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Musical
Musique: Paul Tietjens • Paroles: L. Frank Baum • Livret: L. Frank Baum • Production originale: 2 versions mentionnées
Dispo: Résumé Synopsis Génèse
Bien que le film de la Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer de 1939 soit la version la plus connue du Magicien d’Oz, ce n’était pas la première production. En juin 1902, une version montée avec extravagance sur scène a ouvert à Chicago avec beaucoup de succès. La production de New York de 1903 devint l’un des plus grands succès de l’histoire de Broadway à cette époque et se poursuivit pendant une autre décennie.
Genèse:
Conception and script
L. Frank Baum decided to collaborate with his friend, composer Paul Ti-etjens, and The Wonderful Wizard of Oz illustrator W. W. Denslow as set and costume designer, to bring the book to the stage. They completed a script, score and designs in 1901, hewing fairly close to the novel. They submitted the package to the manager of the Chicago Grand Opera House, Fred R. Hamlin, who liked it and approached Julian Mitchell to be director. Mitchell did not like the script, criticizing its lack of spectacle, calling it too subdued and small-scale. However, he sent a wire to Hamlin with the message "Can see possibilities for extravaganza". When Mitchell ac-cepted the project, he brought in new songwriters, cutting some of the original Tietjens numbers. He rewrote the script, together with Glen MacDonough, introducing new characters and incidents, reducing the Cowardly Lion's role, deleting the appearance of the Wicked Witch of the West entirely, and substituting a cow for Toto as Dorothy's com-panion. Baum was anxious about this, but went along. He hoped Mitchell's experience in directing, as well as the casting of comedy team Fred Stone and David C. Montgomery as the Scarecrow and Tin Woodman, would make the show a hit. It turned out to be a roaring suc-cess, with 293 performances.Production and early revivals
In rewriting Baum's 1901 script, Mitchell hired MacDonough to add top-ical humor. Baum described MacDonough as a New York joke writer in a letter to The Chicago Record-Herald, responding to criticism that the show "teemed with wild and woolly western puns and forced gags". In a letter to The Chicago Tribune published June 26, 1904, Baum decried ru-mors that he was "heartbroken and ashamed" with the final product of the musical: "I acknowledge that I was unwise enough to express myself as dissatisfied with the handling of my play on its first production ... few authors of successful books are ever fully satisfied with the dramatiza-tion of their work. They discern great gaps in the original story that are probably never noticed by playgoers." He admitted to protesting sev-eral innovations, but ultimately concluded: "The people will have what pleases them, and not what the author happens to favor, and I believe that one of the reasons why Julian Mitchell is regarded as a great pro-ducer is that he faithfully tries to serve the great mass of playgoers – and usually succeeds." Most of the original songs were written by Paul Tietjens on Baum's lyrics, except for three: "The Guardian of the Gate" (although it was at-tributed to Tietjens), which was cut after only a few performances, "The Different Ways of Making Love" (wooing) and "It Happens Every Day" were composed by Nathaniel D. Mann. Mann later wrote the score for Baum's 1908 film/theatrical presentation, The Fairylogue and Radio-Plays. Most of Baum's songs related to the story in some way, as in op-eretta, but as performed, the play was more like vaudeville, and new songs by other songwriters were frequently substituted. In fact, the first song interpolated into the musical was "The Traveler and the Pie", a major number for the Scarecrow. Baum and Tietjens had written it for a play called The Octopus; or the Title Trust, which was never produced and possibly never completed. The song stayed in the show. James O'Dea and Edward Hutchinson wrote one of the show's most celebrated songs, "Sammy", in which Tryxie Tryfle sings of a lost love before King Pastoria, though the only surviving recording of the piece was sung by a man (Harry Macdonough). The witches are largely absent in this version; The Good Witch of the North appears, named Locasta, and The Wicked Witch of the East is a special effect. Toto, Dorothy's dog, was replaced by a cow named Imo-gene. The Wicked Witch of the West does not appear, and Glinda the Good Witch of the South, who had appeared only in Act Three, was writ-ten out by Mitchell in 1903. His re-write of that act was set in the Bor-derland that divides Oz and Glinda's Domain, as Dorothy and her friends try to escape Pastoria. New characters include King Pastoria II, Oz's true king working as a Kansas motorman and his