Love Never Dies will be filmed and released on DVD at some date yet to be announced, Andrew Lloyd Webber told the New York Times. The US newspaper didn’t specify whether Lloyd Webber plans to film the Melbourne or London production of Love Never Dies, but it does seem that a New York arrival may not be imminent.

The New Wizard of Oz London Cast Recording The full London cast album recording of The Wizard Of Oz is to be released on 2nd May 2011 on Polydor Records in association with Really Useful Group. The 24 track set includes all the much-loved songs from the Oscar-winning movie score by Harold Arlen and E Y Harburg plus new songs by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice. The Wizard Of Oz cast recording features the full London cast of performers including the multi-award winning Michael Crawford and Danielle Hope, the winner of the BBC One hit TV show Over The Rainbow. The superb supporting cast comprises of Edward Baker-Duly (Tin Man), David Ganly (Cowardly Lion), Paul Keating (Scarecrow), Emily Tierney (Glinda) and Hannah Waddingham (Wicked Witch Of the West) accompanied by a 36 strong ensemble. Here’s the track listing from the show: Tracklisting ACT ONE 1. Overture 2. Nobody Understands Me 3. Over The Rainbow 4. Wonders Of The World 5. The Twister 6. Arrival In Munchkinland 7. Munchkinland / Ding Dong! The Witch is Dead 8. Follow The Yellow Brick Road 9. If I Only Had A Brain / We’re Off To See The Wizard 10. If I Only Had A Heart / We’re Off To See The Wizard 11. If I Only Had The Nerve / We’re Off To See The Wizard 12. We’re Outta The Woods 13. The Merry Old Land Of Oz 14. Bring Me The Broomstick ACT TWO 15. Haunted Forest 16. Red Shoe Blues 17. Bacchanalia 18. Red Shoe Blues (Reprise) 19. Over The Rainbow (Reprise) 20. If We Only Had A Plan 21. The Rescue 22. Hail Hail! The Witch is Dead 23. The Wizards Departure 24. Finale Read more: http://theatrebreaks.co/wiki/The_Wizard_of_Oz#The_New_Wizard_of_Oz_London_Cast_Recording#ixzz1IeYsvze4

According to a report by Variety magazine, Cameron Mackintosh is launching a tour of The Phantom of the Opera in 2012, with the tour director for Les Miserables directing the production. Mackintosh told Daily Variety the Andrew Lloyd Webber blockbuster will be produced in an all-new version. Directed by Laurence Connor, it will feature new sets and costumes by Paul Brown and lighting by three-time Olivier Award winner Paule Constable. Mackintosh said the production will open at a regional UK house. The tour of Phantom is something that has been mooted in the West End for some time. It is the 25th Anniversary of Phantom in October this year with rumours of a special concert at the Royal Albert Hall. So a tour next year would make sense. Also Ramin Karimloo who has just extended his contract to play the Phantom in Love Never Dies has been tweeting that he has an exciting project lined up for next year  

Theatre reviews for The Wizard of Oz, Million Dollar Quartet, Great Expectations, And the Rain Falls Down. See also previous Wizard of Oz Review

