Northern Stage Presents The Wizard of Oz, Closes 1/2/2011

One of the most beloved stories of all time comes to life in White River Junction when Northern Stage, the region's professional theater, stages L. Frank Baum's The Wizard of Oz from December 8 - January 2. The show features both Broadway actors and local youngsters, along with multi-media elements and special effects never before seen at Northern Stage, as well as a professionally trained dog!

In a world of economic uncertainty and the new emphasis on "staycations," the expression "There's no place like home" takes on special meaning. And this production highlights the fact that while Northern Stage features top actors from the New York theater world, the local community plays a large part in creating theater magic. Dozens of residents of the Upper Valley and the surrounding region participate in this holiday celebration.

This production includes several Northern Stage "firsts." This is the first time the company has incorporated video into a production; the first time a professional Broadway animal handler provides a trained dog; and the first use of extensive special effects, including shooting fireballs! Extra staffing has been added just for this production, and the result will be a stunning and memorable show. The costume changes alone will take a small army of backstage helpers; the transformation of the Scarecrow, the Tin Man and the Cowardly Lion into their Kansas counterparts happens in only 80 seconds!

William Berloni of Berloni's Theatrical Animals will train Northern Stage's "Toto"-a Cairn terrier named Nigel, a rescue dog who was adopted as a pup. Berloni trained "Sandy" for the original Broadway production of Annie, and he has returned to the Great White Way numerous times, including the original production of Camelot and the Madison Square Garden production of The Wizard of Oz. His animals have appeared at the White House for five different presidents.

The Wizard of Oz, directed by Brooke Ciardelli, musical direction by Kevin Francis Finn and choreography by Broadway performer and multiple award winner Connor Gallagher, runs live on stage at the Briggs Opera House in White River Junction from December 8, 2010 - January 2, 2011. Performances are nearly every day at 7:30 p.m., with many 2:00 matinees on weekdays and weekends, for a total of 34 performances. For tickets and information, call 802-296-7000. Tickets are also available through the Northern Stage website, www.northernstage.org.

The Wizard of Oz takes place in two worlds. Young Dorothy, an orphan raised by her Aunt Em and Uncle Henry, lives in the dusty plains of Kansas, but her imagination is strong, and she longs to experience life in another land, "over the rainbow." Her dream comes true when a tornado spins her world upside down, and she lands in Oz, as colorful and fantastic as Kansas was gray and ordinary. Learning that her only way home is to seek the help of the Great and Powerful Wizard of Oz, she begins her journey along the yellow brick road, accompanied by the faithful Toto. Along the way, she meets up with the Scarecrow, the Tin Man and the Cowardly Lion and develops the confidence to battle the Wicked Witch of the West and help her friends make their dreams come true. Finally, she returns home, her life forever changed.

The cast combines the finest actors, singers and dancers from Broadway and national tours and some of the most talented young performers in the Upper Valley. Leading the way is Veronica J. Kuehn, a terrific young actress and singer, who landed the part of Dorothy after months of intensive auditions in New York. Kuehn comes to Northern Stage from the Broadway productions of Mamma Mia! and Xanadu, and she is sure to capture the hearts of all who see her passionate portrayal. A trio of familiar faces accompany her on her journey. Ken Prymus, the Cowardly Lion, came to Northern Stage to play Deuteronomy in CATS following over seven years playing the part on Broadway and followed that up with a dramatic turn in Driving Miss Daisy. His Broadway credits also include The Wiz (also as the Lion) and Ain't Misbehavin'. The award-winning Robert Koutras, last seen here as Gaston in Beauty and the Beast and Ethan in The Full Monty, portrays the Tin Man. Kevin Loreque wowed audiences here in several shows, including CATS, Cabaret, The Full Monty, The Elephant Man and I Am My Own Wife, and he returns to play the Scarecrow. Both Koutras and Loreque have toured the country in multiple productions. Other Broadway veterans in the cast include Jane Brockman (A Christmas Carol) and Tia Zorne (Beauty and the Beast).

