(L-R) Ben Thompson, Jonny Fines, Georgina Onuorah, Paul French and Giovanni Spanó in The Wizard Of Oz at Curve Leicester. Picture: Marc Brenner
The Wizard Of Oz continues at Curve Leicester until 8 January 2023.
Star rating: three stars ★ ★ ★ ✩ ✩
The Wizard Of Oz is one of those musicals that everybody knows, and even if you’ve never seen it on stage, you’ll almost certainly have seen the legendary 1939 film with Judy Garland’s iconic ruby slippers, a cackling green witch and the famous Yellow Brick Road.
It’s become a staple of popular culture, regularly quoted across all sorts of media, and has inspired countless adaptations, sequels and prequels, including the global megahit Wicked which itself celebrates its 20th Broadway anniversary next year. A perennial favourite and widely beloved, The Wizard Of Oz is always embraced by audiences looking for escapism just beyond the rainbow, which is exactly what Leicester’s Curve is hoping for with its new production.
Nobody should need reminding of the plot, but needless to say we’re back on the Kansas farm with Dorothy Gale (Georgina Onuorah), dreaming of a more colourful life in a land far away, when the infamous twister strikes and whisks her off to the merry old land of Oz. Her house lands on the Wicked Witch of the East, which unfortunately makes Dorothy an immediate enemy of the Wicked Witch of the West (played at the reviewed performance by understudy Ellie Mitchell).
Dorothy sets off down the Yellow Brick Road to ask the Wizard Of Oz (Mark Peachey) for help to send her back home, meeting the Scarecrow (Jonny Fines), Tin Man (Paul French) and Lion (Giovanni Spano) on the journey. Our heroic bunch form firm friendships and each hopes that the Wizard can give them the things they’ve been missing, but the Wicked Witch of the West is hot on their trail and determined to deal with them first herself.
The Wizard Of Oz undeniably falls into the “classic” list of musicals, and when done traditionally it can feel a little twee and stale, so Curve should be commended for trying to make the show feel more modern and give it a twist. However, while the show is certainly bright and colourful, the creative choices on display are a mixed success.
Director Nikolai Foster has gone for an array of kitsch visuals and an over-reliance on video projections with decidedly 1990s graphics, which aren’t as impressive as they should be. Some of the set pieces are a little clumsy and could have been delivered better (especially key moments like the twister and melting), and others just look strange; the Yellow Brick Road is formed by three moving blocks which the characters have to then jump up and down from, making it not feel like an actual road, and the scene in the poppy field is bizarrely populated by characters dressed as bedroom furniture. Presumably this is because there’s a Motel sign showing in the backdrop, but the characters clearly say “we’re in the middle of a field”, so it just looks muddled and confusing. It feels like in trying to be inventive, the piece loses a lot of the charm which previously lay in its simplicity. Theatre should be reimagined and reworked, but it should remain true to the essence of the show and the characters.
Glinda (Christina Bianco) enters and exits by a pink motorcycle rather than the usual bubble, making her feel more like Penelope Pitstop than any kind of witch. Perhaps most disappointing of all, the Wicked Witch of the West (who also travels by motorcycle) is styled in a thigh-slit coat, purple hat and boots (despite her clearly singing “red always suited me best” at one point), and a wig seemingly taken from the set of Dynasty in the 1980s. The look turns the character into a vamping diva rather than a threat, and all of the fear that comes from her intrinsic villainy just evaporates.
Fortunately, there are some terrific performances on show which are hugely enjoyable. Onuorah leads the show wonderfully as Dorothy, radiating warmth and innocence, and performing ‘Over the Rainbow’ beautifully. This does highlight a flaw of the musical itself – the heroine only sings one song on her own, and the other three supporting leads share another song between them. It’s always been too light on strong musical numbers, which Andrew Lloyd Webber tried to remedy by adding a handful of new compositions into this version, of which only a couple really stand out (namely ‘Red Shoes Blues’ and ‘Already Home’). The latter is performed brilliantly by Bianco as Glinda, and it’s a real shame that Bianco isn’t given more to do throughout the show, as it feels a criminal underuse of her formidable talents.
Fines also stands out as the Scarecrow, full of bumbling charm and excellent comic timing, and being the strongest of Dorothy’s newfound friends. French is less successful as the Tin Man, giving a strangely intense and angry portrayal which jars with those around him. Finally, Mitchell did a great job covering as the Wicked Witch of the West, going more for a delicious seductiveness rather than outright evil (which the costume design forces her to do), but sounding great in her musical numbers.
The Wizard Of Oz will always be timeless entertainment, and there will be audiences who always enjoy it in whatever form it takes, and some will revel in Curve’s kitschy twist. For others, it will feel like some of the magic and “theatre” of the piece has been stripped away in the reinvention and is lacking some heart because of it. The excellent performances make the show worth seeing, but the creative vision of this production has fallen somewhat under the rainbow this time.
Rob Bartley