| The Wizard of Oz | |
|---|---|
| Fred R. Hamlin's Musical Extravaganza | |
One of the many promotional posters for the show, this one featuring The Scarecrow, Dorothy Gale, the Tin Woodman (dressed in what looks like a Scottish kilt and minus his funnel hat), and some Poppies |
|
| Music | Paul Tietjens Charles Zimmerman Gus Edwards Gustave Kerker Jean Schwartz Theodore F. Morse Leo Edwards Joseph E. Howard and others |
| Lyrics | L. Frank Baum John Slavin Vincent Bryan Will D. Cobb William Jerome Edward P. Moran and others |
| Book | L. Frank Baum Glen MacDonough |
| Basis | The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum |
| Productions | 1902 Chicago 1903 Broadway 1987 Tarpon Srings 2010 Canton |
The Wizard of Oz was a 1902 musical extravaganza based on The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum, which was originally published in 1900. Much of the original music was by Paul Tietjens and has been mostly forgotten, although it was still well-remembered and in discussion at MGM in the late 1930s, when the classic film version of the story was made.[1]
The 1902 show premiered in Chicago and later moved to Broadway in 1903, where it ran for 293 performances from January 21, 1903 to December 31, 1904, followed by travelling tours of the original cast. It starred Anna Laughlin as Dorothy Gale, Fred Stone as The Scarecrow and David C. Montgomery as the Tin Woodman (who is called Niccolo Chopper in the musical [in the books, he had begun life as human Nick Chopper]). Arthur Hill (no relation to the Canadian actor) played the Cowardly Lion, but in this version, his role was reduced to a bit part. An element from the show — the snowfall caused by the Good Witch, which defeats the spell of the poppies that had put Dorothy and the Cowardly Lion to sleep — was later used in the famous 1939 movie. Other major characters in the piece are King Pastoria II and his girlfriend, Trixie Tryfle (a waitress), Cynthia Cynch (A Lady Lunatic), Sir Dashemoff Daily, the poet laureate; Sir Wiley Gyle, and General Riskitt. Dorothy Gale's surname was introduced in this piece. It was not mentioned in the original novel, though it is mentioned in Ozma of Oz (1907).
The main plot of the show, as recounted in newspapers of the time, is Pastoria's attempts to regain the throne from the Wizard of Oz. The original protagonists' search for the Wizard puts them on the wrong side of the law.
A little girl named Dorothy Gale lives in the midst of the great Kansas prairies with her Aunt Em, her Uncle Henry and her little dog, Toto. One day, whilst she is playing with her pet cow Imogene, things are broken up by a fierce whirlwind. Dorothy and Toto take shelter in the farmhouse, which is carried far away into the clouds.
Meanwhile in the hamlet of Center Munch, the little Munchkins dance around their maypole not noticing that Dorothy's house has fallen to earth and killed the Wicked Witch of the East. Dorothy opens the front door and marvels at the strange Land of Oz. The Good Witch of the North awards Dorothy with a magic ring, good for three wishes and can summon the Good Witch of the South at any time. The Good Witch then waves her wand and a pair of beautiful shoes appear on Dorothy's feet, she tells Dorothy that if she wants to get home, she must ask the Wizard of Oz to help her.
After a while, everyone exits and Dorothy is left alone with a Scarecrow, hung on a pole. She wishes she had someone to talk to, and the Scarecrow comes to life. He gets down off his pole and complains that he has no brain. Dorothy suggests that she join him on the road to the Emerald City and he sings "Alas for the Man Without Brains". Dorothy and the Scarecrow come upon the Tin Woodsman, who has rusted playing his piccolo. As it turns out, the Woodman's real name is Niccolo Chopper. He explains that the Wicked Witch of the West took his heart, so he cannot love Cynthia, who is his girlfriend. He joins the others in the hope of receiving one from the Wizard, and return to Cynthia.
The Keeper of the Gates patrols outside the Emerald City. Sir Wiley Gyle enters. He is a mad old inventor who scorns all magic ever since his mother died. After being sent to prison for killing his wife, the travelers enter the Emerald City.
