‘Wizard Of Oz’ Well Worth A Visit

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31150, 29 August 1966, Page 12

‘Wizard Of Oz’ Well Worth A Visit

As one young member of the audience said after Saturday’s performance of “The Wizard of Oz”; “I loved' best that horrible part when the witch was shrunk and it was all lovely.” Indeed, Neta Neale’s production for Canterbury Children’s Theatre was just that—“all lovely.” The roomy Civic stage was always exciting to look at, if one ignored the tawdry floorboards; the large choruses moved interestingly and seemed very much at home; the dancing was precise, varied, vigorous; costuming was detailed and eye-catching; the orchestra gave a glamorous lift to the performance: and the principal actors were particularly engaging. This, then, is a show which parents should enjoy as much as their children undoubtedly will. It was good to see so many young actors, dancers and even musicians involved in the production. Stuart Morris, the Mayor of the Munchkins, showed that young actors can hold their own, even when the cast includes actors with mature technique. Perhaps the young people in the audience were unnecessarily left out this time: there could

have been more playing to the audience and an invitation to join in some of the chorus songs.

One wonders whether formal dance did not, at times, swamp the production. Doreen Herbert’s ballets were particularly well staged, but the building tension of the narrative was broken too often by over-long ballets. The freezing of the jitterbugs, for instance, cried out for free dance-mime rather than classical choreography, especially since the music needed for the latter was quite out of keeping with the Americanmusical score.

The stage management and the special effects were first class: the magic of theatrical illusion was a triumph for th? many backstage crew men who must have worked very hard over a long period.

Rolf Just had excellent control over his large orchestra, although the brass obtruded when the orchestra was accompanying the voices which were lightish to start with, and a smaller group should perhaps be used for backing the soloists. Sheila Sinclair has a true, pleasant voice, and looked charming as Dorothy. Her movements were too formalised to give the spontaneity and warmth the part calls for, however, and she could smile more: otherwise a very enjoyable performance. Bryan Aitken’s Scarecrow was quite perfect—a flopping success. The Lion (Graham Robinson) had the right mixture of bravado and collapse, and Alfred Taylor, helped by a superb Tinman's suit, completed an excellent team. The witches, good and bad, and the Wizard himself could not have been more appropriately beautiful, horrible and wizard (respectively, of course). This large-scale production deserves large-scale houses for the rest of its week-long season. And adults wouldn’t need children to have a reason for going. —R. S.

Kennel Award. A Christchurch entry, B. Giles’s and L. Ellis’s Beagle, Lea von Huntsman, was judged the best junior dog at the New Zealand Kennel Club’s twelfth national championship show in Wellington at the week-end.