The Wizard of Oz review: ‘An exhilarating, exhausting extravaganza that’s a feast for the eyes’

If you’re off to see The Wizard of Oz at the London Palladium this summer you’re in for quite the spectacle. Fleshed out from the 1939 film version by writer Jeremy Sams, with additional songs by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice, it’s an exhilarating and exhausting extravaganza.

You want subtlety? Then look elsewhere. This revamp of the relatively low-fi production that premiered in 2011 is like a Technicolor fever dream, minus the film’s black-and-opening which would be hard to do on stage.

It starts in summery Kansas, where young farm girl Dorothy feels like an outsider and yearns for a nicer life somewhere over the rainbow. She soon gets her wish as a tornado picks her up and plonks her down in a magical land peopled by witches, munchkins, and the kindly wizard of the title.

The staging is part MGM musical and part video game, and if it doesn’t make much sense it’s a feast for the eyes. Nikolai Foster directs it at a breakneck speed and choreographer Shay Barclay puts the ensemble through military manoeuvres. And set designer Colin Richmond and video designer Douglas O’Connell are given carte blanche to throw in anything they please, logic and consistency be damned.

Dancers whirl around fractured bits of the yellow brick road and wear lampshades on their heads. The poppy fields become a Poppy Motel, with ominous snippets of The Shining soundtrack playing in the background. A vending machine sells Poppy-Cola and there’s an Ozeon cinema showing sci-fi flicks. There are also Pride colours everywhere you look and, in a reference that kids won’t get but old queens certainly will, the Cowardly Lion declares himself a friend of Dorothy. He lacks courage until he finds the courage to come out.

The Lion is one of three friends Dorothy makes on her journey to meet the Wizard and he’s winningly played by Jason Manford with plenty of nods to Bert Lahr’s schtick from the film version. Ashley Banjo body-pops and raps as the Tin Man, who wishes he had a heart in his hollow chest. And Louis Gaunt is a loveably elastic Scarecrow, who hopes for a heart.

They believe the titular Wizard (Gary Wilmot, hamming it up a treat) can grant their wishes, as well as getting Dorothy safely back home. The Wicked Witch of the West (Dianna Pilkington, hamming it up even more) is out to thwart them but good witch Glinda (Christina Bianco, having a ball as a biker chick Barbie) is on their side.

At the centre of this whirligig of a show is Georgina Onuorah as a stronger and less fragile Dorothy than we’re used to seeing. She’s too resilient for us to worry what will happen to her but she’s a heroine for our times. And when she sings ‘Over The Rainbow’ without any visual fuss, just a fantastic voice and lush orchestrations, she soars. 

The Wizard of Oz is at the London Palladium until 3 September. Get tickets here.