The Wizard gives the Scarecrow a brain and the Tin Woodman a heart. He declares this the greatest of all his achievements and calls for a celebration. The Ball of All Nations is thrown, in which anywhere up to twelve songs are song by various characters. The Wizard performs a basket trick in which Pastoria is the mark. In the middle of the trick he claims his right to the throne and overthrows the Wizard. A great commotion breaks out, with the Wizard escaping in a hot air balloon. Dorothy, still longing for home, sets off with her companions to the castle of Glinda the Good Witch of the South. End of Act Two.
Dorothy and her friends arrive at the palace and are welcomed. There are great celebrations, with Glinda promising to send Dorothy home. The whole cast rushes out from the wings and sings the finale. Romayne Whiteford portrayed Glinda early in the run as well as Doris Mitchell and Ella Gilroy, but the character appears to have been written out in subsequent productions.
The origin of the idea of dramatising The Wonderful Wizard of Oz on stage is debatable. L. Frank Baum claimed once that a woman walked up to him on the street one day and suggested that the book be adapted to the stage. This, however, is unlikely. But for whatever reason Baum, his friend Paul Tietjens and The Wonderful Wizard of Oz illustrator W. W. Denslow got together to attempt to bring the novel to the stage. They had a basic formula worked out: Baum would write the stage script, Tietjens would write the songs and Denslow would design the costumes and sets, which he would pattern after his illustrations. Baum completed the script, Tietjens completed the songs and Denslow completed the costume and set designs. This was completed in 1901, with a script that stayed fairly close to the original novel (the script was submitted as an appendix for Frank Joslyn Baum's biography of his father, To Please a Child, but not published there out of copyright concern). They submitted this package to producer Fred R. Hamlin in hope he would accept it. Hamlin liked it, and approached Julian P. Mitchell to be director.
Mitchell received the script and read it. He did not like it, criticizing its lack of spectacle, calling it too subdued and small-scale. However, he sent a wire to Hamlin with the message 'Can see possibilities for extravanganza'. Thus, Mitchell accepted the project. However, he brought in new songwriters to write a new set of songs, keeping only one or two of the original Tietjens numbers. He totally rewrote the script, introducing new characters, exploits, giving the Cowardly Lion a smaller part and deleting the character of the Wicked Witch of the West entirely. Baum was anxious about this, but went along with it, hoping Mitchell's experience in directing and the casting of comedy team Fred Stone and Dave Montgomery as the Scarecrow and Tin Woodman would make the show a hit. It was, luckily, a roaring success and broke records in almost every theatre it played at.
The play was written by L. Frank Baum himself, though after producer Fred R. Hamlin and director Julian P. Mitchell rejected his 1901 spec script, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, which held close to the novel, he wrote a completely new script based on their desires. He hired the librettist of Babes in Toyland, Glen MacDonough, to add topical humor he felt himself incapable of writing. He referred to McDonough as "a New York joke writer", in a letter to the editor responding to a claim that he had put "wild and woolly Western humor" into the piece.[2] In an open letter to The Chicago Tribune published June 26, 1904, Baum decried rumors that he was "heartbroken and ashamed" with the final product of the musical: "I acknowledge that I was unwise enough to express myself as dissatisifed with the handling of my play on its first production...few authors of successful books are ever fully satisfied with the dramatization of their work. They discern great gaps in the original story that are probably never noticed by playgoers." He admitted to protesting several innovations, but ultimately concluded, "The people will have what pleases them, and not what the author happens to favor, and I believe that is one of the reasons why Julian Mitchell is regarded as a great producer is that he faithfully tries to serve the great mass of playgoers--and usually succeeds." [3]
Most of the original songs were written by Paul Tietjens on Baum's lyrics, but three, "The Guardian of the Gate" (also attributed to Tietjens) which was cut after only a few performances, "The Different Ways of Making Love" (which sounded less risqué at the time) and "It Happens Every Day" were composed by Nathaniel D. Mann, who later wrote the score for Baum's 1908 film/theatrical presentation, The Fairylogue and Radio-Plays. Most of Baum's songs related to the story in some way, as in operetta, but as performed, the play was more like vaudeville, and new songs by other songwriters were frequently substituted. In fact, the first song interpolated into the musical was "The Traveler and the Pie", a major number for the Scarecrow, a song Baum and Tietjens had intended for a play called The Octopus; or the Title Trust, which was never produced and possibly never completed. This was to be an exception in that it was written by Baum and Tietjens, but it was a classic of the time and stayed in the show. James O'Dea and Edward Hutchinson wrote one of the show's most celebrated songs, "Sammy", which was sung by Tryxie Tryfle about a lost love before Pastoria, though the only contemporary recording of the piece was sung by a man (Harry Macdonough)!