This article titled “The Wizard of Oz; Million Dollar Quartet; Great Expectations; And the Rain Falls Down – review” was written by Kate Kellaway, for The Observer on Sunday 6th March 2011 00.04 UTC We’re off to see the Wizard, and whether he is wonderful or not is going to depend partly on Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s reworking of Frank Baum’s book and of the classic 1939 movie. Danielle Hope, auditioned on the BBC’s talent show Over the Rainbow, is also making her debut as Dorothy. And, at the Palladium on the first night, the buzz is unmistakable. But we start by dropping in on a humble Kansas chicken farm where there is nothing more eventful to report than a broken incubator. No wonder Dorothy wants to leave home. This is also where we first clap eyes on the charming Toto, a white Cairn terrier, who deserves a review to himself (I hope there were treats offstage). Toto survives the yellow brick road, a circular treadmill, and is only occasionally understudied – when the going gets tough – by a stuffed toy Danielle Hope’s Dorothy deserves offstage treats, too – for her marvellous performance. If there is a problem, it is with the script. So many of her lines are plaintive, and the unvarying tone of high-pitched petitioning becomes an irritant. But, as a singer, she is perfect. Her voice has warmth, delicacy and power. She starts with the decent, if also-ran, new number “Nobody Understands Me” but we do not have to wait long for ‘”Over the Rainbow” which she offers in a centred, direct, affecting way. It is wonderful to watch her tilt her face upwards, allowing her voice to take off – as if letting out the string of a kite. Michael Crawford has cast himself as her protector. In his benign incarnation as Professor Marvel (the Wizard’s earthly alter-ego), he is encountered outside his caravan about to eat a sausage (which is nicked by Toto). He shows Dorothy magic lantern slides and sings “The Wonders of the World” (by far the best of the new numbers) about pyramids, the Eiffel tower, humpback whales… And he reminds us that he is a bit of a wonder himself, engagingly good at conversing his way through a song. Pots of gold, at the end of the rainbow, must have paid for Robert Jones’s spectacular sets, offset by Jon Driscoll’s virtuoso special effects. A fantastic cyclone transports Dorothy out of Kansas. An airborne cow, random masonry and Dorothy’s house – like a disintegrating matchbox – are hurled into the void. This effect is such a tour de force that Oz seems Toy Townish on arrival, a comedown – in every sense. But the emerald city brings a return to form: a green light district with art deco details, tipsy angles and the Wizard’s alarming residence. The good witch (Emily Tierney) is good – a magical air hostess. The bad witch (Hannah Waddingham) is bad (in a good way). Her “Red Shoes Blues” (another new song) is witty, full-blooded and magnificently performed. As the scarecrow, Paul Keating is poignant, merry and a natural at collapsing. Edward Baker-Duly’s tin man is excellent too, with rusty voice and echoing chest. David Ganly’s cowardly lion, in caramel catsuit and 60s mane, is sweetly camp, coming out with the line: “I’m proud to be a friend of Dorothy’s.” And Jeremy Sams’s direction is undaunted throughout. This show knows where it is going, as surely as if Dorothy had satnav to guide her home. Million Dollar Quartet focuses on 4 December 1956, when Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Elvis Presley and Carl Perkins were together at Sun Records, Memphis, Tennessee. This creates an opportunistic excuse for an almost non-stop performance of their hits. This jukebox musical plays so safe it ought to be dangerous, but a fresh cast, directed with pizzazz, by Eric Schaeffer, saves it. Ben Goddard, as Jerry Lee Lewis, is a sensation: manically musical. Michael Malarkey has an admirable stab at Elvis (an impossible undertaking). Robert Britton Lyons (the only cast member imported from the US) convinces as Carl Perkins. And Derek Hagen exactly catches Johnny Cash’s brooding quality. The “story” is held together by record producer/narrator Sam Phillips (a capable Bill Ward). I took one of my teenage sons along. He has had no experience of blue suede shoes, great balls of fire or of hound dogs – at least, not musically speaking. “The music was great,” he said. Tanika Gupta’s intrepid idea is to transpose Dickens’s Great Expectations into 1861 India. Sensibly, she keeps Memsahib Havisham (Lynn Farleigh) recognisable: an ancient bride-in-waiting but also daughter of an East India company trader. Pip (Tariq Jordan) is a likable lad who leaps out of the guava trees of his childhood into a challenging Calcutta adulthood as a nouveau riche English gentleman. Colin Richmond’s design attractively suggests an India of sunlight, silk and calico. But keep your expectations modest too: for all its promise, the surgery on the novel has been violent. Its staccato dialogue rings false. And, oddly enough, the abbreviations do not rescue the show from its longueurs. And the Rain Falls Down is conceived by talented theatre company Fevered Sleep (directed by David Harradine) and aimed at three- to four-year-olds. There is a cloud, like a bathmat, on the floor. Other clouds are pinned on a washing line. The show is, in case you couldn’t guess, about rain. It is beautifully simple and intermittently torrential. Two actors get drenched. The woman (Karina Garnett) adores it. The man (Carl Patrick) is a more cautious anorak-wearer. There is much umbrella innovation: little ones are equipped with see-through brollies and invited to splash about. Eventually there will be an umbrella rainbow. The audience, at the show I attended, split into land-lubbers and water babies. Several landlubbers were crying heartily not wanting to go over – let alone under – the rainbow.

