ACT Reviews 2022-2023 Season

OZ THE MUSICAL Book by Tim Kelly; Music and Lyrics by Bill Francouer Directed by Janet Philbrook Stage Door Youth Theatre – Fringe The timeless tale of “The Wizard of Oz” by Frank L Baum, according to Pioneer Drama Service, the rights holder, has been adapted into a dazzling musical, and this production certainly dazzled. It was good to see the “Stars of the Future” performing and enjoying every single minute.

This was my first time of seeing a production by Stage Door Youth Theatre and in this case, their Fringe group, of which the average age of performers is around 8 years old. Every single member of the cast put their hearts into their performances. Thank you to Leroy Philbrook for welcoming me. and to Janet Parkinson for arranging my visit. I loved the pre-show interaction between Dorothy (Molly Pickles) and Toto (Mia Williams) who were joyfully playing with each other in character around the performance area as audience members were taking their seats. The production venue was Colne Park High School and was performed

on the flat with simple but effective scenery. The main scenery was folding scenery flats that gave just enough detail to indicate where the action was taking place, along with a mat that depicted the yellow brick road. This was positioned in different places, depending on where the scene was. This does go to show that you don’t always need full scenery/back cloths to set a scene. The Wizard was a monstrous statue that, with the combination of smoke effects, lighting effects and powerful voice, felt very atmospheric indeed. There was large cast of over 20 who were all very talented and worked together very well keeping