The witches are largely absent in this version; The Good Witch of the North appears, named Locasta, and The Wicked Witch of the East is a special effect. The Wicked Witch of the West does not appear, and Glinda was written out, as she does not appear in the original Broadway cast list, although she does appear on another one. The reason for her omission was because she appeared only in Act Three, and in 1903 the whole of Act Three was rewritten by Julian Mitchell and revolved around the Borderland that divides Oz and Glinda's Domain, and Dorothy and her friends trying to escape Pastoria. Toto, Dorothy's dog, has also been replaced, by a cow named Imogene.
New characters in the script include King Pastoria II, Oz's true king working as a Kansas motorman and his girlfriend, Trixie Tryfle, a waitress. His return takes up a bit more of the story than Dorothy's desire to return home. Another subplot includes Cynthia Cynch, the Lady Lunatic, a prototype for Nimmie Amee, in that she is the Tin Woodman's girlfriend. Niccolo Chopper was renowned for his ability to play the piccolo, which was the subject of one of her songs, and he is shown playing a piccolo in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, the first Oz film made without Baum's input, which was highly influenced by the popular play. The Wizard was presented as various ethnic stock character stereotypes, depending upon who played him. He was assisted by Sir Wiley Gyle and General Riskitt. David L. Greene and Dick Martin erroneously captioned a picture of General Riskitt as "Sir Wiley Gyle" in The Oz Scrapbook, and Donald Abbott carried this mistake over into his illustrations for How the Wizard Saved Oz.
The animals in the play, including the Cowardly Lion, did not speak, based on pantomime tradition. Although the lion costume was realistic, far more so than Bert Lahr's in the MGM film, his main purpose was a bit of comic relief and scaring off the villains on occasion. His quest for courage is completely omitted, much as the other characters' quests are deemphasized in favor of various comic routines. Ultimately, though, their desire to seek the Wizard's aid gets them caught on the wrong side of the revolution, jailed and ultimately scheduled for execution. In a deus ex machina, another tornado arrives to sweep Dorothy home from the chopping block.
Many new plot twists are virtually pointless. In addition to a kiss of protection, Dorothy gets three wishes, one of which is wasted on a triviality. The second is used to bring the Scarecrow to life, and the third is used so she can learn the song Sir Dashemoff Daily (a trouser role) has written to his girlfriend, Carrie Barry. This song was written by Baum and Tietjens, but some programs credited the song to Glen MacDonough and A. Baldwin Sloane to make their connection to the play look greater.
Probably the biggest influence on the 1939 MGM film, aside from making the story into a musical (but not using the score created for the stage version), is the Poppy Sequence that ended Act I. In the novel, Baum imaginatively has a legion of field mice pull a cart with the Cowardly Lion out of the poppy field. This was deemed unfeasible (though the stage version of The Wiz created a variation, with the mice as anthropomorphic vice cops), and Baum, though he included it in the 1901 script, replaced the scene with that of the Snow Queen creating a storm that destroys the poppies, much as Glinda does in the 1939 movie. This concluded Act I with an elaborate dance known as "Winter Jubilation", which James Patrick Doyle plays on synthesizers on the album, Before the Rainbow: The Original Music of Oz.
Because there were no cast albums in those days, productions of the musical often exceeded four hours in length because of multiple demands for encores, since many of the attendees knew they would never get to attend again, and these encores were responded to. Popular songs were often sung multiple times and this was often used to gauge whether a song should be retained or dropped. Two popular routines that were worked in include a sailing routine and a football routine, the latter parodying the level of violence in the sport, which had recently been lessened due to new regulations.
The second theatre to house the production was the New York Theatre.
