Review: Wizard of Oz 2011

Note: This review contains incredible positive bias!

I won't say that it's been easy, because it hasn't. This year's production has been plagued by problems from the beginning, and as a witness to those problems I feel that I'm a little bit biased this year. We have put in a lot of work and it has at times been tiring, empowering and hilarious, all at the same time. But at the end, it all came together and stands as one of the best productions the school has done.
     Production issues abound made this a difficult play to get off the ground. Early rehearsals made little progress, and then two months into production the lead character actress was replaced by another, causing a shuffling of roles that meant that we had to start from scratch. That considered, the progress made within the five weeks of rehearsal time has been incredible to say the least. Further, different dates this year gave us even less time than we had last year, which further piled on the stress.
    I must say that I initially had reservations about the choice of play, and they remain. The Wizard of Oz is one of the most potent fairy tales of the 19th Century. Written by children's author L. Frank Baum in the 1890s, the story was popularised (and significantly dumbed down) for a technicolour 1939 version featuring Judy Garland - a film that has become embedded in Western Culture. I personally detest the film for its complete and total lack of any meaningful characterisation, it's useless optimism and its skewed sense of morality. I do however appreciate the story itself for what I interpret it as - an examination of the American economic situation during the 1890s. I hoped, slightly, that our interpretation here would be able to capture that, and I feel it does that in many placed while still appealing to people's expectations of the cheerier 1939 version.
     Because of the more...extravagant play, the costumes this year were rented professionally and look incredible. The same can be said of the background sets, and while I thought that Kansas theme was a little silly when one considers that Kansas only appears for five minutes of the two-hour production, I appreciate that this year the Art Department fought over a lot of hurdles. To make up for this single setting, the team made the innovative decision to make curtains that could be used to quickly change set. It'sd little additions like this that took the initially bleak outlook of the production and made sure that on the night it was spotless.
     As for the acting itself, I thought that there was a wonderful sense of campness in the air. Characters like the Lion and Lord Growlie remained in character constantly despite their entertainingly queer characterisations. It helped that a lot of the principle cast had returned from the previous year, but the show's newcomers were just as well-performed.
    None of the problems this year stopped the cast or the producers from giving it their all. And at the end of the day, the production came together in a way which more than equalled the previous year's heights. On a personal note, I'd just like to say that the production was amazing to work on despite my initial reservations, and I'm proud to have been a part of it. I'm sure looking forward to next year, whatever it may be.

Thanks.