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The Wizard of Oz stars Danielle Hope and Michael Crawford.

Hannah Waddingham sings Red Shoes Blues

One of the new songs written by Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber for the new musical Wizard of Oz in London. I want her shoeless.

After a great opening in London, an acclaimed first year and a partial redesign and rewrite, Love Never Dies takes its first step away from the Adelphi Theatre soon as the Australian production opens in Melbourne in June 2011. Love Never Dies Australian Cast Love Never Dies Australia Cast The Australian Christine is to be played by a previous Christine from The Phantom Of The Opera. Anna O’Byrne has already played the part to great acclaim in an Australian tour of The Phantom of the Opera. Anna is an award-winning classically trained singer, and has performed as Polly Peachum in The Threepenny Opera and appeared in works by Mozart, Puccini and Ibert for The Victorian Opera, Victorian College of the Arts and Victorian Youth Opera. The Phantom  in the new Australian production of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Love Never Dies is being played by Ben Lewis. Ben’s previous stage credits include the original Australian cast of Priscilla Queen of the Desert – The Musical, Sir Galahad in the original Australian cast of Monty Python’s Spamalot, two-seasons as Count Carl-Magnus in Stephen Sondheim’s A Little Night Music, Urinetown with Sydney Theatre Company and Polites in The Odyssey for Black Swan and the Malthouse.

Performances begin in Melbourne on May 29th 2011 at the Regent Theatre.

Well there wasn’t that much to see of Danielle Hope on the One Show it turned out in the end, but Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber told a few interesting anecdotes about the preparations for the first previews of The Wizard of Oz coming up in just about a week.

Ramin Karimloo (the Phantom) and Sierra Boggess (Christine) will be starring in a concert on Friday Night is Music Night broadcast on Friday 17th December on BBC Radio 2 from 8:00pm-10:00pm. If you miss it on the night and you are a UK resident don;t worry because you will be able to log in to the BBC Radio “Listen again” service, the iPLayer – a link to the exact show will be provided here later. Ramin and Sierra from Love Never Dies sing a selection of music about the masked men of stage and screen with a programme that includes songs from Robin Hood, William Tell, The Masked Ball, Batman and Spiderman. Andrew Lloyd Webber gets to introduce the pieces from his own shows including The Phantom of the Opera and Love Never Dies with Ramin and Sierra accompanied by the BBC Concert Orchestra conducted by Simon Lee.

A consortium led by Michael Grade, the broadcast executive, has bought four of London’s West End theatres for £50m from Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Really Useful Group (RUG). Andrew Lloyd Webber announced: It has been a totally gut-wrenching decision for me to decide to sell the four theatres, however following my illness last year I was advised to reduce the debt in the family company. My commitment to composing, producing and theatre ownership remains as strong as ever. Michael Grade has family connections with the theatre. His father, Leslie Grade, was a theatrical agent , and his uncles were Lew Grade and Bernard Delfont, co-founder of theatre group Delfont Mackintosh Theatres. The four theatres involved in the sales are these: The Palace Theatre – currently playing Priscilla – Queen of the Desert The New London Theatre - currently playing War Horse The Cambridge Theatre - currently playing Chicago Her Majesty’s Theatre – The Phantom of the Opera The sale represents 4,900 theatre seats altogether. RUG retains ownership of larger theatres including The London Palladium – Soon to be the home of The Wizard of Oz The Theatre Royal Drury Lane – Currently showing Oliver!,  soon Shrek the Musical 50 per cent stake in the Adelphi – currently home for the London production of Love Never Dies, Andrew Lloyd Webbers most recent new show. He also said: I am particularly proud that over the 25 years that I have owned the Palace I have been able to restore the magnificent auditorium and the exterior, thereby removing the huge neon advertising hoarding that defaced both the theatre and Cambridge Circus. I have agreed the purchase price be reduced by £5m to enable GradeLinnit to invest this sum in the theatres, principally in the Palace.

