X
Recipient's email
Your name
Your email
Message (optional)

E-mail to a friend

Chit Chat - Squabbling over on the yellow brick road

Published Tuesday 8 July 2008 at 12:20 by Tabard

We’ve also been amused to see the exchange of opinions going on in the Guardian’s letters column recently between cast members on the Southbank Centre’s production of the Wizard of Oz.

Gary Wilmot (The Cowardly Lion), Adam Cooper (The Tin Man), Sian Brooke (Dorothy), Hilton McRae (The Scarecrow) and Bob (Toto) in The Wizard of Oz at the Southbank Centre

Gary Wilmot (The Cowardly Lion), Adam Cooper (The Tin Man), Sian Brooke (Dorothy), Hilton McRae (The Scarecrow) and Bob (Toto) in The Wizard of Oz at the Southbank Centre Photo: Alastair Muir

It all started with a letter from Hilton McRae, who is playing the Scarecrow in the show.

He said: “In Alfred Hickling’s review of Monkey (June 21), he wrote: ‘The character of the Monkey usurped the narrative … which is rather like the Scarecrow taking top billing in the Wizard of Oz.’ What’s wrong with that?”

This was followed by a missive from Gary Wilmot and Adam Cooper (Lion and Tin Man), who complained: “It has come to our attention that our colleague, the Scarecrow, has been implying he is the starring role in The Wizard of Oz at the Royal Festival Hall this summer (Letters, June 26). In fact we, the Lion and Tin Man, carry the entire story and the Scarecrow is merely a subplot. We are sorry he seems to have an inflated sense of his importance. He is clearly clutching at straws, as he hasn’t got a brain.”

Then, the public got involved. Brian Hartigan from Banstead in Surrey warned them all, “So the Scarecrow, Lion and Tin Man all claim to be the star of The Wizard of Oz (Letters, July 2). They should be careful - Dorothy has a lot of friends out there.”

Tabard hears that the matter isn’t going to rest there, though.

“There’s one going off today,” explains Jude Kelly, the show’s director, “because the Wizard of Oz isn’t very happy about it. Toto will be the piece de resistance.”

E-mail to a friend

SEARCH THE STAGE

Also in Features [RSS]

Back from the dead: The animatronic comeback
Animatronics may have been overtaken by CGI in films, but it’s making a…
Chit Chat: Funeral chic with a twist
On to a very different type of grand dame of the stage - last week the…
TV review
It is possible to have too much macabre weirdness in one programme.
Radio review - drama
John Barrowman gives every sign of having the kind of Lycra personality that…
Chit Chat: The Jackson distraction
The other notable passing of the last few weeks - well, probably the decade,…
Chit Chat: Complaints when Judi speaks rudely
Tabard was amused to read recent reports that “almost every time” Dame Judi…
Memories of Michael
Michael Jackson played an unprecedented seven sell-out concerts at Wembley…
Don’t rely on a cunning stunt
Using shock tactics at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe is less likely to garner…
Spiro’s inspired roles
Currently starring as Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing in Regent’s Park,…
Experiencing theatres
A K Bennett-Hunter picks some moments from the recent Theatres Trust conference

Content is copyright © 2009 The Stage Newspaper Limited unless otherwise stated.

All RSS feeds are published for personal, non-commercial use. (What’s RSS?)