In 1987, Terry Hands, the Director of the Royal Shakespeare Company, decided to create a new musical for the then New Barbican Centre on The South Bank. He decided to create a new version of The Wizard of Oz. Up to then, no real full scale stage musical version of The Wizard Of Oz existed and so the starting point had to be the MGM film of 1939. The result was the musical version that WWOS are about to present, a Musical of the original film, which everyone has seen over the years with a few extras. Apart from the parts we all know and love. Dorothy, Scarecrow, Tinman, Lion, Glinda the Good Witch and, of course, The Wicked Witch, there are some additions including 3 sarcastic snobbish trees and 3 song and dance crows (straight out of Dumbo!). The Company will appear in many guises including Munchkins, Poppies, Snowflakes, Citizens of Oz (Osians), Flying monkeys, Winkies (Wicked Witch’s guards), Jitterbugs and ghosts Its another Mammoth production that will be expensive to stage but (hopefully) will appeal to the audiences and sell well!

We will be recuiting children (yes more little ones) to appear in the show. We will be looking for 2 teams of 20 to boost the Munchkin scene. Auditions for the Munchkins will be held in September, after the summer break.