The Wizard of Oz- Page 2

[husk_charmer]

Posted: 1/14/07 at 1:34pm

The person as Toto rarely works...it is usually VERY distracting, especially with the idea that since he can "walk" have him skip with the four friends....*Shudder*

Kyle- I can understand the animosity towards it, and I do believe that it was really set into motion by the RSC, however Fred Barton did at least play the role as an understudy spawing his musical "Miss Gulch Returns". Whether this is the first or not, I don't know.

[kyle.]

Posted: 1/14/07 at 1:53pm

I have seen his Miss Gulch Returns CD before and I have always wanted to purchase it!

[mikeyb16]

Posted: 1/14/07 at 2:02pm

I've seen the Musical 2 years ago around Christmas Time at the Wales Millenium Centre, Cardiff UK. The show was brilliant. I can't remember the actress who played Dorothy but she was AMAZING!

One song I remember in the Musical that wasn't in the Movie was 'The Jitterbug' Anyone fammilliar with that song?

[husk_charmer]

Posted: 1/14/07 at 2:08pm

mikey-
The Jitterbug was originally in the film, however, there was a popular dance at the time by the same name, and the producers were afraid it would date the film. It is included in both MUNY and RSC adaptations, in the MUNY it's in place of the poppies, and in the RSC it falls before the flying monkeys (as it would have in the film). Directors are haphazard in including it with the RSC, partitally due to film recognition and partially for time. There is also the cut reprises of "Over the Rainbow" and "Ding! Dong! The Witch is Dead" that come in or out depending on the director.

Kyle-
"Miss Gulch Returns" is HYSTERICAL and brilliant, I HIGHLY reccomend it.

[B3TA07]

Posted: 1/14/07 at 2:15pm

Roger Bart might make the Toto thing work.

[StageManager2]

Posted: 1/14/07 at 2:24pm

"How does everyone feel about having a person play Toto?"

That would be akin to casting an actress as Tinker Bell (PETER PAN).

[husk_charmer]

Posted: 1/14/07 at 2:51pm

Truly, the only real way the Toto as a person could be pulled off is if it is being done by kids younger than Middle School, where they are trying to create more roles. Even then, it doesn't really work, and the actor ends up upstaging the rest of the cast.

[StageManager2]

Posted: 1/14/07 at 2:59pm

Furthermore, I thought casting an actor in a suit as Milky White in the INTO THE WOODS revival was a bad idea. It looked so stupid (almost laughable), the way he moved and everything. I preferred the prop in the original.

[FosseForever3]

Posted: 1/14/07 at 3:01pm

I agree about the whole "human toto" thing...the only production I've seen where a dancer played a dog so brilliantly he deserved to upstage the leads was in "The Times They are a Changing" ( I know...off topic) My point being you'd need the right show, the right stage, costumes and of course the right actor to make Toto somewhat believable and not just mock worthy. I don't think Wizard of Oz is THAT show. :)

[kyle.]

Posted: 1/14/07 at 3:15pm

I love that we have innocently enough hijacked this thread. I love that it is still going. Lets keep it going.

Anyone else who has been in an OZ production have stories to share?
Anyone else seen an amazing production of OZ onstage that they would like to talk about?

I know there have been wonderful Oz threads in the past, but there is no reason we can't start another. It has been a little while since the last one. :)

[Holliwoodblonde]

Posted: 1/14/07 at 3:27pm

I was just cast as Toto for my senior year musical, so I guess I'm a bit of a masochist for asking about a person playing Toto.

Needless to say, it is completely embarassing to be up there on my hands and knees doing things that a stuffed animal would be just as effective doing. The second one hits puberty having a person play Toto is distracting and superflous.

[husk_charmer]

Posted: 1/14/07 at 3:34pm

The most AMAZING production I saw was several years back, and it was...wow. They went with a lot of film-esque things but the scenery and effects were dazzling. They had a turntable built into the set, and they used it in several places. The first being, naturally, the tornado. The house sat on the turntable, and they moved everything else around it. Them, in Oz, they laid down sections to be the Yellow Brick Road, and to facilitate changes between the Scarecrow/Tinman/Lion Scenes. For the Poppyfield they had a cricular platform with a wall cutting it in half. One side was Poppies, the other was the tower for the Wicked Witch. And it spun back and forth for the varying moments. Then for the final moment, Glinda had floated on and was suspended partially above the Poppies/Witch Castle, the poppy side was facing the audience, and the wall bled through (it was a scrim), and as the Witch rose into the air on her broom (Similar to the "Defying Gravity" minus the cherry picker), the unit split and Emerald City rose up from behind it. The flying monkeys (aside from Nikko and two others) were on roller skates, and had a series of ramps to play on. For the return to Kansas, Dorothy stood on the platform, and it slowly spun, with the varying leads on it, and they quickly exited behind a black curtain to do the costume changes.

The worst I saw was a High School production. Some of it's "highlights" included:
Dorothy wearing black heels in Kansas and sheer pantyhose...no socks
Toto skipping with the Four Friends
No Poppyfield
A Pink and Orange Emerald City (NO GREEN PERIOD)
And FAR too much dry ice smoke.

Anyone else?