A 100th birthday party was held for and at the London Palladium where The Wizard of Oz will open next February.  Andrew Lloyd Webber , Danielle Hope, Bruce Forsyth, Michael Ball and a host of other celebrities associated with the Palladium were present on a Tuesday lunchtime to unveil a plaque, toast one of London’s favourite theatres, and hear Andrew Lloyd Webber talk about the planned refurbishment.

London Palladium 1910- 2010 100 years of great entertainment

Speaking to a glittering showbiz audience including Phillip Schofield, Elaine Paige, Jason Donovan, Bruce Forsyth, and Des O’Connor Andrew Lloyd Webber said: “Today’s celebration is about recognising the rich history of this wonderful theatre and the fantastic performers who have graced its stage. It is also about the beginning of the biggest programme of refurbishment and change in the Palladium’s history and I’m delighted to announce the restoration of the iconic revolving stage and plans for the complete refurbishment of the front of house areas.”

The main entrance and facade need to be repaired, a new box office area created, a new lift installed, and toilet facilities improved all before The Wizard of Oz opens in February 2011.

Danielle Hope was there of course, and spoke about her forthcoming part in the history of the London Palladium as Dorothy, leading role in The Wizard of Oz:

“Hello! and happy 100th birthday to the London Palladium. What an amazing afternoon. A wonderful group of people and such a great place to celebrate, I’m so proud  that I can be a part of it. There has been such tremendous history here, so far, and hopefully I shall make some more, all good I hope. So have a look at the cake, and Happy Birthday Palladium, cheers”

Love Never Dies By the time many people read this the free tickets competition will be over, so I’ll write about why I think you might like to consider Love Never Dies theatre breaks anyway. I guess you may have already seen The Phantom of The Opera ? The most successful piece of live entertainment ever, it’s been on long enough. Or maybe your parents enjoyed it thirty years ago when Michael Crawford played the Phantom. Well Love Never Dies is a continuation of the story, but with completely new twists. The scene is set ten years after the incident at the Paris Opera House, and the Phantom is now presiding over a huge entertainment complex at Coney Island, New York. He manages to manipulate Christine and Raoul into sailing across the Atlantic and into his lair. But there’s much more than that… Some of the music in Love Never Dies comes from the operetta genre, some from light entertainment and some even from a rock background. This is the fusion which Andrew Lloyd Webber does so well. The staging, sets and costumes are magnificent, so you really do see a big musical theatre event up there on the big stage. This is certainly not one of your small cast and minimalist aesthetics plays, like many even in the West End, not that there’s anything wrong with that. Ramin Karimloo and Sierra Boggess are both star quality singers in the lead roles and it’s nice to hear the full orchestra getting a proper work out. Love Never Dies Did I mention the free tickets? Love Never Dies Tickets Competition One pair of top price tickets have been donated. That’s worth around £180 normally. Now, you’d need to be able to get to the London Adelphi Theatre for tomorrow night, Saturday 9th October 2010. So if you are in London anyway, and can clear out all of your prior engagements to be free then you’d do well to nip over and quickly enter the simple competition on the Love Never Dies blog. The odds are not against you! Here’s the link again… http://www.loveneverdiesphantom.co.uk Love Never Dies Theatre Breaks If you don’t have easy access to the capital then buying London theatre breaks packages with the tickets and convenient hotel room plus optional discount rail travel is nearly always the best way to go.

