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Children, families and lovers of the yellow brick road came together last week to enjoy a musical re-enactment of The Wizard of Oz at the Bahrain International Exhibition & Convention Centre.
Critically acclaimed on its release, the 1939 movie did not experience commercial success till its 1949 re-launch, going on to become the most syndicated movie on TV of all time.
The cultural impact of the original technicolour classic adventure into Munchkinland cannot be overstated. The iconic ruby slippers, which have now become synonymous with Dorothy and which are the most valuable film memorabilia in the world, were used just to show off the new Technicolour process. Countless writers, including Salman Rushdie, count it as a significant literary influence.
For this writer, exploring Munchkinland at The Great Movie Ride in Disneyland in 2017, a scarce six months before the closing of the park’s last original operating attraction from its 1989 opening, was almost a spiritual experience.
I loved the music, the sets, the costumes, the acting and most of all, the thought that went into each portion of the ambitious project, making a truly magical place come to life.
The show in Bahrain managed to capture some of that magic during Eid Al Adha with colourful costume replicas of the movie and melodious tunes including two songs that were deleted from the movie, The Jitterbug and the sad reprise of Over the Rainbow.
The voices all round were strong with standout voices from Dorothy, the Scarecrow and the Lion. The acting, though overdone at times, was quite enjoyable from a child’s perspective.
What really speaks to me, to this day, about the original movie, is the layering. The story is ubiquitous. A girl from Kansas with doggy issues falls into a coma and is transported to a land of whimsy and wonder where she meets a good witch, an evil witch, a brainless scarecrow, a disheartened tinman and a cowardly lion on her journey to pre-Angmar. She steals a broom from a melting witch and with a song and dance at every turn, finds out that the fabled wizard is a Dickensian pop culture reference, that is, a humbug.
When I watched the movie as a child, it was a vibrant musical expedition with complex lessons. For example, bravery is only useful when paired with wisdom. As a teen, it was an assuagement of deep childhood anxieties about abandonment and home. And as an adult, I noticed the political and economic undertones such as the exploration of contemporary American monetary policy at the time. It was able to represent so much because it let the audience be as old as they wanted to be.
In my opinion, the show didn’t quite hit all those notes. It was a show mainly targeted at the young ones and even they seemed to be getting bored by the intermission. Perhaps that is emblematic of the 21st century in general, where children’s entertainment packs in more sound, colour and epileptic movement into five minutes than an entire play possibly could.
Regardless, while all the right ingredients were there: the music, the story, the adorable dog, the costumes, the fantastic set pieces; the magic was amiss.
That’s not to say I didn’t enjoy the show at all. The sad rendition of Over the Rainbow was powerful and evocative. The changing project set in the background as well as the movable set pieces set a grand environment. And the squeals of kids as fake snow fell on the poppy fields of Munchkinland were exhilarating to witness.
All in all, it was mediocre, especially when set against the platinum (or is it ruby) standard of Hollywood classics, despite the fine work done by the actors, the set designer and the director. Something about the theatre just didn’t play right.
