little updating and give the public what it wants, rather than what his book writer thought they needed. 

It took rather more than a click of my heels to break through the security barricade on press night and the weight of the programme might have taken Scarecrow’s arm off. That buzz just added to the palpable sense of “event theatre” in the house, cranked up to 11 when the orchestra (a little too loud throughout) whistle up those much-loved melodies with an overture that sets your mind swirling back to Dorothy and Toto and the single greatest moment in cinema history - and, yes, you do get the iconic “Toto, I've a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore” line (and plenty more to boot).

But that familiarity is a double-edged sword. Not only are there The Wiz and Wicked and countless other sequels, prequels and remakes on stage and screen, but so deep has the film’s imagery (visual and psychological) penetrated popular culture that I can report that not only have I seen the best bad movie ever made, Zardoz, but, with a little help from Glinda, I’ve looked on as my mother won $500 on the Wizard of Oz slot machine in Vegas. And I suspect it’s also the answer to a common banking security question for about half the population over the age of 50.

While Jeremy Sams’ adaptation stays satisfyingly close to the MGM original, director, Nikolai Foster, has worked with video designer, Douglas O’Connell, to acknowledge and update all that baggage. The story is still set in Depression-era Kansas, but Oz is a hybrid of 1950s Times Square and The Strip - garish, confident and a little transgressive (at least for a family show). There’s wit in the in-jokes on the billboards and in other scenes, the projections integrated into the production design without overpowering the sets. And it also gives you something to look at when the cast are engaged on the ALW - Tim Rice songs which, understandably, are not in the league of the Harold Arlen - EY Harburg classics, but are needed to make the show a full musical.

In a gingham dress with a beautifully animated (by puppeteer Ben Thompson) Toto, Georgina Onuorah gives us a bold and feisty heroine (reminding us just how far Judy Garland’s Dorothy was ahead of her time). She nails “Somewhere Over The Rainbow” with plenty of belt and indulges in a little flirting with The Scarecrow (a winning Louis Gaunt) with just the right amount of charm. Dorothy may not be a witch, but she’s a young woman rather than a girl, and that lends an equality of status to the four friends on their trek down the famous road.

Ashley Banjo throws some shapes as the breakdancing Tin Man and Jason Manford stops just short of going full panto as The Cowardly Lion, but Gary Wilmot comes close to stealing the show as a Wizard who is less mendacious and more kind - but it works.

Dianne Pilkington does what she can with the Wicked Witch of the West and, like Christina Bianco as Glinda, sings beautifully, but both parts feel underwritten, lacking the backstories given to the four travellers (other shows are available I suppose). Melting she may be, but we don’t feel the villainess’s vulnerability in a scene that’s too rushed to hit home (possibly for fear of frightening the little ones - not a concern in the 1930s of course).

As is the case for their close cousins, the Oompa Loompas, the question of how to represent the Munchkins in the 21st century proves insurmountable. In this show, they look like middle-class suburbanites in fancy dress and not the bearers of a separate culture being crushed by a tyrannical dictator. “Ding Dong The Witch Is Dead”, despite the directness of its lyrics, is staged as a big musical theatre number and not the cry of liberation it really should be. The ensemble also look short of half a dozen or so at this point, which is strange as there’s no problem later in conjuring plenty of “Star Wars” inspired stormtroopers for the Witch’s army - whose flying monkeys, alas, do not fly.

Those gripes aside, few will feel shortchanged (there’s a range of reasonable pricing options) by a show that offers great songs, real spectacle and a sprinkling of starry talent. You won’t be snoozing off in a poppy field halfway through this one! 

The Wizard of Oz is at the London Palladium until 3 September

Photo Credit: Marc Brenner

                   

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