Other London Theatre Breaks to see West End Musicals

The Wizard of Oz The Phantom Of The Opera Les Miserables Ghost

Love Never Dies By the time many people read this the free tickets competition will be over, so I’ll write about why I think you might like to consider Love Never Dies theatre breaks anyway. I guess you may have already seen The Phantom of The Opera ? The most successful piece of live entertainment ever, it’s been on long enough. Or maybe your parents enjoyed it thirty years ago when Michael Crawford played the Phantom. Well Love Never Dies is a continuation of the story, but with completely new twists. The scene is set ten years after the incident at the Paris Opera House, and the Phantom is now presiding over a huge entertainment complex at Coney Island, New York. He manages to manipulate Christine and Raoul into sailing across the Atlantic and into his lair. But there’s much more than that…

Some of the music in Love Never Dies comes from the operetta genre, some from light entertainment and some even from a rock background. This is the fusion which Andrew Lloyd Webber does so well. The staging, sets and costumes are magnificent, so you really do see a big musical theatre event up there on the big stage. This is certainly not one of your small cast and minimalist aesthetics plays, like many even in the West End, not that there’s anything wrong with that. Ramin Karimloo and Sierra Boggess are both star quality singers in the lead roles and it’s nice to hear the full orchestra getting a proper work out. Did I mention the free tickets? Love Never Dies Tickets Competition One pair of top price tickets have been donated. That’s worth around £180 normally. Now, you’d need to be able to get to the London Adelphi Theatre for tomorrow night, Saturday 9th October 2010. So if you are in London anyway, and can clear out all of your prior engagements to be free then you’d do well to nip over and quickly enter the simple competition on the Love Never Dies blog. The odds are not against you! Here’s the link again… http://www.loveneverdiesphantom.co.uk Love Never Dies Theatre Breaks If you don’t have easy access to the capital then buying London theatre breaks packages with the tickets and convenient hotel room plus optional discount rail travel is nearly always the best way to go.

Other London Theatre Breaks to see West End Musicals

Theatre Breaks The Wizard of Oz The Phantom Of The Opera Les Miserables Ghost

Thanks for subscribing to Andy Roberts blogLove Never Dies London Theatre Breaks

Related posts:7 Best London Theatre Breaks Theatre breaks in London Theatre Breaks

If you are very quick and can make it to London’s West End for Saturday 9th October 2010 you could very well win two free tickets to see Love Never Dies at the Adelphi. There’s a quick fire competition over on the Love Never Dies blog to win two top price tickets and all you have to do is leave a comment. Love Never Dies continues the story of the Phantom of The Opera with Raoul, Christine and the Phantom ten years later set in Coney Island, New York around 1910. Andrew Lloyd Webber’s big musical has been running in London since February 2010 and is due to open in Australia and Toronto soon, then eventually Broadway, New York. Easily one of the best big musicals in London, Love Never Dies is a feast for eyes and the ears from the start and keeps your interest right the way through with some very clever changes of tone and scene. To win two tickets urgently, you’ll need to go over to the Love Never Dies blog right away and leave a comment saying why you’d like to see the show on Saturday. Here’s the link again: http://loveneverdiesphantom.co.uk Good luck!

Love Never Dies Tickets Competition was originally posted at London Theatre Breaks blog