The show also includes seven talented local children, hand-picked by audition, who will work alongside the professional actors. They are Emily Brown of Wentworth, NH; Mollie Brown of Wentworth, NH; Fiona Campbell of Quechee, VT; Margaret Ann Marie Finley of Lyme; Sydney Johnstone of Plainfield, NH; Henry Lang of Norwich, VT; and Daniel Osofsky of Hanover, NH.

Choreographer Connor Gallagher, a graduate of the College Conservatory of Music, appeared on Broadway in Beauty and the Beast and has provided original choreography for top New York shows. He recently won an award for Best Choreography at the New York Musical Theatre Festival and choreographed Perez Hilton Saves the Universe, named Outstanding Musical at the 2008 FringeNYC festival. He is also the co-writer, director and choreographer for a new musical television series now in development. Musical Director Kevin Francis Finn, from New York's High School of Performing Arts and the Hartt School, has written music for Donny Osmond and Connie Kunkle and performed in Broadway's Peter Pan.

About the Play
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz began as a children's book written by L. Frank Baum and lavishly illustrated by W.W. Denslow in 1900. His goal was to create American fairy tales in the tradition of The Brothers Grimm and Hans Christian Andersen. The yellow brick road was inspired by a road in Peekskill, NY that was paved with yellow bricks, and he reportedly chose a young girl as the main character because of Lewis Carroll's success with Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

Later historians have tried to paint The Wizard of Oz as a political allegory, though there is no real evidence to support this. Cyclones were used in the 1890s to represent political revolution that would turn the drab countryside into a colorful land of prosperity. One enterprising high school teacher wrote that the yellow brick road represents the gold standard. Others say the winged monkeys represent the Native American population. In the book, the leader of the monkeys says to Dorothy, "Once we were a free people, living happily in the great forest, flying from tree to tree, eating nuts and fruit and doing just as we pleased without calling anybody master. . . . This was many years ago, long before Oz came out of the clouds to rule over this land."

Baum said that he plucked the name "Oz" from his file drawer labeled "O - Z." In one of Baum's sequels, Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz, we learn that the Wizard's name is actually Oscar Zoroaster Phadrig Isaac Norman Henkel Emmannuel Ambroise Diggs. As his initials spell "O.Z.P.I.N.H.E.A.D., he chooses to drop the "pinhead" portion and stick with "Oz."

The book was first dramatized for the stage in 1902 by Baum himself, with music by Paul Tietjens, although many of his songs were replaced by the work of other contemporary songwriters as the play was developed. The show premiered in Chicago; after a transfer to Broadway in 1903, it ran for 293 performances. Much of that version would be unrecognizable to today's audiences, however; the Wicked Witch of the West does not appear, and Toto has been improbably replaced by a cow named Imogene. The musical returned to Broadway in 1904-05 for another 171 performances. The show also toured from 1903-1909.

The 1939 film, of course, is legendary, winning Academy Awards for Best Original Score and Best Song ("Over the Rainbow"), although it lost out to Gone With the Wind for Best Picture honors, and it was only a modest hit at the time. Judy Garland won a special award for "Best Performances by a Juvenile" for both Oz and Babes In Arms. Despite its impressive special effects, that Oscar went to a now-forgotten film called The Rains Came for a monsoon sequence. The American Film Institute named it the #6 top movie of all time in 1998 (although it dropped to #10 by 2007), as well as the #1 fantasy film. Trivia abounds; Buddy Ebsen of The Beverly Hillbillies fame, a sensational dancer, had to bow out as the Tin Woodsman after he became ill from the aluminum powder used for silver coloring. (Ironically, Ebsen was originally cast as the Scarecrow, but Ray Bolger, the original Tin Woodsman, successfully lobbied to switch roles.) There is some evidence that Shirley Temple was originally sought to play Dorothy, as was Deanna Durbin. Gale Sondergaard was unhappy that the Wicked Witch was not depicted as sly and glamorous (a la the wicked queen in Snow White), and Margaret Hamilton was cast just three days before filming began. Attempts to cast W.C. Fields as the Wizard failed over salary negotiations. At one point, MGM insisted that the song "Over the Rainbow" be cut because they felt the Kansas sequence was too long.

