Wizard of Oz National Tour

[nightnic001]

Posted: 1/17/16 at 6:07pm

I saw the new tour of Wizard of Oz last night in Indy. For a non-equity tour the production values were pretty nice, the stage was automated which was a pleasant surprise. Some of the projections sequences were pretty lengthy (especially the tornado, What was up with that?? The house went into space at one point), and the flying monkey one was pretty bad. 

 

Everyone gave good performances, nothing that stood out, in a good or bad way. I felt like some of the changes made to this version worked well and some did not. Part of me liked how quick you met all 3 of the friends, and part of me didn't. It felt rushed in some places, but yet still flowed well. 

 

Overall, It was good but not great. I wasn't disappointed, but wasn't thrilled either. If you can get discount tickets (which we did), or you are just a huge fan of Wizard of Oz it will be an enjoyable night out. 

[TheGingerBreadMan]

Posted: 1/17/16 at 6:09pm

I'll be seeing it in July. Glad to hear it's in relatively good shape this early on. 

[Broadway kid 2]

Posted: 1/17/16 at 7:08pm

Good to hear 

[Call_me_jorge]

Posted: 1/17/16 at 7:49pm

Ever since I've seen wicked I haven't been able to look at the wizard of oz the same way I did prior. I just can't help but feel sorry for the wicked witch of the east and west.

[Markecib]

Posted: 1/17/16 at 8:58pm

I saw the tour 2 weeks ago. It was just "meh." The cast is fine, but I think the production, to me, looked cheap. That set was on high school level. The projections were overused, that tornado scene was awkward.

I did like some of the new songs, the new witches song was good and I liked the way everything book was was organized, but the set was awful and made worse when you look up videos of the Canadiana be London versions.

 

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 3/16/16 at 11:26am

I saw the tour last night. They began the performance 15 minutes late and there was a small technical issue near the end of act one. I could tell something was up because the actors seemed to be running out of dialogue waiting for the wizard to make his appearance and the scenery that we later saw used to reveal his projection would not slide into place so the curtain came down and the lights were brought up. Most people assumed it was intermission and even applauded but there was an announcement that they were having a technical issue and that the act was not yet completed. About five minutes later the show resumed and they finished the final scene of act one.

 

I'm not a huge fan of the new material or the new songs by Webber and Rice. With two additional songs in Kansas it seems like the Kansas scenes go on forever and the Oz scenes are a race to the intermission. I feel like there may have been plenty of songs by Harold Arlen that could have been used to expand the score and I don't understand inserting new songs and cutting songs from the film like "King of the Forest" and "The Jitterbug" which was also cut from the film but could have been used since "Red Shoes Blues" and the dance sequence that follows essentially steals that same idea of having the characters dance until they are too exhausted to fight off the flying monkeys. Overall though I felt like the cast was strong and the production values are pretty impressive for a tour even as scaled down as they are from the West End version. It's a long two and a half hours so maybe not the best show for young kids who can't sit still that long but if you can get a discounted ticket I guess I could recommend this tour. I think I'd rather just watch the movie though, and with the over use of projections in this production we all might as well have.

[downhillskier]

Posted: 4/12/16 at 9:59am

Curious to know what people think of this tour. Debating about purchasing tickets. Thanks!

[rebeccmam31]

Posted: 4/12/16 at 10:14am

downhillskier said: "Curious to know what people think of this tour. Debating about purchasing tickets. Thanks!"

I went to this with my best friend and our two 14-year-old daughters.  Of the four of us, only one person liked it at all (my friend's daughter).  We all disliked the changes and were underwhelmed by the performances.  We agreed that it seemed like the scarecrow was trying to channel Olaf from Frozen with his speech and manner.  It was definitely a miss for me, I'm sorry to say.  And I wanted to like it because I had a friend in the ensemble (fortunately I was genuinely able to say that the dancing was good).