| “If Ever There Was a Wiz There Was”: Theatre Wizardry |
Aberystwyth Summer Musical |
| Aberystwyth Summer Musical- The Wizard of Oz , Aberystwyth Arts Centre , August 14, 2025 |
Aberystwyth Arts Centre has produced modern-era musical theatre for its summer productions in recent years. For 2025 the production goes back to a more song-and-dance show. The adaptation is that of the Royal Shakespeare Company from 1987 rather than the 2011 version from the Lloyd-Webber stable. The impetus came from Terry Hands. The result is exemplary. The thrill of the production rests on two foundations. The first is the quality of the material. The legacy of Stephen Sondheim includes critical comment, in his two volumes of memoirs, on a string of fellow lyricists. He held Yip Harburg in high esteem. In “It really was no miracle” a tornado has blown Dorothy and dwelling to Oz to the demise of the Wicked Witch of the East. Elian Mai West as Glinda, the Good Witch of the North sings “The wind began to switch” and follows with seven rhymed lines: pitch, unhitch, itch, hitch, rich, slitch, ditch. This is lyrical virtuosity. The score's most renowned song is “Over the Rainbow.” It is the first song for Millie Davies. A blaze of Cardiff talent her Dorothy enchants throughout. The show's lyrics vary from the film. On a day nudging 30 degrees there is a smile to be had from “When all the world is a hopeless jumble And the raindrops tumble all around.” If the best-known song is a ballad the score is complemented by big group numbers. "The Merry Old Land of Oz" is a scene of exuberance in which the company swells to two dozen. They have good reason for their merriment. As Yip Harburg wrote “We get up at twelve and start to work at one. Take an hour for lunch and then at two we're done. Jolly good fun!” The Jitterbug, which did not make it to the film, is a blizzard of high-speed dance steps with Millie Davies at the centre. The costume designers have given a nod of remembrance to the Arts Centre's show of 2024. It looks like Oz too has an oompa loompa or two. The core of the creative team are Richard Cheshire director, David Roper musical director and James Bennett choreographer. Elinor Powell is coach for the performers from the locality. Familiar figures are to be seen on stage. Phyl Harries is Uncle Henry and the Emerald City Guard. Sam Jones, Willy Wonka from 2024, is the Wizard. Harry Lynn is Hunk and the Scarecrow. James Ifan is Hickory and Tinman. Dion Davies, most regularly seen on stage at the Torch, gets to show off a big voice in "If I Were King of the Forest". The transformation scene between worlds is done with flair. Trees and telegraph poles twirl in the tornado. Miss Gulch is sent skyward on her bicycle. The audience receives a sea of small bubbles. Theatr y Werin has a deep tradition of young performers getting early experience on a mid-size stage. Mari Fflur, a sneering, cursing Wicked Witch of the West, was a lead in the youth theatre. For those with memories she was herself once Dorothy. Her threats include stuffing a mattress with the straw man and turning the emptiness of tinman into a beehive. James Everest and Ethan Casey-Clothier display an elastic-limbed vitality as a pair of crows, bad monkeys, Winkie guards and jitterbugs. Different groups of children, 25 in all, play the Munchkins over the show's run. They are clothed in exuberant colours. Costume designers are Llinos Griffiths Gough and Amy Barrett. The brio of their signing and the adeptness of their dance steps are a wonder. At the curtain call the company numbers thirty-nine. A fresh round of applause is given when Miri Rhys is brought on. Miri Rhys is a trouper on stage, with a constant wag and a stage presence of good cheer. The role of Toto in Oz is different. Much time is spent in transit in a basket and the portrayal is by contrast more still and studied. Photo credit: David Edmunds |
Reviewed by: Adam Somerset |
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