New York Post


The Wizard of Oz
By Clive Barnes

Nope, we’re not in Kansas – we’re not even in Hollywood. We are at the theater at Madison Square Garden, where a brand new stage adaptation of MGM’s classic movie “The Wizard of Oz”, starring a glowering and airborne Roseanne, has settled down for a spring break.

And how - cutting to the chase – does TV’s Roseanne (who is among the mono-nomenclature aristocracy that also includes the likes of Cher and the late Liberace) do in her first excursion on stage? Wait: Suffice to say, she makes her debut arriving haughtily on a bicycle, and departs melted in a puddle.

This is a fun show – perfect for children and more than acceptable for adults, especially those with a bent for nostalgia and a lingering regard for glittering, ruby slippers and Yellow Brick Roads. It has been very shrewdly and quite faithfully developed not from the original L. Frank Baum story, but from the genuine movie itself.

The script was first adapted for Britain’s Royal Shakespeare Company by John Kane –who once played Broadway as Puck in Peter Brook’s “A Midsummer’s Night Dream” – from the screenplay, itself the work of ten writers (those were the days at MGM!) supervised, more or less, by Noel Langley.

The Garden show, which started life, in rather great length, at the Papermill Playhouse in New Jersey, naturally uses the Oscar-winning score by Herbert Stothart, and, of course, those classic songs by Harold Arlen and E.Y. Harburg.

It had been most adroitly adapted by Papermill’s artistic director, Robert Johanson, and he has choreography by James Rocco and splendid designs by Papermill’s resident designer, Michael Anania. The costumes, by Gregg Barnes, cleverly steer between originality and the necessity of conjuring up the cinematic visual icons of the principal characters.

Johanson has supervised the special effects – helped by the lighting of Tim Hunter and a great deal of that now-traditional credit Flying by Foy – with special effectiveness. The performances are bright, bouncy and mostly impart an important tincture of the screen originals.

The sole minor disappointment is Jessica Grove as Judy Garland – or, rather, as Dorothy – but those red shoes are virtually impossible to fill. (Trivia note: Did you know that MGM wanted to borrow the 9-year-old Shirley Temple to fill the role, but Darryl Zanuck refused to loan her out, so the studio was landed with contract-player Garland, who, at 16 years, had to have her breasts taped flat every morning by the costume department?)

As for the rest, Lara Teeter and Michael Gruber were excellent as, respectively, the Scarecrow and the Tinman; Ken Page did well as the Cowardly Lion (Bert Lahr’s shoes are even trickier than Judy’s!) and both Gerry Vichi as the Showman Wizard and Judith McCauley (sensibly not really attempting the ditsiness of Billie Burke’s original) as the good witch Glinda were completely charming.

And Roseanne? Well, unaccustomed as she is to stage appearances, she did very well, indeed. Her role has not been lengthened, but as most of the other’s have been shortened, it makes it something of a starring vehicle, and she huffs and puffs with good-natured enthusiasm.


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