By 1905, the production had been moved to the Academy of Music at 14th and Irving Place. Montgomery and Stone remained in the cast, but Dorothy was now played by Mona Desmond. Joseph Schrode, later to appear in The Fairylogue and Radio-Plays, was Imogene, and George Ramza played the Cowardly Lion.[4] Marion Stanley took over the role of Trixie Tryfle, Leona Stevens Locasta, George B. Field as Sir Wiley Gyle, Charles E. Mitchell as the Wizard, Harold T. Morey as General Riskitt, and Maxwell Sargent as the Army of Pastoria. The Snow Queen was played by Bert Dean in travesty, who also played the captain of the Phantom Patrol. Belle Robinson played Alberto, Glinda's Officer of the Day, although Glinda no longer appears, althoujgh Act III remains set on "The Borderland dividing the Kingdom of Oz from the Dominion of the Good Witch."
It was prodcued as late as 1934, with Charles H. Pinkham in the role of the Scarecrow.
Leone Langdon-Key loved the scenery, but found Baum's script commonplace, citing that many lines start with, "Well, wouldn't that---" and deplored Tietjens's "fondness for a lack of contrast and rhythms. She also claims that the story of Pastoria trying to regain the lost throne from the Wizard to be "as readers of the story remember.[5]
One critic described the show as "big and Belasco-ly." [6]
Grand Duke Boris Vladimirovich of Russia gained considerable notoreity by drinking champagne from the satin slipper of one of the chorus girls during a 1902 trip to Chicago.[7]
The success of the play led Baum to write The Marvelous Land of Oz after four years of demand for a sequel to the novel. He dedicated the book to Montgomery and Stone, and made the roles of the Scarecrow and Tin Woodman prominent, with the roles of Dorothy and the Cowardly Lion reduced to a reminiscence. After the team balked at leaving Wizard for a sequel, Baum wrote the stage musical, The Woggle-Bug, eliminating the Tin Woodman, replacing the Scarecrow with Regent Sir Richard Spud, replacing Glinda with Maetta from The Magical Monarch of Mo and renaming the Emerald City the "City of Jewels," though Oz is mentioned several times. The first appearance of the title character was moved from halfway through the novel to the opening scene, and his mentor, Professor Knowitall, name shortened to Professor Knowitt, was raised to the level of romantic lead with a girlfriend named Prissy Pring, a Captain in General Jinjur's Army of Revolt. Jack Pumpkinhead and The Woggle-Bug became a comic team analogous to the Scarecrow and Tin Woodman. The play was performed at the Garrick Theater in Chicago and opened to reviews panning Baum's script and praising the score by Frederic Chapin. No songs were interpolated (although two were derived from an earlier source and erroneously credited to Baum), but the general consensus was that the play was a cash-in or rip-off of The Wizard of Oz rather than a sequel.
The musical comedy was performed in a concert version in New York City in May 1982 by the New Amsterdam Theatre Company under the direction of Jason Buzas and musical direction of Evans Haile. The cast included Suzanne Murphy as Locasta, Marjorie Bowman as Cynthia Cynch, Joan Jaffe as Tryxie Trifle, Alan Abrams as Pastoria, Marina Chamlin as Dorothy Gale, Sandra Wheeler as Sir Dashemoff Daily, Lee Chew as the Scarecrow, and Marty Algaze as "Nic Chopper, a tin man."
It has been revived in Tarpon Springs, Florida by the New Century Opera Company in 1998 and, most recently, July 2006. Hungry Tiger Press announced several years ago that it would be publishing the complete libretto for the first time, but has been delayed years beyond the original announcement on claims of finding new material, though many suspect the sudden death of James Patrick Doyle was the major factor. However, Hungry Tiger press published a two-CD set of vintage recordings related to the musical in 2003.[8] Lyrics were printed in the CD booklet. There have been several new recordings of the songs, though none have had major distribution.
The Canton Comic Opera Company in Canton, Ohio, the only theatre company in the world dedicated solely to the preservation and performance of American operettas, has recently completed a restoration of the original 1903 Broadway version which was performed in July 2010 to disastrous reviews. Their production will be the first in over 80 years with full orchestra.[9] The New Century Opera recorded the Baum/Tietjens music on CD, but the accompaniment was on piano and there was quite a bit of role doubling.
The show toured from 1903 to 1909. It ran on Broadway from January to October 1903, and again from March 1904 to October 1905. It was released for stock and regional shows in 1911.