The Stage

The Wizard of Oz

Published Friday 7 December 2007 at 11:20 by Scott Matthewman

Successfully mixing the charm of the classic 1939 MGM film with more up-to-date references from The Wiz and Wicked and several nods to traditional panto business, the Elgiva’s latest Christmas show is more of a family musical than the pantomime it sometimes feels it wants to be.

Bobbie Chatt is an infectiously enjoyable lead as Dorothy, with standout solo numbers that set the standard for the rest of the show to match. Her Oz friends all endear themselves to the audience immediately, while Linda Clark as the Wicked Witch of the West provides the perfect evil foil in true traditional style.

So effective are the Oz-based plot scenes and songs that the traditional panto elements, most of which take place in the overlong second act, feel out of place. They went down a treat with the younger element of the audience, but it does feel as if the show lacked the confidence to decide if it was a pure pantomime or a Christmas musical.

Audience spirit remained undampened throughout, however. Occasional sound dropouts, missed lighting and performance cues and a tornado sequence ruined by a video so dark as to be nearly invisible could not dampen the atmosphere within the theatre, which is surely the mark of a good production.