THE WIZARD OF OZ Blog - Page 4

Back on the first day of technical rehearsals, we caught up with our Wizard of Oz Dance Captain, Richard Roe, for a chat on munchkins, technicolor, and everything else Oz related...

In part one of our catch up with Wizard of Oz choreographer Arlene Phillips, she talks rehearsals, working with Andrew Lloyd Webber, being back at the London Palladium and working alongside some of her fellow Sound of Music collaborators and her thoughts on our Dorothy, Danielle Hope.

Meet our Totos - Bobby, Razzamatazz, Dazzle and Topper - who are currently following the yellow brick road at the London Palladium, as The Wizard of Oz moves into its second week of preview performances! In this exclusive video clip, we get a glimpse of the specially-trained dogs who are playing Dorothy's faithful four-legged friend, in training and rehearsing with the cast. It's a dog's life...

In our latest Wizard of Oz video update, Resident Director Kate takes us behind-the-scenes to see the show's amazing Props team - including Ros, Damon and Claire - in action. Check out that green poodle...

They're hard at work in previews at The London Palladium now, but a few weeks ago we caught up with our Good Witch Emily Tierney - aka Glinda - in the rehearsal studios to find out how things were progressing. She talks witchery and working with cast members including Hannah Waddingham and Danielle Hope...

You might think all the Wizard of Oz action is going on onstage, but today we're underneath the London Palladium with Sub-Stage ASM Tom to find out what's going on underneath the yellow brick road...

Wizard of Oz Resident Director Kate introduces us to some of the show's hard-working Stage Management team - ASM's Sam and James and DSM Kirsty - as we find out how they help keep the show together...

During last week's technical rehearsals we caught up with The Wizard of Oz Director Jeremy Sams to see how things are going down at the (slightly windy!) London Palladium. Apologies for the slight inteference in the sound in some of our blogs from the theatre, this is due to the microphones being worn by creatives, cast and crew!

With rehearsals for The Wizard of Oz now well underway - and the first preview just a few days away - our Dorothy, Danielle Hope, gives us a quick tour of her dressing room, shows off her ruby slippers, and gives us a glimpse of her Dorothy outfit!

Last week, the Wizard of Oz cast joined members of the creative team for technical rehearsals at the London Palladium. We caught up with some of the cast as they had their first glimpse of the wonderful world of Oz, and our Resident Director Kate introduces us to some of the many talented departments working on the show. You might recognise our previous interviewee Rob Jones and blogger Matt Towell in there!

We caught up with the Wizard of Oz cast during the last few weeks of rehearsals - here they all are to say hello!

Recently, members of The Wizard of Oz creative team popped along to a film studio to shoot a very special bit of 'Green Screen' footage that will be used in the upcoming production. Here, resident director Kate Golledge, takes us behind the scenes to see what went on - let us know if you spot the footage in the show!

Wizard of Oz Production Manager Matt takes us back to the London Palladium to see how the theatre's looking as the first preview approaches - only a few weeks to go!

In the second part of our interview with Wizard of Oz Set and Costume Designer Rob Jones, he tells us how everything in Oz land is coming together...

A short clip of our Dorothy, Danielle Hope, as she rehearses with her Toto ahead of Opening Night - which is drawing ever closer!

We head back to the Wizard of Oz rehearsal rooms to catch up with some of the company's swings - Olly, Becky, Ceili and Anna - who take some time out to explain to us exactly what being a swing means!

In his latest update, Production Manager Matt Towell takes us backstage at the London Palladium (which turned 100 on 26th December 2010) to see how the set's progressing as we move ever-closer to Opening Night…

More from Production Manager Matt Towell as he shows us how the London Palladum is being transformed - this time we're BELOW the stage - and it's a bit noisy again!

We popped down to the rehearsal studios at the beginning of the week to see how the cast, creatives and crew of The Wizard of Oz got on on their first day of rehearsals. Choreographer Arlene Phillips welcomes us, we catch up with Hannah Waddingham and Danielle Hope, and spot a few more familiar faces in the rehearsal room - from Andrew Lloyd Webber to Michael Crawford to Tim Rice….

Meet our Toto! Regular visitors will be familiar with the antics of our "Cast by TV" Toto, Dangerous Dave, who was selected by the special panel of judges on the BBC's Over the Rainbow programme to appear at a special one-off gala performance of The Wizard of Oz ; however for every other performance of the show the role will be played a specially-trained dog… And so Bobbie, veteran of stage and screen, will soon be treading the boards of the world-famous London Palladium stage when The Wizard of Oz opens in February - you can get an early glimpse of Bobbie in action when he appears alongside Danielle Hope and 58 children in tomorrow evening's broadcast of The Royal Variety Performance (BBC1, Thursday 16th December, 8pm). In this video, Jerry Cott, Bobbie's owner and trainer, talks us through Toto's training schedule for the lead up to the big day…