Andrew Lloyd Webber's Wizard of Oz? I think not!

I don't think "we" really have much say.

---

Where's iflit? We need a color coding, stat.

Isn't that even worse? How is anything he can compose going to fare alongside the classic Arlen tunes?

I'm sensing a disaster of Spiderman-proportions!

---

And where have you been for the last year and a half? This was announced back in April of 09, with Glenn Slater attached as lyricist.

---

What upsets me is the fact that the estates and or rights holders are allowing him to add his own songs. No one should ever be allowed to do that and no one should ever feel like they have any right to add their own compositions to a previously existing musical without permission from the original authors.

Except maybe one time for Andrew Lippa who did a decent job of writing new songs for You're a Good Man Charlie Brown, and obviously Mary Poppins because they had permission.

It's just like Mary Poppins except the original authors aren't alive to give their blessings.

The fact of the matter is that no show that's ever been performed onstage makes it back to the professional stage in the same shape it was originally, except maybe the Chorus Line revival.

Every Cole Porter revival interpolates songs of his from other shows. Virtually ever revival changes the book, lyrics, songs, etc, from the original version (as I've said a million times, no too professional productions of Cabaret are ever alike).

The Wizard of Oz wasn't even a stage musical first (at least not THIS version) which makes the argument even weaker. I guess there's the argument to be made that the Wizard of Oz is sacrosanct (but even then, don't most stage productions reinstate "The Jitterbug," which was cut from the movie - and the movie seems to be the standard by which we are supposed to judge this), but it's not like these songs of Lloyd Webber's are going to get stuck into the 1939 movie.

If you're making a moral argument (the authors cannot be consulted and therefore their work can never be altered) fine, but legally, there's no argument. Rights either transfer to someone else or the work becomes public domain. In either case, the authors no longer have any say, because they are dead. Gone where the goblins go.

Updated On: 11/12/10 at 10:02 AM

That's what I thought the lyrics were when I was a kid!

I agree with Goth. And I don't think the additions to the title song were that great, either. "Get on the bus!"

"Lloyd Webber says he will write 6 new songs for the show---He and Tim Rice."

Won't work unless they completely change their musical style. Their style doesn't fit the existing music.

Dorothy: What's new, little munchkins? I'm new, I wanna say I'm just a little stuck on you.

Monkeys: Wicked Witch, Superstar, why do you ride on that broom so far?

Wicked Witch: I don't know how to catch her, what to do, how to trap her. She's a girl, just a girl.

Auntie Em: Poor, poor Dor'thy sold to be a slave, situation's grave, hey, sold to be a slave.

---

THE WIZARD OF OZ, in any of its stage versions, is one of those shows like A CHRISTMAS CAROL that can always be counted on to attract an audience. Probably the only reason he didn't choose A CHRISTMAS CAROL (not a bad idea, in my opinion) is that it couldn't run year-round.

Sir Andrew, your desperation to have your name attached to a hit is showing.

---

Every time I open this thread I laugh where it tells us to notice something, but never actually shows us the ad.