"The Wizard Of Oz" by Kaleidoscope Players.

Adapted by John Kane for the Royal Shakespeare Company.
Duchess Theatre, Long Eaton.

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.

The atmosphere of the show starts as soon as you step through the doors of The Duchess Theatre as you're greeted by Ozians, clad in shiny green waistcoats.

Hannah Bradford is Dorothy Gale and is totally Dorothy all the way through. She has the accent and I am so pleased that she did not try and sound like Judy garland when she sang. Hannah has a lovely voice and delivered all the character of Dorothy. Many times I have seen the actor playing this role and trying to get that garland twang, with varying degrees of success, but Hannah's voice was all we needed for Dorothy. There's fun as well as fear in Hannah's performance and the retention of innocence just makes the perfect fit.

Amy Bradford, Hannah's sister, plays The Scarecrow/Hunk. A lovely character filled presentation and Amy knows how to get the maximum comic effect for Scarecrow by using her face, as well as that lovely knockabout physicality needed for the role.

Zoe Shepherd plays Tinman/Hickory. So much to like with this role. I loved the robotic style dancing and the whole physical side of the character. She really makes you believe that she is made of metal. I also loved the costume for Tinman as it's a more modern look, moving towards that steampunk vibe.

Evie Barfield is the Cowardly Lion/Zeke. Full of character, and again a slightly more modern adaptation of Lion which omitted the line that everyone connects to the character, "put 'em up, put 'em up". I didn't notice until the drive home. Evie looked to be having great fun bringing this character to the stage, and I know that the audience were having fun watching her have fun.

Rachel Robinson brought Toto to life on stage; that puppet looks so realistic as well! What I especially liked about this role is that, often I try not to notice the puppeteer, but in Rachel's case, I wanted to notice her, as well as Toto, because what you imagine Toto would be feeling inside is the exact emotion that Rachel displayed visually. The yap was pitched just right as well for a Scottie dog, which I am sure was the breed of this particular little pooch, and the lever that created the wagging tail was in overdrive, so I am sure that Toto was a happy chappie for the majority of the adventure.

Lucy Cadney is Aunt Em/ Glinda. From the busy farmer's wife fretting over a faulty incubator to the gentle, stress free good Witch, Lucy displayed a variety of emotions between the two characters, all the while looking exquisitely lovely in the process.

Martin Church plays Uncle Henry as well as the Guard looking after access to the Wizard. Again, two characters that are as far apart as you can get. The hard working Farmer and the jovial Guard of the Wizard's lair.

Kerry-Ann Roe is Miss Gulch/ Wicked Witch. I don't know why but I love the nasty characters, probably because they are so much fun to play, and everyone loves a baddie, don't they? Kerry-Anne's Wicked Witch costume is another excellent example of bringing the character up to date, once more with a steampunk style costume. Wonderfully wicked in both character forms; she made you want to push Miss Gulch off of her bike she was so nasty.

Rob Simpson is The Professor as well as The Wizard Of Oz. I love the accent that Rob provided for The Professor as well as the vocal effects for The Wizard. I must mention as well how the Wizard appeared to our four heroes. It was a four piece section of abstract art is probably the best way to describe it which moved like a giant puppet face. The timing of the puppetry to Rob's voice shows that a great deal of work with the timing has obviously gone into this part.

The Ensemble consist of Alice Goodall, Tessa Raum, Josephine Walker, Michelle Bradford, Theresa Hartwright, Julie Black, Caitlin Wright, Beth Margett, Freya Mosley and Ron Murfin. They made the stage feel more full with their presence and really boosted the choreographed numbers brilliantly.

Alice, Tessa and Josephine brought a lovely sassy feel to their roles as trees, and I loved the tree costumes.

Michelle and Theresa also turned puppeteers to bring the crows to life with some realistic cackling and cawing.

The Junior Ensemble consist of Charlotte, Alex, Jessica, Rosie, Callum and Madison who doubled their parts as Munchkins. I must mention Alex separately as he also played the part of Nikko, the leader of the Flying Monkeys. A wonderfully cheeky and energetic performance which I especially enjoyed.

Directed by Alice Goodall and Tessa Raum and they utilised every part of the auditorium, with characters using the main aisle as entrances and exits, as well as the two side aisles and the auditorium doors. The show was pacy, and even in the scene changes they made sure that in the blackouts on stage, we had musical accompaniment while the scenes were being set up. They succeeded in bringing an updated version of an old classic without taking away any of the pieces that make this musical the classic that it is.

Musical Director is Bethan Davies-Taylor, who, along with the cast, created some gorgeous and harmonious sections throughout. There were sections that reminded me of when I was a kid, sitting on the sofa on a Sunday afternoon and watching the old musicals on television, and these harmonies took me right back there.

Set Design, which is absolutely lovely, is all down to Tessa Raum and Jason Kramer, who is also the Technical Director and responsible for the puppetry. 

Prop creators are Lucy Cadney, Kerry-Ann Roe, and Deb Weetman. 

Amy Bradford is the show's Movement Director,

Choreographed gorgeously by Amy Bradford, Josephine Walker and Evie Barfield.

Costume Designers are Denise Brown, Lucy Cadney, Zoe Shepherd, and Deb Weetman. They could have so easily have stuck with the original patterns for costumes, but no, there's a lovely mix of traditional and steampunk, bringing a fresh, more up to date feel about the show's image. 

The animation sequences on the backdrop are created by Tessa, who has donned many hats in this production, and surely a qualifier for next year's Eagle Awards. Sometimes the moving film backdrop can take away from a production, but not in this case. The video sequences create much of the magic, especially of course the "twister" sequence, and the introduction of the Wicked Witch flying through the air on Miss Gulch's bicycle. Blended in with these images, the ensemble also added to this with various broken parts of the farm and a cow whirling past from one side of the stage to the other.

Sound Designer and Operation was by Dave Dallard. When got right the acoustics in the Duchess is excellent and you can hear every word spoken and sung. Well, here was another of those nights. The clarity and mix between vocals and music was just right, and the volume was spot on, which created an added layer of excitement, especially in the twister sections.

Lighting Designer and Operation was by Aaron Mace. We went from quite a drab wash of colour at the start, which was the perfect way to introduce the overall feel of the musical, but then once we reached Oz, it was like an artist's palette of colour, and continued in that way through to the end.

With having such a busy week, theatre wise, this was the earliest chance I had to see the show, but I am so pleased that I didn't miss out. You can see the hard work that Kaleidoscope Players have put into creating such a fantastic piece of theatre. "The Wizard Of Oz" is performed on a regular basis, and it's so nice to see the thought that is behind creating a slightly different look and feel about a show.

"The Wizard Of Oz" comes to the end of its' yellow brick road this evening when the final performance commences at 7.30.