Well, its the start of the Christmas season in theatre as I went to go see ‘The Wizard of Oz’ at The Ipswich Regent Theatre.
Now everyone knows the story of ‘The Wizard of Oz’. But just in case you haven’t. The story is about a young farm girl called Dorothey Gale, who dreams of a better place “under the rainbow”. Once there is befriends a scarecrow, tinman and lion and they all go on a quest in search of The Emerald City!
Directed by Sam Horsfield and music based on the famous Motion Picture comes the famous story live on stage. Starring Charlotte Sheehan as Dorothey, Kelly Flecture as Miss Gulch/The Wicked Witch of the West and Martin Leigh as Professor Marvel/Wizard of Oz.
The show overall was very good, the acting and singing was of a very good standard. There was a very good use of pyrotechnics throughout the show. However, I think the theatre should have said before the show started that bangs and flashes were going to be used. I personally am very sensitive to bright light, so being somewhat close to the stage, plus what seemed that the flashes were getting brighter and brighter. Didn’t give me the best experience I was having to wait for my eyes to to adjust after very time it was used. So if like me your sensitive to light you may want to keep this in mind before seeing the show.
It was nice to see a live orchestra playing all the songs during the show. This is something from experience is something you only get when you go and see a really highly budgeted show or London’s West End. So it was very pleasant to see this at a local theatre. This show is aimed very closely at families and children, although there is a hint of adult humour in there too, as well as one or two Disney references. If your looking to have a family night out, then I would say put this on your radar. Is it the best adaption of ‘Wizard of Oz’ I’ve seen? No, but like I said before, this show is very children focused so to some of the show is going to be very obverse to adults. But the story was written for children, so the show never shied away from that, which wasn’t a bad thing.
The only negative I would have, is throughout the show. The production continued to have microphone problems where they would cut out on a regular basis. So this is something they would need to sort out rather quickly.
The show is running from 23rd to 26th of November at The Regent Theatre in Ipswich. Website for the show can be found below.
The VI Critic 