The Wizard of Oz Reviews

Susanne from Oxford,

LACKING THEATRICAL PROWESS

Theatre is a passion of mine-entering the delight of a theatre, hearing the instruments warm up, being guided by a voice seemingly from the heavens guiding us to take your seat...music leads to a curtain rise and a set that 'along with the music' sets the scene...we are drawn in as the actors take us on a journey, spell bound are we as they tell a story - costumes as delight, changing hand built scenes a delight, costumes thrill, song audible. Not in this production-it was wholly lacking in theatrical prowess. The smoke coming from the stage smelt like awful and affected my throat and the audio so loud it was impossible to hear the words of the songs and made the sound a jumbled mess. Those with hearing aids would struggle. I felt for the poor person pupetting the dog - bent over for the whole show - not good for the persons back. I did not enjoy the cross between pantomime and movie style presentation. Sadly, for me, this ruined what is a classic for real theatre. Not impressed.

Gemma from Edinburgh,

MEH

Family night that resulted in us leaving at half time. Pretty disappointed. The original characters and stories were twisted to fit some modern take, that was more like a high school musical. Glinda on a Barbie pink moped, the powerful Oz, a robot with two binoculars. Poppies, four dancers in red wearing lampshades. Just random and ruined it for us. The emerald city was a projected NYC with ozmcdonald signs. The magic was gone and the old fashioned tale, warped into something unrecognisable. The only person carrying the show was The Vivienne as the Witch of the West.

Ally from Edinburgh, Scotland

CRUISE SHIP LIKE PRODUCTION

Unfortunately the show hasn’t lived up to the hype. The show opens with a bang and is very captivating however the following scenes are slow, boring and difficult to follow. Throughout the show the set changes are minimal and such makes it difficult to follow where each partition is set. Various amounts of pyro and dramatic lighting effects do add to the drama and atmospheric effect of the show however overall, the production level is set to the standard of a cruise ship. The fake prosc side drapes limit audience view and make the show feels very boxed in, almost like watching it on a screen rather than being immersed in the magic. Sound was terrible to begin with. Harsh 4-8K throughout the Pa however this was dialed back as the show went on. Elephaba’s mic was hissing and feeding back all over the shop throughout the performance. Very disappointed and hoped to see a much better production level from a professional touring company.

Gwen Alexander from Edinburgh,

VERY DISAPPOINTINGLY

What an absolute let down. Very basic staging. The Cowardly Lion looked like he didn’t want to be there. Very lack lustre performance. Toto was the best part. Almost felt like not staying for second half. Just felt like a very cheap amateur production and a poor one at that. Definitely didn’t take me over the rainbow

S Fletcher from Cleethorpes England

LET DOWN.

We had a weekend away to see this unfortunately it was very disappointing. Started so slowly that we were losing interest. The main characters are good but overall it was not up to much when compared with other musicals.

Ann. from Bristol,

THE WIZARD OF OZ

I wonder who these people are, who have to meddle with and 'reimagine ' all-time classics, and insert things which were never there in the first place. Whoever you are, please go home and 'reimagine ' your own iconic film masterpieces, if indeed you have any, and leave ours alone. A waste of an afternoon, I almost left in the interval. But the Ruby slippers were beautiful, and the cowardly lion was excellent, just like the one in the film. I'll check very carefully before booking any future events at the Hippodrome. I also had to move seats because of noise disturbance from the row in front.This is one of my favourite films, and you ruined it. You know what they say, "go woke, go broke."

H Barker from Powys

WIZARD OF OZ

Story lost in a gimmicky over loud performance. So much talent wasted. It was more rocky horror show meets panto. There for opening night a few around us did not return for the second half of the performance.

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