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> Ryan, (or anybody who knows), have you heard anything else > about ALW's "Wizard Of Oz" musical? I haven't heard much > since they announced that Michael Crawford was going to > play the Wizard. I've heard nothing. > > I am guessing that ALW and Tim Rice are planning to write > new songs for Crawford. Surely this will be a golden > opportunity for ALW to score another hit single. I don't know what songs they could write. I wish they would leave it alone. I suppose they could write another song in the second half, which never had much music ("Jitterbug", "Over the Rainbow (Reprise)" and "Ding Dong! Emerald City!" were all removed during the original previews for the movie.) I always loved how there was originally going to be a reprise of "Over the rainbow" when Dorothy was locked up in the Witch's Castle. But it was cut and I think that was a terrible mistake. Just listening to Judy Garland's live onset performance of that reprise, accompanied by the stills, is heartbreaking. They really should have kept it. "Someday I'll wake and rub my eyes And in those far off Kansas skies You'll find me... Somewhere...over the rainbow... I'm frightened. I'm frightened, Auntie Em, I'm frightened..." > > Has he had one since Jim helped him to write "No Matter > What"? I don't think there was a "Love Never Dies" hit > (although feel free to correct me if I'm wrong). They tried. Katherine Jenkins even did a recording of "Love Never Dies" but they lowered the range for her and it's one of the all-time worst ALW-related recordings I have ever heard, Period. Do not even BOTHER. And, of course, they did the promo video for Ramin Karimloo singing "Till I Hear You Sing" where they make the Phantom look like a heart-throb. WTF!!!! I know it's just a promo video, but both Steve Harley and Michael Crawford were wearing masks in the videos from the original. > > Ryan, I was very interested to read what you wrote at the > bottom of the board about "Wizard Of Oz". I wonder if > anyone else on the board is as much of a fan as you are. I > have been a fan of Judy Garland and the MGM film since I > was a kid but I have never thought much about the wider > "Wizard Of Oz" world that you are talking about. > > I wrote: "Ha ha. I meant Oz as in "Wizard of Oz". I am > talking about the far off land of McDonaldland (where > burgers and fries grow out of the ground, without killing > any cows), not ordinary McDonald's restaurants. Even a > veggie like me can eat the burgers in McDonaldland." > > You replied: "I thought that you'd meant that (It's > interesting, in musical theatre, when the Peter Allen show > "The Boy from Oz" was moving to Broadway, there were > audience members who mistook it to be a sequel to "The > Wizard of Oz".) > > Speaking of sequels to "The Wizard of Oz", are you aware > that the original book L. Frank Baum wrote and published > in 1900 spawned 39 official sequels? 13 were written by > Baum, before his death, and Ruth Plumly Thompson and then > Baum's illustrator John R. Neill and some other writers > took over the series from then on. I can't remember what > the last sequel was, "The Merry-Go-Round of Oz" perhaps. > > Now, doesn't it make you wonder why Warner Bros. haven't > realized that this could be another enormous franchise > like Harry Potter? Well, the audience has always taken to > the MGM original and half of that audience have complained > that they want a new film that's more faithful to the > book. > > You see, Oz was never a dream. Dorothy really went there. > And in "The Emerald City of Oz", Dorothy, Toto, Uncle > Henry, and Auntie Em, all move there, permanently. > > "There's no place like home..." indeed." > > I remember the Peter Allen show when I was living in New > York. Didn't he die? I think he was married to Liza > Minnelli. If he was big in New York, he must have been > absolutely massive in Australia. How odd that people > thought his stage show was a sequel to the "Wizard Of > Oz". > > I had no idea that there were 39 sequels, although I do > seem to remember something called "Return To Oz". I see > what you mean by the studios failing to realise that it > could be an enormous film franchise like "Harry Potter". I had no idea either. I'd even read the original novel and I had no idea. I was in this bookshop about 10 years ago when I found a book on the 100 years of Oz. That was how I discovered that there was actually an entire series, but they're not all that easy to find in print. I read a lot of them on Project Gutenberg. And, yes, I love "Return to Oz". And Fairuza Balk was magnificent in "The Craft" many years later. She's one of my favourite actresses. > > Do Warner Bros own the rights? I know it was MGM who made > the classic. Apparently MGM made it at the same time as > "Gone With The Wind" and the profits from "Gone With The > Wind" covered the finacial failure at the box office of > "Wizard Of Oz". "Wizard Of Oz" has now made a fortune from > television (it is the most broadcast film in history) but > I was amazed to find out that it lost money when first > released. I believe that Warner Bros own at least some of the rights rights, yes, though I don't remember how they acquired them. They also acquired "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory" from Paramount, which really paid off, and then they did the remake. > > You wrote: "Well, the audience has always taken to the MGM > original and half of that audience