"The Wizard Of Oz"

Gilly Archer Theatre, Bilborough College.

We all know the story of the young girl, Dorothy Gale who lives on a farm in Kansas with her Aunt Em, Uncle Henry and little dog, Toto. It tells the story of how a tornado sweeps her, her home and Toto to a magical land called Oz, how she manages to eradicate the Munchkins from the Wicked Witch of The East by flattening her when the house lands on her.

On the way to meeting the Wizard, so she can get back home to Kansas she meets, and helps The Tinman, Scarecrow and The Cowardly Lion while the quartet have a few adventures on their way.

Just lately I have had the absolute pleasure of seeing some brilliant Youth Group/High School editions of musicals, and they always leave me flabbergasted as to the talent these younger groups have. This group are equally as amazing and talented.

With this particular musical, characterisation is everything and every one of these young actors completely nailed the characters they played. And as with any production and any theatre group, it's nice to see regular faces as well as seeing new talent, and that's what you get with this production of "The Wizard Of Oz".

Dorothy is played by Eleanor Adey, and what I really enjoyed about this performance was that Eleanor didn't try to copy anything from Judy Garland and played the role with Eleanor's personality injected into the character. That also goes for the singing. There's no impersonation of Garland here, just Eleanor singing those classic songs from the film, which she did with real feeling.

Aunt Em/Glinda The Good Witch is played by Isobelle Walker. These roles where the characters are doubled up really show an actor's ability to show the opposite ends to their acting spectrum. Aunt Em is a busy farm wife who is always busy and seems to have no time for Dorothy, and can be a bit impatient. Glinda is patient and is there to help Dorothy, and both of these characters, and their traits, are shown perfectly in Isobelle's acting skills.

Uncle Henry/Emerald City Guard and the Winkie General is played by Thomas Marwick, and like I mentioned about acting spectrums, Thomas gets to portray three very different characters; the busy farmer Uncle Henry, the wonderfully comic Emerald City Guard and then the head of the Winkies, The Wicked Witch's musical henchmen. Now, I don't think that I have seen the Winkies previously in a production of this musical, so these were new to me. I would definitely have remembered the name "The Winkies".

Scarecrow/Hunk is played by Jack Forth. This young man must be at least 80% rubber band because when he plays the Scarecrow, he is just like a piece of elastic, incredibly flexible. I don't think I've seen any actor play this part with such physicality, and that goes for his face as well, he is so expressive; exactly the right casting for Scarecrow.

Tin Man/Hickory is played by Will Collins. Physicality is number one for the three main characters that Dorothy comes across, and with Will, he has got this spot on with the rigidity of the characterisation. I must also mention that Will also gets to wear one of the best costumes in this production with his silver lame suit. I wonder if it's too late to start a list for Mr Claus, because I've just seen what I want for Christmas.

Cowardly Lion/Zeke is played by Kacey Wardle. All three of Dorothy's yellow brick road companions are immense fun, and with the Cowardly Lion there's every opportunity to go over the top, as the great Bert Lahr did in the original film, and there was room to go that bit further in Kacey's version of this role. It was opening night and so by Friday you may get to see an even bolder version of this jungle King. That said, I did enjoy see Kacey really get into the role throughout the two and three quarter hours show, plus she has a cracking voice for character roles such as this; not once did that accent waver. And that mane of gorgeous hair was perfect for this role.

Professor Marvel/The Wizard and The Mayor are played by Tom Star. I'm going to use the quote from my last review of Tom's role in "Rock Of Ages", which I reviewed him last in, because I feel just the same in these roles. "Tom is a Star by name and also as this character". Like Jack, Tom has one of those expressive faces that is a boon to an actor. At times wonderfully over the top, especially when we first meet him as The Professor, and again as the brilliantly eccentric Wizard. If ever there's an opening for Willy Wonka on stage, Tom must go for it, he would smash that role!

Miss Gulch/The Wicked Witch Of The West is played by Jaydene Davis. Ooh, don't we all like a baddie? From the moment that Jaydene cycled onto the stage, you could tell by her face that she meant business, and that voice and her cackle as both Gulch and the Witch were enough to give anyone nightmares. Deliciously devilish.

Toto, who in this production is a puppet created by Mercedis Perry and Sophie Haynes, is operated by Rio Bartliff, and you soon forgot all about Rio, which as a puppeteer is actually a good thing because you were concentrating on Toto and not Rio. Masterfully handled.

