Wizard of Oz

It feels like ages since the last time we were at the theatre. With the husby’s work, it’s been difficult to plan anything. However, at the last minute, I decided to treat us to tickets to The Wizard of Oz.

We were able to get tickets for the opening night. As it was last minute the options were limited. So to save pennies too, we got some in the gods. As long as I have a good view, I generally don’t mind.

What is it about?

Seriously? If you don’t know the story behind The Wizard of Oz, where the fuck have you been?

It’s one of the most iconic classic movies, that has a queer following that many films have tried and failed to match.

But here’s a story synopsis for those who have had their head in the sand.

Dorothy, a young girl gets caught in a hurricane, and her house ends up in the sky before landing in a place called Oz. Either, she’s suffering from a head injury or has been at the magic mushrooms because this place is weird as shit!

Her house ends up on top of the Wicked Witch of the East; killing her. The small people of the town treat her like a god, but Eastie’s sister, West, is royally pissed and demands revenge.

And just to piss West off more, Dorothy steals East’s red ruby slippers!

The good witch, Glinda tells West to cool her beans and piss off, while telling Dorothy to get home she has to follow the yellow brick road, to speak to some recluse Wizard that no one has seen and ask for his help.

Stranger Danger

Dorothy clearly wasn’t taught about Stranger Danger, as she picks up 3 troubled men along the journey.

This recluse wizard can’t be arsed with them, so tries to set them a task he thinks they can’t do. Steal West’s broomstick. I think he has already heard of Dorothy and her light fingers!

Meanwhile West has been trying to get the slippers back, after the failed attempt of drugging them in the poppies field, she has set her flying monkeys to kidnap Dorothy. Have I been on the magic mushroom?

A fight ensues, and Dorothy ends up throwing water over West. Turns out West is aquagenic urticaria and melts to death!

Serial killer Dorothy takes the broom to the Wizard, who is now thinking “Fuck, what do I do now?”, and is caught out as just some old geezer who isn’t anything special.

Somehow he can spiel some shit to grant the wishes of these 3 guys that Dorothy picked up on her adventures! He then fucks off in a hot air balloon after ghosting Dorothy into thinking he would take her home!

Instead, turns out the “good” witch, Glinda, was just having a laugh at Dorothy all this time. Because she tells Dorothy the whole journey wasn’t needed and she could have used the red slippers to make a wish to go home!

What a bitch!

Now you know what the story is about, back to the show!

Gripes first

Before I get into the production, let’s get some of the negative stuff out of the way. These aren’t necessarily related to the production itself, but they can affect the overall experience. Some more than others.

Friends of Dorothy

As I said above, Wizard of Oz has a queer following so the marketing team have definitely tapped into this by having a “Friends of Dorothy” t-shirt for sale.

Well, they would if they hadn’t sold out! This is the first night in Manchester and they’ve already sold out of this t-shirt. Rude!

Do they not know Manchester is the Gay Mecca of the UK?

Clearly, the tee was popular in Liverpool, you’d think they would have stocked up in preparation for the next leg of the tour. Hopefully, they will get more stock for the remainder of the 4-month tour!

Also, if anyone from the tour can get me the tee that would be great, thank you muchly!

Theatre etiquette

I have been to multiple theatre productions, and I have noticed recently that the general behaviour of the audience has been questionable of recent.

While my experience at this show was not on the same level as the Bodyguard incident, or even the Hamilton fight. It was quite distracting and did tarnish the whole theatre experience.

Personally, it would be best if you never ate in the theatre. The rustling of crisp packets is distracting as fuck. And trust me, if I hear you chew, I can guarantee that I am testing my willpower so much not to punch you!

This munchfest is enabled by the theatre, who decided they would sell products, that I believe have purposely been packaged with increased decibels in mind when opening or chewing.

The people in front of me had a fucking multipack of crisps, so that was double the rustle!

I don’t know when eating in the theatre became so prominent. This isn’t the cinema people!

Okay, I know that is a me thing, but it’s really fucking annoying! It’s the reason I don’t go to the cinema. I don’t want it to be the reason I don’t go to the theatre!

Also

I don’t want to be distracted from the show by you chatting to the person next to you or your mobile phone light as you don’t know how to turn the fucker off!

And I get that you sometimes need the toilet, maybe you shouldn’t have drank so much before the start of the show, that you can’t wait until the interval.

It felt like that toilet door was on a revolve because every fucker just needed to go slamming their seat in the process! One heavy-footed kid should go to the doctor, and I was tempted to take them straight away after his fourth visit in the first half!

Now these gripes are not the fault of the production, I get that, but this is probably the worst audience since watching Steel Magnolias! The distractions meant that I struggled with concentrating on the show at times!

Staging

I’m wondering if this is a tour thing, but the setting was a stage within a stage. Similar to “I Should Be So Lucky“, the stage was framed and smaller. And it got me thinking that this could be to provide consistency for the cast to perform when touring the country!

Another thing I found similar to “I Should Be So Lucky”, the setting was bare. By that I mean, there was no main staging. It was stark and the back wall relied on projections – it must be a modern thing! I just felt that there was a lack of impact!

Granted this allowed them space to have many moveable set pieces, such as the yellow brick road arrows, and the iconic pink scooter that Glinda drove around in.

I don’t have an issue with the projections, and they worked on this production. The one used at the front of the stage provided a fantastic depth to the hurricane as if you were in the middle of it with Dorothy

While I couldn’t see the back wall fully, I did love the little business names and the beautiful nod to Judy Garland.

The cast

Before I get into the stand-outs of the cast, I will be honest I was worried about the sound at the beginning. I struggled to hear what was being said. I put this down to being in the gods, but still, I would have expected the sound to be better.

Maybe this explains why I was so agitated by other attendees. With the sound low coming from the stage, I became very aware of all the surrounding noise.

I can say that it did improve as the show went on, especially at the end of the first half and onwards.

Overall, the cast was fantastic and I enjoyed them all. I do feel that some just stole the show.

Dorothy

Dorothy was played by Aviva Tully, and she was fantastic. She took on this iconic role with complete confidence and her voice gave me goosebumps.

Scarecrow

A lot of productions use famous names to get people in the seats, but sometimes it’s not them that stand out in the cast.

Benjamin Yates plays the Scarecrow with a level of comedic genius that he stole the stage. I just wanted more from him.

Also, how stunning is this guy? I lost several minutes stalking his Instagram feed! Sorry. Anyway, back to finishing this post!

Wicked Witch of the West

Now, I know The Vivienne is a fantastic performer, but they blew me away with their performance in the show. I have a whole new level of respect for her.

She has a fantastic voice and they captured the wicked witch and her laugh perfectly. They were another stage stealer.

Notable mentions to…

Who would have thought I would have said Toto also had a great stage presence? Abigail Matthews was the puppeteer of Toto.

I wanted to go stroke him, as every so often, I would just be watching the action on stage and in the corner of my eye I would see Toto waggling his tail. It was freaking adorable.

Finally, every actor’s worst nightmare is forgetting their lines, and this happened to Jason Manford. In these situations, you can let it eat you up or just deal with it, and Jason did the latter with his humour.

He was even able to ab-lib a thank you to the person feeding him the line later in the show.

Final thoughts

If you love Wizard of Oz, then this is definitely worth going to see. It’s just a fun show that will make you smile.

With the poor sound at the beginning, and the surrounding noise, I started off struggling with the show, but it improved as the night went on.

I would go and see it again…maybe not in the gods next time!