The Wizard of Oz Opens at the London Palladium

New West End musical The Wizard of Oz opened at the London Palladium on March 01, 2011 with a cast led by Over the Rainbow winner Danielle Hope in the role of Dorothy. The Andrew Lloyd Webber and Bill Kenwright production features new songs to compliment the already famous score by EY Harburg and Harold Arlen, that includes such classics as Over the Rainbow and We’re Off to See the Wizard.

The critics have certainly been impressed by the lavish production values and energy of the show.  The Times noting: “Hope is charming: sweetly naive and sincere. When she first soars into ‘Over the Rainbow’ without a tremor, applause stops the action … The tornado gets applause too — no mechanical or projection device is spared as the farmhouse whirls through outer space to land in the primary-coloured toytown of Oz, with a pair of dead witch’s legs under it… Crawford brings vulnerability and humour. I warmed to it at last, despite a helpless sense that it’s a juggernaut. A predetermined hit.”

The Wizard of Oz Theatre Breaks

Oz-Prequel Wicked Now a West End Fixture

Based on Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West”, a parallel novel to L.Frank Baum’s original Wizard of Oz written by Gregory Maguire and illustrated by Douglas Smith, Wicked is a brilliant family musical the Apollo Victoria Theatre. The familiar story is retold from the point of view of Elphaba (the Wicked Witch of the West), beginning with her days as a young sorcery student studying alongside Glinda (the future Good Witch of the North). Wicked made its Broadway debut in 2003, and took its first West End bow three years later in 2006. It has since celebrated more than 1,000 performances and made stars of various leading ladies, including Alexia Khadime, Rachel Tucker and Kerry Ellis.

Wicked Theatre Breaks