[Piercemn]

Posted: 1/14/07 at 3:53pm

I've seen the MUNY version twice. The first time was a high school production that was rather clever and enjoyable. The second version tried too hard to be creative and ultimately wasn't. The Scarecrow, Tin Man and Lion were all costumed with food items all over them, and the Munchkins were called the Munchies. The revolving bridge resembled a KFC box and the idea ran out of steam.

The Dorothy, played by the directors' daughter, was overweight and she tied her gingham blouse at the waist.

The only really good thing about this disaster was that they did the Kansas sections, except for Dorothy's costume, in shades of grey and black.

This theatre later did an awful Sound of Music and even worse, an Annie which was so bad that I promised myself I'd never go back there again.

I'd love to see a really good production of the RSC version.

[kyle.]

Posted: 1/14/07 at 4:42pm

I'll post mine later tonight when I have time!! :)

[lightguy06222]

Posted: 1/14/07 at 8:12pm

i dont get it? Whats the problem?? The three farmhands are in Oz(scarecrow, tinman, and lion), Ms Gultch is the Wicked Witch, so whats wrong with Em and Henry also being in Oz??

Open your eyes to new ideas

[husk_charmer]

Posted: 1/14/07 at 9:16pm

Lightguy-
My big complaint to it is this:
Dorothy spends the entire movie trying to get back home, specifically her concern is placed on "Aunt Em." Notice, she never has a worry about Hunk, Zeke or Hickory, because they are with her She never worries about Mrs. Gulch becuase she too is there. In fact, the reason she doesn't need to ask about her on her return home in the film is because she has conquered her not once, but twice. If Aunt Em is in Oz as a central figure then there is no real need for Dorothy to return. The reason her subconcious did not create Aunt Em as Glinda is because that makes the need to get home stronger. Does that make sense?

[B3TA07]

Posted: 1/14/07 at 9:34pm

I figured Aunt Em was a rainbow and the tornado was an allusion to the Industrial Revolution.


Did Sparknotes lie to me?

[Raviolisun]

Posted: 1/14/07 at 9:57pm

That would be akin to casting an actress as Tinker Bell

We did that in a production of Peter Pan I was in, and it actually worked pretty well.

[StageManager2]

Posted: 1/14/07 at 10:07pm

Care to elaborate, Raviolisun?

[B3TA07]

Posted: 1/14/07 at 10:10pm

It was Peter Pan.
An actress played Tinker Bell live onstage.
It worked.


Is there really much more to say?
Do you want diagrams?

[SeanMartin]

Posted: 1/14/07 at 10:12pm

Community Theatre of Greensboro does it every year around Christmas, and every year it gets more and more haphazard. The scenery is a hodge podge of the last twenty years (Drops are replaced as they wear out, and instead of recreating the original designer's work, they farm it out to whomever they're using for their season, and the drop comes back reflective of *that* designer's work.). As a result, the Munchkins live in a land that looks heavily arte deco, while the Emerald City is... well, I'm not sure what it's supposed to be. But it's a pretty terrible production all around.

I was asked to design the RSC version for a company here in North Carolina, and the director and I worked together for a few months trying to come up with a new approach that would be true to the material but take it away from the usual "Oz" kind of fantasy look. The final design was an interesting piece of work (Our Wizard was going to be this huge head that was actually a full body costume; when hs secret is revealed, the head collapses into a robe/caftan kind of thing), but maybe 60% of it actually made it to the stage because the director (who was just taking over the reins as artistic director) arrived to find the shop in shambles, which reduced our build time to two weeks. We were rebuilding even in the last hour before curtain. But one of these days I want to take another shot at it and have some serious fun with it.

[kyle.]

Posted: 1/14/07 at 10:44pm

Sean, wonderful work on your website! Your designs are beautiful! I went looking for photos of your Oz designs. Got any of those on your computer you would be willing to share?

B3TA07, if you don't have anything constructive to add to this thread there is no need for you to post. No, I'm not telling you what to do. But seriously.

[husk_charmer]

Posted: 1/14/07 at 10:49pm

B3-
I second Kyle's comment. Yes, there have been parallels between the original Baum book and Populism, but it's not well founded.

[DaisyMae]

Posted: 1/18/07 at 12:48pm

I've been in the 1940s version twice (once as a lullaby-leager and once as Dorothy).

The script follows the books very closely and includes book characters as well as different placements of songs. There is also no Toto.

Also, instead of ruby slippers, Dorothy gets the "sorceror's mark on her forehead. i felt pretty dumb with a sticker on my head.

[sweetestsiren]

Posted: 1/18/07 at 1:00pm

I played Glinda in our high school's production, and Glinda and the Emerald City doorman doubled as Auntie Em and Uncle Henry -- though, as others have pointed out, it might've made more sense to add additional roles by not doing that. It also necessitated some insanely quick costume changes, for that matter, but it was a blast. It was the RSC version where Glinda sings the Optimistic Voices solo in addition to "Come out, come out..."

I disagree that doubling Auntie Em and Uncle Henry is a problem for the story, though -- if anything, it's consistency. ALL of the people she meets in Oz then have their Kansas counterparts, not all of whom are exactly the same, though they do possess qualities that make it reasonable to draw the character comparisons.