View from the Green Room: All aboard The Yellow Brick Road to Stradbally
Stage Coach cast of the Wizard of Oz.
Martine Rogers’s Stage Coach has been fashioning her own version of yellow brick roads with a string of stage musicals at the Barron Hall in Stradbally for more than a decade. During that time, Martine has developed a string of young musical talent that has delighted audiences and musical theatre in Stradbally and its surrounds.
I love the ‘buy in’ and the pride in the Stradbally jersey feel to the whole experience. The welcome is as large as it is sincere and I’m greeted by four young stars from previous shows with my programme and the broadest of smiles.
Welcomes like this matter to everyone because it’s all part of the whole musical theatre experience a company wants to develop. As for the announcements from Gráinne Casey, Maeve O’Neill, Cara Lennon and Anna Crowhurst…well they’re a mini-drama of entertainment all on their own.
The appeal of The Wizard of Oz is timeless as ‘Wicked’ currently proves. It’s the most viewed film in cinema history with its fantasy storytelling, musical score, and memorable characters and a song that transcends generations.
Everyone loves ‘Over the Rainbow’ and Méabh Power, as a splendid Dorothy, works her magic with the tune that offers the promise of better things from a different world that’s just within touching distance.
The characters are any child’s delight and totally sympathetic. There’s a Scarecrow (Jack Casey), who wants a brain; a Tin Man (Rebecca Fan) who wants a heart; a cowardly Lion (Tom A Rogers) who wants courage and a dog Toto (Lucy Lenihan) who just wants to go home to Kansas. Glinda, the good Witch (Róisín Breen), points them towards the Yellow Brick Road to the Emerald City where the Wizard of Oz ((Arthur Rogers) will fill all wishes. They reach the Emerald City, despite the efforts of the Wicked Witch (Erica Haughey), chunky monkeys, tricky winklies but with the collusion of Munchkins, Lullaby Leaguers and a murder of crows.
The Stage Coach family are all on board for the trip to Oz with imaginative direction and inventive choreography from Martine, musical direction from Thomas Snr. and stage management from Martine, Bertie and Polly.
The costumes are fabulous and there are props a plenty to keep us amused. The set design, on such a small stage, is inventive, functional and keeps the show ticking along nicely.
The chorus is well-drilled and everyone is on cue and the characters are given plenty to do throughout the show. Above all, everyone seems to be enjoying the experience – you couldn’t ask for more.
Well done Stage Coach.
