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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.

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.”

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