Star rating: *****
An endearing wee heroine (with a rascally wee dog), a mega-mean hissable witch, a bunch of goofy, adorable oddballs as supporting characters and more catchy tunes than you can tap a ruby slipper to - surely any director who follows the yellow brick road on-stage will have an easy time and a sure-fire success.
In fact, The Wizard of Oz is - like its eponymous snake-oil salesman - an unexpectedly slippery customer. Most everyone from here to Kansas has some idea of the story. Even tots who can barely say Toto have probably seen the film. So how can any director live up to the original? Or bring her own ideas to the stage without upsetting audience expectations?
Well, Gill Robertson's sound instincts and expertise (honed with her own award-winning Catherine Wheels company) ensure that this Lyceum production goes straight to the emotional core of the story: a young girl's first experience of feeling betrayed by those she loves and trusts. Right from the start Denise Hoey's Dorothy - vulnerable but plucky in essential pigtails and gingham - has us seeing the world through her eyes. Why won't her adults stand up to the venomous Miss Gulch?
The lyrics to Somewhere Over the Rainbow have never sounded so wistful-wishful.
Robertson's cast proves a veritable dream team: roles that could have been hogtied to screen conventions are given vivid sincerity and fine comic flourishes by Matthew Pidgeon (Scarecrow, with a dash of James Stewart's downhome decency), Sandy Grierson (Tinman - touchingly deadpan), Graham Kent (a pussy-cat of a Lion), Julie Austin (divinely demonic as the Witch) and not forgetting the members of the Lyceum Youth Theatre who double and treble roles with aplomb. As for Toto - well, he's a cunning running gag in a show that will leave you over the moon with delight.
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