The Wizard of Oz
By L.Frank Baum
Windmill
Dunstan Playhouse, Adelaide Festival Centre.
June 30. Tickets: $29. Group of 6 – $24.
Bookings BASS 131 246
Until July 11.
Sydney Theatre Company season
October 23- November 1.

It is 70 years since, in the legendary MGM movie, Judy Garland’s Dorothy was mysteriously transported from her monochrome mid-western farm to the technicolor Land of Oz. Now, Windmill theatre director, Rosemary Myers, has given the L.Frank Baum classic a new spin with an up-dated production and an energized creative team. Kansas – the home that there is no place like – has become a caravan park, Aunt Em is a bottle blonde in hot pants, the farm hands are dubious “uncles”, and Miss Gultch wears a twin-set and rides an invalid’s scooter.

But Dorothy, winningly played by Ursula Yovich, and Toto (the lanky Hamish Fletcher) are, as ever, at the centre of a story about tribulation, persistence, kindness and safe return. The Scarecrow (Luke Clayson) is now an addle-brained fashion model, the Tin Man (Patrick Graham) looks like a Chinese tomb warrior, but is still without a heart, and the not-very-brave Lion (Ezra Juanta) has a white fur mane and an orange Vegas jumpsuit. As for the Wicked Witch of the West (Geoff Revell) she is all in Narnia white and has the eyes of Marilyn Manson.

Rosemary Myers has gathered an excellent crew. Jonathan Oxlade’s design, much of it expertly managed as video projections by Chris More, is inventive and illustratively original, while Geoff Cobham’s lighting – from the cyclone sequence to the Haunted Forest (and let’s not forget the Emerald City nightclub) – is also terrific fun.

The music, arranged and performed by Jethro Woodward (with Paul White on Hammond organ) retains the vim and verve of E.Y. Harburg’s witty lyrics and, with some electric guitar here and some beats added there, adds grunt to some of the Harold Arlen tunes that the composer would surely approve. No-one, though, could resist Ursula Yovich’s soulful version of Over the Rainbow which she has definitely made her own.

All the performances are strong – from the feckless trio appealingly played by Luke Clayson, Patrick Graham and Ezra Juanta, to Geoff Revell’s wickedly witchy turn, the versatile Alirio Zavarce’s Wizard and bouncer, and Jude Henshall’s ditzy Glinda and racy Aunt Em. But it is Ursula Yovich, keeping close to the verities of the text, who assures the success of this Windmill remake.

For that reason Rosemary Myers might reconsider blemishes like the distractingly satiric cosmetic surgery send-up in the Ozmetics scene , and the needlessly flippant treatment of the Wizard’s speech on bravery, brains and empathy at the end. The reason The Wizard of Oz is a proven classic is that it has the brains to know where its heart is. This delightful production follows the yellow brick road to Sydney in October.

Murray Bramwell

“Modern take on a timeless tale sure to bring the house down” The Australian, July 2, 2009, p.10.