girlfriend, Trixie Tryfle, a waitress. There is also Cynthia Cynch, the Lady Lunatic, a prototype for Nimmie Amee, Nick (Niccolo) Chopper's girlfriend. Niccolo Chopper is renowned for his ability on the piccolo, the subject of one of her songs, and he is shown playing a piccolo in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, the first Oz film made without Baum's input, which was highly influenced by the popular play. The Wizard was presented as various ethnic stock character stereo-types, depending upon who played him. He was assisted by Sir Wiley Gyle and General Riskitt. David L. Greene and Dick Martin erroneously captioned a picture of General Riskitt as "Sir Wiley Gyle" in The Oz Scrapbook, and Donald Abbott carried this mistake over into his illus-trations for How the Wizard Saved Oz. The animals in the play, including the Cowardly Lion, did not speak, fol-lowing the pantomime tradition. Although the lion costume was realis-tic, far more so than Bert Lahr's in the MGM film, his main purpose was a bit of comic relief and scaring off the villains on occasion. His quest for courage is completely omitted, much as the other characters' quests are deemphasized in favor of various comic routines. Ultimately, though, their desire to seek the Wizard's aid gets them caught on the wrong side of the revolution, jailed and ultimately scheduled for execution. In a deus ex machina, another tornado arrives to sweep Dorothy home from the chopping block. Many new plot twists are virtually pointless. In addition to a kiss of pro-tection, Dorothy gets three wishes, one of which is wasted on a triviality. The second is used to bring the Scarecrow to life, and the third is used so she can learn the song Sir Dashemoff Daily (a trouser role) has written to his girlfriend, Carrie Barry. This song was written by Baum and Tiet-jens, but some programs credited the song to Glen MacDonough and A. Baldwin Sloane to make their connection to the play look greater. Probably the biggest influence on the 1939 MGM film, aside from mak-ing the story into a musical (but not using the score created for the stage version), is the field of poppies sequence that ended Act I. In the novel, Baum imaginatively has a legion of field mice pull a cart with the Cow-ardly Lion out of the poppy field. This was deemed unfeasible (though the stage version of The Wiz created a variation, with the mice as an-thropomorphic vice cops), and Baum, though he included it in the 1901 script, replaced the scene with that of the Snow Queen creating a storm that destroys the poppies, much as Glinda does in the 1939 movie. This concluded Act I with an elaborate dance known as "Winter Jubilation", which James Patrick Doyle plays on synthesizers on the album, Before the Rainbow: The Original Music of Oz. Because there were no cast albums in those days, theatre productions, including this production, often exceeded four hours in length because of multiple demands for encores, since many of the attendees knew they would never get to attend again. The most popular songs were often sung multiple times and this was often used to gauge whether a song should be retained or dropped. Two popular routines that were worked in include a sailing routine and a football routine, the latter parodying the level of violence in the sport, which had recently been lessened due to new regulations. The original cast included Anna Laughlin as Dorothy Gale, Fred Stone as the Scarecrow, David C. Montgomery as Nick Chopper (the Tin Man), Helen Byron as Cynthia Cynch, Bessie Wynn as Sir Dashemoff Daily, Gilbert Clayton as King Pastoria II, Bobby Gaylor as Oz, Arthur Hill as the Cowardly Lion, Grace Kimball as Tryxie Tryffle, and Edwin J. Stone as Imogene the cow. The second theatre to house the production was the New York Theatre. It ran on Broadway from January to October 1903, and again from March 1904 to October 1905. By 1905, the New York production had moved to the Academy of Music at 14th and Irving Place; Mona Desmond took over the role of Dorothy. Marion Stanley took over the role of Trixie, George B. Field played Sir Wiley Gyle, and Charles E. Mitchell became the Wizard. The Snow Queen was played by Bert Dean en travesti. The show toured from 1903 to 1909, playing as far away as the Opera House in Hot Springs National Park, Arkansas, in 1904. The musical was released for stock and regional shows in 1911. It was revived as late as 1934, with Charles H. Pinkham in the role of the Scarecrow.Résumé: La pièce raconte l’histoire d’une jeune fille du Kansas nommée Dorothy Gale, et de sa vache Imogene, qui atterrit dans le pays magique d’Oz en raison d’un cyclone. Dorothy doit partir à l’aventure à Emerald City pour rencontrer le Magicien d’Oz et retrouver son chemin. En chemin, elle rencontre un casting de personnages colorés.