As you probably know by now, The Wizard of Oz begins previews in London during February 2011, with the exact start date as yet not firm, but advertised as 7th february and with a provisional official opening date and press night of March 1st 2011. Well here’s another landmark date for the process at the London Palladium, with a special charity gala night full performance of The Wizard of Oz in aid of Great Ormond Street Hospital Children’s Charity “Theatres for Theatres” Appeal. Following the excitement of BBC TV’s smash hit Over the Rainbow, we are delighted to announce a special gala performance of the family musical, The Wizard of Oz, coming to the London Palladium on Tuesday 15th of February 2011. This enchanting adaptation of the much-loved classic has been completely reconceived for the stage by the award-winning creative team behind the recent revival of the Sound of Music. The new production contains all of your favourite songs from the Oscar winning movie score, all the characters and iconic moments, plus a few surprises along the way, including breathtaking scenery and a revolving stage, and some new songs by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice. Spectators will get a chance to see Danielle Hope, the winner of Over the Rainbow who captured the hearts of the country, playing the role of Dorothy. Danielle will also be joined by Michael Crawford as the Wizard. Crawford is internationally renowned for originating the title role in The Phantom of the Opera and loved by millions for his role in the classic British sitcom, Some Mothers Do ‘Ave ‘Em. via We’re off to see the Wizard of Oz Charity Gala… and Michael Crawford is the Wizard! « Great Ormond Street Hospital Charity. Theatres for Theatres is an exciting three-year initiative to raise £4 million to make a dramatic difference to the lives of our young patients requiring specialist brain surgery. The initiative will help to fund two new state-of-the-art operating theatres to be used by the Neurosciences team. The theatres will be used to treat children with complex and often life-threatening neurological and craniofacial conditions. Theatres for Theatres will create world-class facilities which could allow treatment of up to 20 per cent more children in the next ten years.

Actress Carrie Sutton has been cast in The Wizard of Oz with a  contract up until early 2012 according to The Scunthorpe Telegraph . “I’m looking forward to working with Andrew Lloyd Webber for the first time and Michael Crawford who is playing the wizard. The London Palladium feels like my second home. The Wizard of Oz will be my third performance here and I have a contract until early 2012.” Carrie Sutton is currently in Sister Act and has been working with Sheila Hancock and Whoopi Goldberg at The London Palladium, the exact same theatre where The Wizard of Oz will open in 2011. She has also been in Cabaret, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and Imagine This. Carrie has done a lot of chorus work and understudying lead roles so far in her career but what will be her role in The Wizard of Oz? If Hannah Waddigham is confirmed as the WIcked Witch then would probably leave Carrie the role of Glinda, the Good Witch.

Carrie Sutton is in Sister Act at the London Palladium

Two Shows for Theatre Breaks In London 2011 I’m going to suggest two shows that I think will be very popular for theatre breaks in London by the end of 2011. The first has already been mentioned in passing at the end of the previous post about New Season Theatre Breaks in London and that show is The Wizard of Oz. The new musical of The Wizard of Oz just has so many things going for it that it’s hard to see how it can fail. The first thing is the timeless popularity of the film and the book and all of the amateur and professional adaptations of the Wizard of Oz that have been produced over the years. Building on a heritage such as this is unadventurous, sure but it gives the venture a head a shoulders start. The next cunning ploy was to use a TV casting show to gain loads of pre-publicity and to guarantee that you already have a star who the public adores! That star is Danielle Hope and she shone through with a wonderful natural talent in all departments despite being up against a host of really high quality competitors. In fact the Dorothy who came a close second, Sophie Evans is set to play Dorothy as understudy every Tuesday, so it’s two TV selected Dorothy stars for the price of one. Well, it would be for the price of two if you wanted to book theatre breaks in London to see both of them, but you know what I mean. Just being an Andrew Lloyd Webber production is another huge factor in the show’s favour, but this is more than that since it’s the reunion of the formidable music and lyrics team of Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber no less. Tim Rice is writing the lyrics for about four new songs including one for, wait for it…..   Michael Crawford. Casting Michael Crawford as the Wizard has to be the piece de la resistance but there could well be more. Who will be the Tin Man, Scarecrow or the cowardly Lion? Ghost London Theatre Breaks

Ghost London Musical The second show is one you may not have heard of yet, but rest assured you will have done by 2011. It’s Ghost the Musical, an adaptation of Ghost the movie, but with a solid rock music soundtrack supplied by Dave Stewart of the Eurythmics. Another film to stage adaptation, Ghost London is sure to be a hot ticket in 2011. Dates for Ghost And Wizard of Oz Theatre Breaks in London Theatre breaks in London to see The Wizard of Oz can be booked for dates from March 2011 while Ghost will arrive in London for theatre breaks from June 2011 after a run in the Manchester Opera House first.

