The Wizard of Oz at Wolverhampton Grand Theatre Review

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Sun 28 Jul 2024 - Sun 04 Aug 2024

The yellow brick road arrives at Wolverhampton Grand this week with the West End musical The Wizard of Oz casting its spell.

First staged at Leicester Curve, followed by a run at the London Palladium, the musical retains the songs made famous in the Oscar-winning film classic including Somewhere Over the Rainbow, Follow the Yellow Brick Road and Off to See the Wizard but also features new songs from Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice.



And while it retains the essential L Frank Baum story, the production, adapted by Jeremy Sams and Lloyd Webber and directed by Nikolai Foster, also successfully blends current themes and elements so that the characters feel relevant to today despite being more than 100 years old.

Aviva Tulley acts her socks off as a Dorothy who could be any modern teenager complaining that nobody listens to her and desperate to find her own way in the world. She’s less saccharine than some Dorothys we may be used to, with a bit more attitude and a powerful set of lungs which can belt out the songs.

RuPaul’s Drag Race UK winner The Vivienne is a splendid Wicked Witch of the West, sashaying around the stage in high heels and a long cape and being thoroughly nasty. When she towers over Dorothy as she spouts her spite, we see the Wicked Witch as the bully she is - but she meets her match in a feisty youngster who refuses to be frightened. The Vivienne plays up to the role, clearly enjoying the over-the-top nature of the Wicked Witch of the West and her demise is a great moment of theatre.



Benjamin Yates is loveable as the dopey Scarecrow who is well-meaning and generous in his attention to Dorothy but constantly forgetting the very reason for his quest. Nic Greenshields’ cowardly Lion is a great caricature and he gets lots of laughs for his posturing. And Femi Akinfolarin creates a very physical Tin Man whose initial stretches as he attempts to work through the rustiness remind us all of that first thing in the morning feeling.

Emily Bull is full of heart as Aunt Em and packs plenty of punch as a motorbike-riding good witch Glinda while Alex Bourne’s Wizard and Professor Marvel are a blend of bluster and kindness.

The show is a feast for the eyes. Colin Richmond’s sets are hugely imaginative with giant arrows forming the Yellow Brick Road and a fabulously zany giant Wizard. And the production is hugely helped by the high-tech video design by Douglas O’Connell which allows the show to indulge in some amazingly fanciful imagery from the cyclone which spins Dorothy’s home into the sky to the Emerald City where there are lots of little jokes in the billboards.

Rachael Canning has created some fantastic costumes so that each Munchkin looks incredible while also ensuring the classics that we expect including Dorothy’s blue dress and the sinister flying monkeys. Canning has also designed the puppet Toto which, in the hands of Abigail Matthews, is as much a character as the others.

Add into this Ben Cracknell’s bold use of lighting, David Cullen’s orchestration, Shay Barclay’s choreography and a live orchestra and the show is a perfect blend of storytelling, stagecraft and performance. Whether it’s hard-core The Wizard of Oz fans or young new audiences, this show will delight and marvel.

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