The first stage version using the songs from the film popped up at the St. Louis Municipal Opera Company in 1945, and numerous versions have followed. Northern Stage's production is based on the 1997 adaptation by the Royal Shakespeare Company, with music from the film and a book adaptation by John Kane, using dialogue from the 1939 screenplay. The original London production included Imelda Staunton as Dorothy and Billie Brown (in drag) as the Wicked Witch of the West. This adaptation-but with a different cast-toured U.S. arenas in 1993 and was staged at Madison Square Garden in 1997, with Roseanne Barr as the Wicked Witch of the West. Barr was replaced by Eartha Kitt and later Jo Anne Worley for the 1998 tour; Mickey Rooney played the Wizard. A 2008 tour continues through 2011. Andrew Lloyd Webber plans a new West End production in 2011, with Danielle Hope-the winner of the reality talent-search show "Over the Rainbow"-as Dorothy and Michael Crawford (Phantom of the Opera) as the Wizard. Webber once again teamed up with lyricist Tim Rice (Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Jesus Christ Superstar, Evita) to write some new songs to complement the classic numbers.

The original book was followed by 13 more Oz books by Baum; Ruth Plumly Thompson continued the franchise with 19 more. When Thompson retired, John R. Neill, who illustrated all of Baum's Oz books except the first, took up the mantle and wrote three more. In all, there are 40 Oz books that are considered "canonical," although the other authors differed dramatically in style from Baum. In addition to "The Famous Forty," others have written about the characters. Most famously, Gregory Maguire penned Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West in 1995. This book was adapted as the musical Wicked, which still draws large crowds on Broadway after seven years and nearly 3,000 performances. Maguire followed with two more Oz books-Son of a Witch and A Lion Among Men-and a fourth, Out of Oz, is forthcoming.

About the Author

Lyman Frank Baum was born May 15, 1856 in Chittenango, NY (just east of Syracuse). An imaginative and prolific author, he produced 55 novels, 82 short stories and over 200 poems, in addition to other writings. His works included prototypes of inventions such as television, laptop computers and wireless telephones. His father was a wealthy businessman who made a fortune in the oil business. Frank, as he preferred to be called, grew up in luxury and was sent to Peekskill Military Academy at the age of 12. Two miserable years later, he returned home. By the age of 17, he used an inexpensive printing press-a gift from his father-to publish a small magazine called "The Stamp Collector." He then went into the poultry breeding business, specializing in a breed called the Hamburg. His first book, published when he was 30, was called The Book of the Hamburgs: A Brief Treatise upon the Mating, Rearing, and Management of the Different Varieties of Hamburgs. This appears to have been somewhat less successful than the Oz books, although perhaps we can be grateful that Toto was not a chicken.

Soon after, he picked up the theater bug, and in 1880 his father built him a theater in Richburg, NY, and Baum started writing and acting in plays. (He wrote music for them, as well.) In 1882, he married Maud Gage, the daughter of famous radical feminist Matilda Joslyn Gage. Ironically, the Richburg theater burned down during a production of a Baum play called Matches. In 1888, he and his wife moved to South Dakota, where he opened a store ("Baum's Bazaar"), edited a local newspaper, and sang in a quartet. Chicago beckoned, and Baum became a reporter for the Evening Post there.

In 1897, he wrote Mother Goose in Prose, followed by Father Goose, His Book in 1899. The latter became the best-selling children's book of the year. The next year, he wrote the first of his 14 Oz novels. A series of non-Oz fantasy books failed to strike a chord with readers or critics.

After a number of theatrical and film ventures-none very successful-Baum died on May 6, 1919, the day after suffering a major stroke. His last words: "Now we can cross the shifting sands."

About the Director
BROOKE WETZEL CIARDELLI is the founding artistic director of Northern Stage, a regional non-profit theater operating under an AEA LORT-D contract, located on the border of Vermont and New Hampshire, with over 30,000 visits per year and a $1.8 million annual operating budget. In her career, Brooke has directed over 60 productions and is a proud member of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society.