Création: 20/1/1903 - Majestic Theatre (Broadway) - 293 représ.
Musical
Musique: Charlie Smalls • Paroles: Charlie Smalls • Livret: L. Frank Baum • William Brown • Production originale: 7 versions mentionnées
Dispo: Résumé Synopsis Génèse Liste chansons
Genèse: Tryouts and Broadway The idea for the musical originated with producer Ken Harper. He replaced the original director with Geoffrey Holder in Detroit during out-of-town tryouts. The original Baltimore cast included Renee Harris as Dorothy, Charles Valentino as the Scarecrow, Ben Harney as the Tin Man, Ken Prymus as the Cowardly Lion, and Butterfly McQueen as the Queen of the Field Mice. Only Harney would remain in the Broadway cast, but in a much smaller role. The musical opened on January 5, 1975 at the Majestic Theatre, with Geoffrey Holder as director and the following cast: Stephanie Mills as Dorothy, Hinton Battle as the Scarecrow, Tiger Haynes as the Tin Man, Ted Ross as the Lion, Dee Dee Bridgewater as Glinda the Good Witch of the South, André DeShields as the Wizard, Mabel King as Evillene the Wicked Witch of the West, Clarice Taylor as Addaperle the Good Witch of the North, Tasha Thomas as Aunt Em, Ralph Wilcox as Uncle Henry. Producer Ken Harper considered closing the show after its Broadway opening night. One source attributes its return to a publicity campaign and favorable audience reaction; William F. Brown, who write the book, gave a more specific explanation in 1993: "20th Century-Fox, the show's major investor, put in another $100,000 to keep it going and everyone agreed to royalty cuts until the productions cost—about $1.1 million—was recouped....By the eighth week, we were selling out." The Broadway production moved to The Broadway Theatre on May 25, 1977, and closed on January 28, 1979, after four years and 1,672 performances. A popular song from the production was "Ease on Down the Road", sung by the characters as they dance down the yellow brick road. Along with other musicals including Purlie (1971) and Raisin (1974), The Wiz was a breakthrough for Broadway, a large-scale big-budget musical featuring an all-black cast. It laid the foundation for later African-American hits such as Bubbling Brown Sugar, Dreamgirls and Duke Ellington's Sophisticated Ladies. National tour and later revival The musical toured the US in 1976 and during the tour, Kenneth Kamal Scott replaced Andre DeShields as the Wiz, Stephanie Mills was replaced by Renee Harris, who was herself replaced in 1978 by Deborah Malone and subsequently Dorothy was portrayed by Ren Woods for the Los Angeles run at the Ahmanson Theater, where the 19-year-old made a big impression on Hollywood, casting her in the Milos Forman film Hair. Critics at the time compared her most favorably to Ms. Mills, who created the role on Broadway. A revival ran on Broadway at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre from May 24, 1984, through June 3, 1984, closing after 13 performances and 7 previews. Directed by Geoffrey Holder, the cast featured Stephanie Mills as Dorothy. It then ran in London at the Lyric Hammersmith from December 11, 1984, through February 2, 1985. A planned 2004 Broadway revival was not produced. From 1996-97 there was another US national tour with Tasha Scott as Dorothy, Grace Jones (Evillene), Peabo Bryson (The Wiz), and CeCe Peniston as Glinda. The cast also featured Tony Terry as the Tin Man. Romelda Benjamin also played Aunt Em.
Résumé: Dorothy is blown by a tornado into munchkinland where she meets the Scarecrow, the Tin-man, and the Cowardly Lion. They all go off to see the Wizard of Oz, who turns out to be a phony, but she starts believing and they all live happily ever after.
Création: 15/1/1975 - Majestic Theatre (Broadway) - représ.