Bartek Kacica somersaulted and flipped athletically and played a wonderfully camp tree, plus played Nikko, the leader of the Flying Monkeys.

Abdul-Maliq Adegbite was The Wizard we see, before we actually meet the real Wizard. Pre recorded on screen to make the real Wizard look and sound more terrifying than he really was. Nice piece to camera young man!

There are so many roles to play in this musical with a large ensemble taking several roles. So let's credit them......

Katie Peel, Gabriel Chamberlain, Grace Maddy, Chloe Pickering, Evie Swetnam-Prince, Caitlin Hatton, Tia Grummitt, Grace Tomlinson, Isabella Streets, Abigail Lewis, Hermione Davies-Bright, Alexandra Jones, Olivia Bell (who also operated the bubble machine), Alexa Tomlinson, Izzy Burrow, Megan Price and Heidi Pitt.

Directed by Louis Chadburn and Olivia Owen, both making their directorial debuts with this show. You both obviously know your college drama mates very well to have wonderfully picked just the right cast members to play these iconic roles. That is half the journey, matching talent and personality to the musical counterparts. Another big part is making a production seem fresh, and there were several parts of this show that made me think "hello, I can't remember that bit". Also making the most of what is available is a big part. Yet again, even without the luxury of big sets, the way that this BIG production was presented, made you forget that there were limited sets.

I really enjoyed the "twister" sections, and the costumes, like giant silver and gold satiny angel wings really gave the effect of wind, and Miss Gulch's cycle ride over the top of this illusion was done to great effect; another one of those sections that I can't remember seeing in other productions. Obviously Louis and Olivia have really thought about how they can make their production just a little different to others, and have succeeded.

Choreographed by Kyra Fowler. From the iconic "follow the yellow brick road" choreography all the way through to the tap routine of "The Jitterbug" and the athletic flips, cartwheels and tumbling, this choreography has energy written all over it.

I mentioned that the luxury of a proper set is not something that colleges can stretch to, but you could see the initiative that had gone into what you see on stage, including the video backdrop, plus the amount of props that have been used in this production. All credit goes to Jess Henshaw, Avia Cooney-Hossack, Eve Costin Locke, Caitlin Creswick, Kaly Salh, Katie Anderson, Olivia Potts and Emily Crompton-Brown.

Stage managed by Rose Steeples, and when you realise the number of young actors, all 18 years old and under by the way, the props and scenery that need to be positioned and removed, this is no easy job, but the smoothness and the flow of the stage shows what a good job Rose did.

Anyone who knows this musical will also know how important the hair and make up person is, especially at the start and the end when the characters change to and from their main roles. Speed and accuracy is required for the application and removal of make up and Scarlett Beddoe and Suet Yu deserve praise for the brilliant make up and hair we see on stage.

That brings me on to costumes, and this is another area which absolutely stands out for me. You think, at the start only, that there seems to be no costumes, or very few at least, but then comes the twister and out come all of these wonderful costumes, I've already mentioned the Tin Man's silver suit, but that is just the tip of the musical iceberg. There are so many costume changes, especially for the ensemble, as every character has a different change. From the three trees, the Crow puppeteers, the Flying Monkeys, the Winkies, the Munchkins, the list goes on, and a brilliant Wizard Of Oz costume that made me think the Wizard was from the Emerald Isle, never mind the Emerald City. Praise be to Emma Johnson and Harry Field for this particular field of excellence.

Sound and Lighting is by Louis Chadburn, Asia Turnbull, Camille Capon, Hermione Bhambra, Isabel Bathe and Reuben Pinnock. The sound was the only thing that I had been a little worried about. I say that because in the past Bilborough College had always had a live band to back the actors, and at times the mix between live band and stage vocals had been a bit hit and miss. Now, I love to hear a live band, but the decision to use backing tracks was absolutely justified here, and the mix was so much better between the music and the vocals. The lighting was also very good, but I did think that the video screen was at times in the shade and we didn't get to see as clearly as possible what was on the big screen, and there was some very clever editing involved with the video work.

I've seen some brilliant productions at Bilborough College, "Les Miserables", "Urinetown", "Cabaret", "We Will Rock You", "Rock Of Ages", "Rent", "Into the Woods", "Our House" among them over the last ten years, and every time they just get better and better. No change this year as the bar has been raised another notch with this production.

"The Wizard Of Oz" is at Bilborough College until Friday 13 December.