As a director, Brooke has been honored by the New England Theatre Conference's Moss Hart Awards for Excellence in Theater three times, for All My Sons (2004), Les Misérables (Best Professional Production, 2008) and Hamlet (Best Professional Production and Best Overall Production, 2009). She directed a staged reading of Arthur Miller's then-unpublished Resurrection Blues with the playwright himself in residence. She has directed Patrick Stewart and Lisa Harrow in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and worked with playwright Sonja Linden on the American Premiere of The Strange Passenger. Brooke has also directed regional premieres of Wit, The Beauty Queen of Leenane, Pride's Crossing and No Orchids For Miss Blandish, as well as a significant number of large-scale musicals.

As a creator, Brooke has adapted a number of classical pieces for the stage. In 1997 her adaptation of Ovid's Metamorphoses, The "O" Myths - "A most delightful and refreshing original theater piece based on this ancient masterpiece" - was performed at Dartmouth College as the basis of an international exchange between Dartmouth students and actors from New York, Zimbabwe, Mexico and Romania. Her adaptation The Shrew Tamer (a coupling of Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew and John Fletcher's The Tamer Tamed) was reviewed as "a delicious new comedy," and Ed Siegel of the Boston Globe wrote, "Ciardelli has fashioned a play of significant historical interest." She is currently working on a stage adaptation of Boccaccio's Decameron for international production and developing a musical based on the life of Anastasia Romanov.

Brooke has a great interest in creating collaborative partnerships with International Artists and is currently working with Giles Ramsay (www.gilesramsay.co.uk) and his U.K.-based company Developing Artists (www.developingartist.co.uk). Through their relationship, she has worked with actors from Zimbabwe, Mexico and England, as well as touring, as co-director, with I Am My Own Wife (www.nswife.com), starring Kevin Loreque, to Harare, Zimbabwe and Edinburgh, Scotland. Future plans include new projects with Palestine, Israel and Macedonia both in those countries and in the U.S.

Brooke has been a guest lecturer at the State University of New York, Albany; Chad's College, Durham University, England; Harare International Festival of the Arts, Zimbabwe; the Elderhostel Program Tour to the Fringe Festival, Edinburgh, Scotland; Dartmouth College, NH; New England Theatre Conference, Boston, MA; Kendal at Hanover, NH; Adventures in Learning, NH; Keene State College, NH and others. She is a Visiting Fellow of University College, Durham University, Durham, England.

Brooke received her Bachelor of Arts degree from Sarah Lawrence College, with a concentration in directing; worked at The Williamstown Theater Festival and Broadway general management/producer's office of Gatchell & Neufeld; and currently lives in Norwich, Vermont.

About Northern Stage

Northern Stage now stands as one of the most prestigious and fastest-growing regional theaters in New England. Founding Artistic Director Brooke Ciardelli brought the company to the Briggs Opera House in 1997; since then, Northern Stage has offered over 90 productions, including World Premieres such as The Shrew Tamer, Ovid: Tales of Myth & Magic and A Christmas Carol: The Musical. Other highlights include a staged reading of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? with Patrick Stewart and Lisa Harrow and a reading of Resurrection Blues, with the playwright, Pulitzer Prize winner Arthur Miller, in attendance. The company has twice been honored with Moss Hart Awards for Excellence in Theater from the New England Theatre Conference, for productions of To Kill A Mockingbird (1999), All My Sons (2004), Les Misérables (2008) and Hamlet (2009), as well as an Addison Award for The Shrew Tamer (2004).

Community support has enabled the company to sell over 30,000 tickets in downtown White River Junction in the last year to enjoy entertaining and thought-provoking professional theater and theater education here at the crossroads of northern New England. They have also reached out to offer residencies and workshops at over a dozen area schools; initiated "Project Playwright," a literacy program for fifth and sixth graders; and launched NS Touring, which sends top productions to theaters throughout the world and brings international talents to the U.S.

For information or tickets, call 802-296-7000, e-mail boxoffice@northernstage.org, or log on to www.northernstage.org. The Box Office at the Briggs Opera House is open beginning two hours before all performances; tickets for all shows are available by phone or at the Northern Stage administrative office at 28 Gates Street, White River Junction, Monday-Friday from 12 noon-6 p.m.

 

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