Musical
Musique: Andrew Lloyd Webber • E.Y. Harburg • Harold Arlen • Paroles: E.Y. Harburg • Harold Arlen • Tim Rice • Livret: Jeremy Sams • L. Frank Baum • Production originale: 2 versions mentionnées
Dispo: Synopsis Génèse Liste chansons
Genèse: The Wizard of Oz was first turned into a musical extravaganza by Baum himself. A loose adaptation of his 1900 novel (there is no Wicked Witch or Toto, and there are some new characters), it first played in Chicago in 1902 and was a success on Broadway the following year. It then toured for nine years. The 1939 film adaptation bore a closer resemblance to the storyline of Baum's original novel than most previous versions. It was a strong success, winning the Academy Awards for best song and best score, and continues to be broadcast perennially. Among the many musical theatre adaptations of The Wizard of Oz, two previous ones have used the songs from the film. In 1945, the St. Louis Municipal Opera (MUNY) created a version with a script adapted by Frank Gabrielson from the novel, but it is influenced in some respects by the motion picture screenplay. It uses most of the songs from the film. This was followed, in 1987, by a Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) adaptation designed to more closely recreate the film version. The book by John Kane closely follows the film's screenplay, and it and uses nearly all of the film's music. Both the MUNY and RSC adaptations were successes and have been revived numerous times in the U.S. and UK. The Wizard of Oz is Andrew Lloyd Webber's 18th musical. Tim Rice first collaborated with Lloyd Webber in 1965, together writing The Likes of Us. Their next piece was Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, followed by two more concept albums that became hit musicals, Jesus Christ Superstar (1971) and Evita (1978). Except for a special collaboration for Queen Elizabeth's 60th birthday celebration, the musical Cricket in 1986, after Evita, each man turned to other collaborators to produce further well-known musical theatre works. The Wizard of Oz was Rice and Lloyd Webber's first production together in the West End in over three decades. To create the new musical, Lloyd Webber and director Jeremy Sams adapted the 1939 film's screenplay, and Rice and Lloyd Webber added several new songs to the film's score. In July 2010, Lloyd Webber told the Daily Mail, "The fact is that The Wizard of Oz has never really worked in the theatre. The film has one or two holes where in the theatre you need a song. For example, there's nothing for either of the two witches to sing." "Tim and I are doing quite a specific thing, because we know what's missing." Productions After previews beginning 7 February, the musical opened in the West End, at the London Palladium, on 1 March 2011. The role of Dorothy was originally played by Danielle Hope, who was selected through the reality television show Over the Rainbow, and the title role of the Wizard was created by Michael Crawford. Over the Rainbow runner-up Sophie Evans performed the role of Dorothy on Tuesday evenings and when Hope was ill or on holiday. Hannah Waddingham originated the role of the Wicked Witch of the West leaving the cast on September 2011, when her understudy, Marianne Benedict assumed the role. Hope and Crawford left the production on 5 February 2012. Evans replaced Hope in the role of Dorothy full-time beginning 7 February 2012, and Russell Grant took over as The Wizard a week later, for 14-weeks. Des O'Connor played The Wizard from May 2012 until the production closed. The musical was produced by Lloyd Webber and Bill Kenwright, with direction by Jeremy Sams, choreography by Arlene Phillips and sets and costumes by Robert Jones. It took in pre-opening sales of £10 million. The production celebrated its 500th performance on 9 May 2012 and closed on 2 September 2012. An autumn 2012 reality TV show, Over the Rainbow, hosted by Daryn Jones, searched for a Canadian girl to play the role of Dorothy in a forthcoming Toronto staging by Mirvish Productions. On 5 November 2012, viewers chose Danielle Wade, a 20-year-old University of Windsor acting major, to play the role of Dorothy, with Stephanie La Rochelle as 1st runner up. The production premiered on 20 December 2012 at the Ed Mirvish Theatre with an official opening night on 13 January 2013. The cast also includes Cedric Smith as Professor Marvel/the Wizard, Lisa Horner as Miss Gulch/The Wicked Witch of the West, Mike Jackson as the Hickory/Tin Man, Lee MacDougall as the Zeke/Cowardly Lion, Jamie McKnight as Hunk/the Scarecrow and Robin Evan Willis as Glinda. The production is then expected to begin touring North America in autumn 2013 with the original Canadian cast.
Résumé:
Création: 1/3/2011 - Palladium Theatre (Londres) - représ.