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Wizard of Oz Prequel – Oz The Great And Powerful

http://wizardofozlondon.co.uk/364/wizard-of-oz-prequel-oz-the-great-and-powerful/

James Franco will play the young wizard in Oz The Great and Powerful, a feature film from Walt Disney Pictures that began production on July 25th 2011, directed by Sam Raimi. Oz The Great and Powerful is a prequel to The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900) by L. Frank Baum, with a script co-written by David Lindsay-Abaire and Mitchell Kapner. The story is told from the point of view of the Wizard, telling how the Wizard arrived in Oz and how he became the ruler. The all-star cast of the film includes Zach Braff as Franco’s assistant, Mila Kunis as the witch Theodora, Rachel Weisz as Kunis’ sister Evanora and Michelle Williams as Glinda the Good Witch. The film is due to be released through Disney Studios Motion Pictures on March 8th, 2013. When Oscar Diggs, a small-time circus magician is blown off course from Kansas to the land of Oz, he thinks he has made the big time. Then he meets three witches who don’t think he is the great wizard everyone has been expecting. Finding out who is good and who is bad helps Oscar Diggs become the great and powerful Wizard of Oz

July 28 2011, 12:58pm | Comments »

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More Wizard of Oz London Reviews

http://wizardofozlondon.co.uk/338/more-wizard-of-oz-london-reviews/

So The Wizard of Oz opened in London yesterday with a sort of press night and now the reviews are starting to come in thick and fast. Ignoring the preemptive reviews such as that in the Sun far too early on, what are the papers saying about Danielle Hope and The Wizard of Oz today? Well the consensus seems to be that Andrew Lloyd Webber’s new production of The Wizard Of Oz has been met with broadly positive reviews from theatre critics. The show, which features Danielle Hope in the role of Dorothy after she won TV talent show Somewhere Over The Rainbow, was unveiled to the media and a star-studded audience including Sir Michael Caine and Barbara Windsor at the London Palladium on Tuesday night. Writing in the Daily Mail, Quentin Letts said the Manchester teenager was “more than efficient” in the lead role, praising her for her “clear, strong voice and a broad-shouldered confidence”. The Independent’s Paul Taylor gave it four out of a five stars, and gave a special mention to the “endlessly endearing” terrier in the role of Toto. Theatregoers – who also included Phillip Schofield, Rowan Atkinson, Michael Winner and Duncan James – strolled up the rainbow-coloured carpet as they arrived to see the production at the historic Palladium theatre in London. They were joined by several of the runners-up of the television talent show and Lloyd Webber himself, who looked somewhat like the Wizard of Oz in his green velvet jacket. Jodie Prenger, who was Lloyd Webber’s Nancy in Oliver! after winning BBC show I’d Do Anything and helped in the nationwide search for a dog to star as Toto, said she could relate to any first night nerves Danielle might be feeling. Speaking before the cast took to the stage, she said: “She’ll be petrified right now. But when she walks out on that stage you’ll see that they made such the right decision, because she’s just going to shine. She was just fabulous. And I can’t wait to see the dog.” The show received a standing ovation after wowing the audience with spectacular technical effects, including a revolving stage, a fantasy tornado and monkeys flying through the stalls. Michael Billington of the Guardian writes

.. I came out feeling blitzkrieged rather than charmed. The star of the show is undoubtedly the set and costume designer, Robert Jones. The Kansas cyclone that whisks Dorothy into a dreamworld is evoked through vorticist projections (the work of Jon Driscoll) that betoken chaos in the cosmos. The Yellow Brick Road is on a tilted revolve from inside which poppyfields and labyrinthine forest emerge. The Emerald City is full of steeply inclined walls suggesting a drunkard’s vision of the Chrysler Building lobby. And the Wicked Witch of the West inhabits a rotating dungeon that might be a Piranesi nightmare. Not since 19th century Drury Lane melodramas can London have seen anything quite like it; one has to admire the director and co-adaptor, Jeremy Sams, for marshalling the effects. But the story and the people get swamped. Danielle Hope shows a natural, easy presence as Dorothy, but can’t hope to compete with the scenery. Even Michael Crawford, playing both Professor Marvel and The Wizard, seems slightly subdued, and misses a trick by not highlighting the latter’s resemblance to PT Barnum whom he once played. Only two of the cast transcend the spectacle. Hannah Waddingham makes the Wicked Witch a pointy-chinned ogre who at one point flies over the audience’s heads with an elan that Spider Man might envy. David Ganly notches up a first by making the Cowardly Lion explicitly gay and announcing “I’m proud to be a friend of Dorothy.” Of course, there are the songs; it’s good to be reminded of such classics as Over The Rainbow, We’re Off To See The Wizard, and Follow The Yellow Brick Road. The additions by Lloyd Webber and Rice are also perfectly acceptable. Dorothy is given a good plaintive opening number, and Red Shoes Blues, sung by the Wicked Witch, has a pounding intensity. But, as a film scholar remarked to me, the movie was a story with songs rather than a full-blown musical. That delicate balance has been changed, and an essentially simple fable about the importance of individual worth seems overblown. I suspect in the end the show will be critic-proof and people will go to see both the winner of the TV talent contest and to luxuriate in the sumptuous visuals. But the paradox of the evening is that it suffers the same dilemma as the Tin Man: it might have been so much more if it only had a heart.

March 2 2011, 2:37pm | Comments »

I posted to wizardofozlondon.co.uk

Best Acting Dorothy?

http://wizardofozlondon.co.uk/143/best-acting-dorothy/

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?

May 22 2010, 1:39am | Comments »

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