THE WIZARD OF OZ, THE MUSICAL

Today we will talk about how we built this musical with our theatre workshops boysand girls. We adapted the same musical for three of the age groups we have:

7-9, 10-11, 12-13.

At first, we adapted the script differently for each age group, reducing it in accordance with the age of the group. Not only did we reduce the number of scenes, but we also did so with the number of words in each “dialogue”. Finally, we decided to use the same script for all the age groups but in different representations. It was a little harder for the little ones but they did very well.

It wasn’t easy, especially in some scenes, where the music was sounding in the background throughout the whole scene while the actors and actresses were talking and all of a sudden they had to start singing. It was difficult to match the music with
the script and the songs. But, with all the enthusiasm, effort and commitment of the girls and boys, everything was possible!

The original musical has many songs that we omitted, we only adapted and used a selection which were the most representative, appealing and easy to perform, although, as we said before, there are some like: “The Munchkin Land” or  “The Merry Old Land of Oz” in which children had to talk, sing and dance on top of the music.

In these songs, therefore, we have added, in the most difficult parts to start singing, our children singing in the track. We did this because it was a much easier guide for us and the kids and hope it will be of use to you too.

Here is a link to listen to a sample of each song. Click here.

If you click here, you can hear an example of each song sung by our children on the day of the performance. We have to apologize because its not the best quality since it was one of the first musicals we did and our means were… well a bit scarce ;-). But hey, as a sample it’s good enough!

The scene of the fairy from the good forest where the Munchkins appear is very beautiful and full of colour. The costumes worn by these fantastic characters and their dances brought a lot of magic to the musical. But, also remember that the most special characters especially for their costumes are the lion, the straw man and the tin man.

And if you like makeup, this play is a work of art! You will enjoy being creative with the makeup of the characters in this play.

The musical is designed to have a part for up to 19 actors or actresses (in the version for children aged 10 to 12). Some parts with many lines and some with less lines. But, as always, we had two actors which shared the main parts so that the first part was played one boy or girl, and the second part by another boy or girl. In this play we did it for the characters of Dorothy, Lion, Tin Man and Straw Man.

The duration of the musical, including the songs, is around 50 min. At the end of our representation all the children sung "Somewhere over the rainbow" again, it was very moving… I recommend adding this touch to your representation too!!!!

So, you will have all the material you need to be able to represent this play so you can focus on getting the children to learn and play their roles to the best of their abilities.

We will provide you with the rest of the material!

Lyrics of the songs in Catalan, script of the play adapted to the age you need, the musical bases for each song, the instrumental music to accompany some scenes, the drawings to project as the scenery and even audios of the songs sung in our representations so that you have a guide when you interpret them.

If you have any questions just ask us at: info@teatromusicalinfantil.com

If you want to hear examples of the songs, you can do so here.

Here you will find all our adapted musicals.

We provide you with:

• “Allà sobre del arc de Sant Martí”
• “ El Mag anem a veure “
• “ Ding dong la bruixa a mort “
• “ L’alegre país d’Oz ”
• “ La bruixa desapareix “
• “Si tan sols tingués cervell “
• “ Si tan sols tingués un cor “
• “Si tan sols tingués valor “

• 1.Obertura
• 2.Tormenta
• 3.Ocells Gilda
• 4.Mascara terror
• 5.Bosc bruixes
• 6.Bruixa es fon
• 7.Picar porta …

As you may know, we hardly use scenery, instead we project drawings in order to fill the scene in a figurative way and provide the audience with a better understanding of the scene.

You can ask us for the drawings we used to project each of the scenes in this play (more than 6 drawings).

So, you will have all the material you need to be able to represent this play so you can focus on getting the children to learn and play their roles to the best of their abilities.

We will provide you with the rest of the material!

Nearly every scene of the original play is included. We may have shortened a scene a little because it was not important for the general argument and reduced the script length which helps the children when memorizing.

The script of the characters is reduced enough so that they don’t have too much work memorizing since they also have to dance and sing.

The number of pages of the script ranges from 11 to 20 pages.

Ahhh !!! Please leave any questions you may have down in the comments below in this post.

Here we leave you with a small fragment of the script:

If you want to see more information about the Wizard of Oz-the Musical, click here.

If you want to see more information about all the musicals we have, click here.