View from the Green Room: To Oz and a kaleidoscopic rainbow of delight
David Hennessy Stage School's production of The Wizard of Oz at Garter Lane. Photo: Joe Evans
The David Hennessy Stage School blew the Garter Lane audience apart tonight with a colourful, high-fives-all-round production of the legendary Wizard of Oz. An apparently simple timber-effect set of a dirt-blown Kansas farm with wicker-fence, egg-frame and tornado shelter nods to the original 1939 MGM mega-hit movie that never ages.
A door-screen opens to a kaleidoscopic world of vivid colours and vibrant flowers, yellow-brick roads, emerald city locations, Kansas farms and windmills. Booming tornados and howling winds see cows, roofs, sheds, houses and farm machinery hurtle across a grey-black sky as everyone seeks shelter from the winds. The rear-screen digital projections and visual effects amaze all night and bring us everywhere in an instant with witches that appear out of fire and tufts of black smoke.
The great delight of this show is that it remains absolutely faithful to the original screenplay and the story captures everyone’s attention.
The David Hennessy cast is amazing and the production is polished and professional. Opening night and not a moment of hesitancy or a cue was fluffed, no line missed and back-stage movement of the Good Witch carriage, revolving porch, doors that form gateways, booths that mask Wizards, that never held up the pace of the show.
Casting throughout all the leads is strong; with some leads alternating for different performances. Megan Cronin-O’Shea (also Caoimhe Scanlon) performs with an open honesty that is a delight. Megan pulls together all the aspects of the storyline, leads choruses in song and dance, and, of course, nails one of the most iconic songs of all time in ‘Over the Rainbow’.
Her three journeymen are all unique and hilarious and in immediate need of therapy. Alex Brophy’s Scarecrow is a willowy, pieced-together creation of straw that never stops. Leah Barden’s Tin Man is a bundle of oil-fuelled comedy that has the audiences in stitches, while Josh Cowman’s Lion is a wonderful contrast to his two amigos. What better way to begin a journey than with a quest, obstacles, foes and villains and a young teen that everyone adores.
There’s no doubting which witch is which here. Kitty O’Connor’s Glinda’s open-hearted soprano wins hearts all night, while Phoebe Boylan’s Wicked Witch frightens all and sundry as she appears and disappears with explosions and cackles and screams of delight.
Three Crows (Casey Murtagh Stafford, Orlaith O’Connor and Sophie Tubritt) are birds with attitude that look like they’ve just come back from Hawaii; Nikki Grabowa, Lily Haley and Katie Power are stand-off trees that shy apples at our heroes; Caoimhe Naughton, Ella McGrath and Freya Dwyer sing the sweetest of lullabies from their Lullaby League, while Katie Dalton, Nancy Flynn and Sophie Dalton are chirpy members of the Lollipop League.
Claire O’Connor (Mayor of Munchkin City), Janee Cabena (Coroner) and Deniz Guney (Barrister) keep the tightest of harmonies, while Faye Quinn Grant is a very efficient sword-wielder as Guard of Oz. Dylan Ryan delighted in the dual roles of Prof. Marvell and also Wizard; Erin Bohan and Sam Bohan are very sympathetic as Aunt Em and Uncle Henry. A great delight of this show is that the complex storyline is so strong and lands with every audience member.
Production values, as always with the David Hennessy Stage School, are very impressive throughout. Strong direction makes for strong individual performances and his dance routines from the Winkies, Jitterbugs and Munchkins are inventive, exciting and colourful as choruses appear in groups that enter, exit and re-enter, that energises the whole performance.
And the section with the ‘Lámh’ sign language was a joy and a great learning experience for young cast members to empathise with people who have hearing difficulties.
A great night at Garter Lane from a superb cast.
