the Wonderful WIZA of OZ[?]

New Zealand Listener, Volume 36, Issue 926, 10 May 1957, Page 8

the Wonderful WIZA of OZ[?]

"COMEWHERE, over the rainbow," sings Judy Garland-and all of us old enough to remember go with her to a bright fairy-tale world. To some of us it may seem as fantastic as the towers of Oz itself that children are growing up who do not know this famous story, or the film version that starred Judy Garland. But there will be a chance next week to make up for lost time if they (along with father and mother) tune in to Theatre of Music on Saturday, May 18, when the YAs, 3YZ and 4YZ will play musical and dramatic selections from the soundtrack of the M.G.M. film. These form a complete musical play. Of course, The Wizard of Oz was a classic in America before it was filmed. Frank Baum’s book had sold over nine million copies, and a dramatised version had run on Broadway for four years before touring the U.S. And the film made friends all over the world for Dorothy and her odd companions on the perilous journey. It was a major success for Judy Garland, who played the young Kansas farm girl who, with her dog Toto, is whirled by a cyclone into the never-never land of Oz. Her house lands on the Wicked Witch of the East, killing her. Glinda, the Good Witch (Billie Burke), gives Dorothy the dead Witch’s magic ruby shoes and sends her to the Wizard of Oz, who can help her to get home. On her way down the Yellow Brick Road, Dorothy meets the Scarecrow (Ray Bolger), who thinks he has no brain, the Tin Man (Jack Haley), who longs for a real heart, and the cowardly Lion (Bert Lahr), who is afraid he has no courage. They all go to find the Wizard: The Wicked Witch of the West (Margaret Hamilton) constantly menaces the travellers, as they go through the weird forest of the Jitter Trees, the acres of giant hollyhocks, and the fields of poisonous poppies, right to the Witch’s terrifying mountain home. At the end of the extraordinary journey the friends reach the Emerald City and

be) Dall the Wizard himself (the late Frank Morgan), who gives the friends their hearts’ desires, though not quite in the way they had expected. The second part of Theatre of Music will contain the "Cambodian Suite," written by King Norodom of Cambodia. This music, from a kingdom next door to Siam, is Western in style and harmony, _ suggesting that -_

Anna and her kind have been pretty successful in their education of Eastern royal families. The suite nevertheless is strongly oriental in mood, its three parts describing facets of the East, from the haunting melodies and stillness of the nights to the festivity and dancing.