have complained that > they want a new film that's more faithful to the book." > > I love the MGM original and not just because of Judy > Garland's wonderful performance. How different is the > book? I read it when I was a kid but I can't remember. I > wonder if the ALW stage show will be more faithful to the > book. I would have thought that Tim Rice might have tried > to make it more legitimate by insisting on that. The main difference in the book is that it's not a dream. It really happened. The Good Witch of the North and the Good Witch of the South were combined into a single character for the film. There were more obstacles on the Yellow Brick Road. The monstrous Kalidahs spring to mind. The Tin Woodsman's origins are explained. He was once a man, a man in love, but the Wicked Witch of the East enchanted his axe so he would chop off all his body parts one by one. Eventually when he was all tin, he realized that the tinsman had forgotten to give him a heart. And he was single ever since. When they're all asleep in the Poppy Fields, it's the Queen of the Field Mice who saves them, but that couldn't be shown on film so they used one of the changes from the 1902 stage production (completely different to the film.) In the stage production, it's Locasta the Good Witch who saves them after her snowstorm breaks the spell of the poppies. The Witch did NOT enchant the Poppies in the book. They were already like that. The Witch's role in the book is much smaller than it is in the film. They enlarged her role because they thought the book was too episodic. The Witch controlled the Winged Monkeys through a golden cap which she used so they would grant her three wishes. After they captured Dorothy & Co, the three wishes were up and the Winged Monkeys later returned Dorothy & Co to the Emerald City. After the Wizard leaves in his balloon, and the Scarecrow becomes the Ruler of Oz, he, the Tin Woodman and the Cowardly Lion accompany Dorothy through the Quadling Country in the South so they can meet with Glinda, the Good Witch of the South so she can send her home. I love the book and the film equally, though I wish that the film hadn't been a dream. > > You wrote: "You see, Oz was never a dream. Dorothy really > went there. And in "The Emerald City of Oz", Dorothy, > Toto, Uncle Henry, and Auntie Em, all move there, > permanently." > > Cool. Now that would make a great film. Is the Wizard > there when they move? He takes off in a hot air balloon at > the end of the MGM version. The Wizard returns to Oz in the fourth book. Dorothy and a couple of her friends have fallen deep into the bowels of the earth during an earthquake, and they land in a country ruled by people who are plants that live in glass houses. All of a sudden, the Wizard appears in the sky in his hot balloon and that's how they're reunited. He returns to Oz and stays there and eventually tries to learn real magic. > > BTW, do you think ALW is attracted to the story because of > the gigantic success of "Wicked"? > I wouldn't be surprised. But he's already ruined the other great phenomenon, "Phantom". I'll never forgive him if he ruins this one. Oh, and here's the list of the famous 40 Oz novels: 1. The Wizard of Oz, originally published as The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (L. Frank Baum, 1900) and also published as The New Wizard of Oz (1903) 2. The Land of Oz, originally published as The Marvelous Land of Oz (L. Frank Baum, 1904) 3. Ozma of Oz (L. Frank Baum, 1907) 4. Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz (L. Frank Baum, 1908) 5. The Road to Oz (L. Frank Baum, 1909) 6. The Emerald City of Oz (L. Frank Baum, 1910) 7. The Patchwork Girl of Oz (L. Frank Baum, 1913) 8. Tik-Tok of Oz (L. Frank Baum, 1914) 9. The Scarecrow of Oz (L. Frank Baum, 1915) 10. Rinkitink in Oz (L. Frank Baum, 1916) 11. The Lost Princess of Oz (L. Frank Baum, 1917) 12. The Tin Woodman of Oz (L. Frank Baum, 1918) 13. The Magic of Oz (L. Frank Baum, 1919) 14. Glinda of Oz (L. Frank Baum, 1920) 15. The Royal Book of Oz (Ruth Plumly Thompson [but originally attributed to L. Frank Baum], 1921) 16. Kabumpo in Oz (Ruth Plumly Thompson, 1922) 17. The Cowardly Lion of Oz (Ruth Plumly Thompson, 1923) 18. Grampa in Oz (Ruth Plumly Thompson, 1924) 19. The Lost King of Oz (Ruth Plumly Thompson, 1925) 20. The Hungry Tiger of Oz (Ruth Plumly Thompson, 1926) 21. The Gnome King of Oz (Ruth Plumly Thompson, 1927) 22. The Giant Horse of Oz (Ruth Plumly Thompson, 1928) 23. Jack Pumpkinhead of Oz (Ruth Plumly Thompson, 1929) 24. The Yellow Knight of Oz (Ruth Plumly Thompson, 1930) 25. Pirates in Oz (Ruth Plumly Thompson, 1931) 26. The Purple Prince of Oz (Ruth Plumly Thompson, 1932) 27. Ojo in Oz (Ruth Plumly Thompson, 1933) 28. Speedy in Oz (Ruth Plumly Thompson, 1934) 29. The Wishing Horse of Oz (Ruth Plumly Thompson, 1935) 30. Captain Salt in Oz (Ruth Plumly Thompson, 1936) 31. Handy Mandy in Oz (Ruth Plumly Thompson, 1937) 32. The Silver Princess in Oz (Ruth Plumly Thompson, 1938) 33. Ozoplaning with the Wizard of Oz (Ruth Plumly Thompson, 1939) 34. The Wonder City of Oz (John R. Neill, 1940) 35. The Scalawagons of Oz (John R. Neill, 1941) 36. Lucky Bucky in Oz (John R. Neill, 1942) 37. The Magical Mimics in Oz (Jack Snow, 1946) 38. The Shaggy Man of Oz (Jack Snow, 1949) 39. The Hidden Valley of Oz (Rachel R. Cosgrove, 1951) 40. Merry Go Round in Oz (Eloise Jarvis McGraw and Lauren McGraw Wagner, 1963)
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