Update: tickets are now on sale for the Melbourne season of The Wizard of Oz via Ticketmaster.
Click your heels together: Andrew Lloyd Webber’s London Palladium production of The Wizard of Oz is coming to the Regent Theatre in May 2018, thanks to mega-producer John Frost.
Based on the 1939 film, but with added songs by powerhouse team Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber (whose best-know collabs include Evita and Jesus Christ Superstar), this production (directed by Jeremy Sams) premiered at London's Palladium Theatre in 2011. In their 4-star review, Time Out London described it as "a spectacle worthy of the Palladium's heyday. Visually, this stage remake of MGM's 1939 special effects blockbuster is 'Over the Rainbow' and accelerating."
The local iteration will star Australian veteran Anthony Warlow (who knocked our socks off in Fiddler on the Roof last year) as the Wizard, and a special double bill of Wicked alumni: Lucy Durack as Glinda the Good and Jemma Rix as the Wicked Witch of the West. Samantha Dodemaide will play Dorothy, her first leading role in a major musical.
The Wizard of Oz will open in Brisbane in November 2017 ahead of Sydney, where it previews from December 31 – before landing in Melbourne in May 2018.
Tickets are now on sale for the Melbourne season.
See what else is currently on stage and coming up in musical theatre in Melbourne.