Andrew Lloyd Webber will be a guest on the Michael Ball Show on Friday September 10th. Michael Ball will be hosting an exclusive interview with Webber about Love Never Dies as well as his production of The Wizard of Oz.

Ramin Karimloo accompanying ALW, plays the role of The Phantom in the Adelphi Theatre production of Love  Never Dies. The episode can be seen live on ITV1 on Friday September 10th at 3pm in the afternoon, or later on the ITV Player at : http://www.itv.com/itvplayer/video/?Filter=the michael ball show Michael Ball and Andrew Lloyd Webber have worked together many time in the past, for example when Michael played Raoul in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s The Phantom of the Opera at Her Majesty’s Theatre in London, and Alex in Aspects of Love at the Prince of Wales Theatre, London and on Broadway. Michael Ball DVDs

Andrew Lloyd Webber and Ramin Karimloo will be a guests on the Michael Ball Show on Saturday September 10th.

Michael Ball will be hosting an exclusive interview with Webber about Love Never Dies as well as his production of The Wizard of Oz. Ramin Karimloo of course plays the role of The Phantom in the Adelphi Theatre production of Love Never Dies. The episode can be seen live on ITV1 on Friday September 10th at 3pm in the afternoon, or later on the ITV Player at : http://www.itv.com/itvplayer/video/?Filter=the michael ball show Michael Ball and Andrew Lloyd Webber have worked together many time in the past, for example when Michael played Raoul in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s The Phantom of the Opera at Her Majesty’s Theatre in London, and Alex in Aspects of Love at the Prince of Wales Theatre, London and on Broadway. Michael Ball DVDs

Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice are all set to recreate their musical magic together for the new Wizard Of Oz stage musical, according. Lyric writer Tim Rice broke the news that he’ll be joining his former song-writing partner Lloyd Webber during the final show of BBCs ‘Over The Rainbow’ in which Danielle Hope was selected for the role of Dorothy. In a BBC interview, Tim Rice revealed that he would “likely” collaborate with Lloyd Webber on new songs he is writing for the production. The Rice and Webber team has previously produced ‘Evita’, ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’, and ‘Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat’ amongst others ‘The WIzard of Oz ’ will debut at the London Palladium in early 2011 So whilst Over the Rainbow could well have signalled the end of the partnership between Andrew Lloyd Webber and the BBC, the resulting production of The Wizard of Oz is likely to mark the start of a renewed collaboration between the composer and lyricist Tim Rice. Rice and Lloyd Webber had big hits in the 1960s and 1970s with Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Jesus Christ Superstar and Evita. In a recent BBC Radio 2 interview, Rice said the pair are likely to reunite for The Wizard of Oz, for which Lloyd Webber is writing four new songs. The production starts performances at the London Palladium on 7 February 2011.

Andrew Lloyd Webber with Tim Rice

There’s been a lot of focus on the singing and dancing performances of the remaining Dorothys but which one would really be best suited to playing the part night after night in Wizard of Oz? One of the recent missions was about maintaining the Kansas accent and here you can see each of four contestants in a scene from Wizard of Oz that allows us to really evaluate their abilities as actors.

Now Andrew Lloyd Webber seemed to be bowled over by Danielle, so we get a clue here perhaps as to who he would like to see the public vote for tonight, but he also praises Lauren’s professionalism and wonders if she can pull out just a little bit more from inside her own emotion for us. Personally, I found the Danielle performance just a tad drawn out and over done, but there’s no doubt she would make a smashing Dorothy, as would any of them really.

Over the rainbow – Mission

After watching them each have a go at the real acting, who do you think comes out of this mission in the best position for tonight’s vote?