The Wiz - opening night review

The Wiz Review:

“That was the highlight of the trip” said Brandon, one of the surf instructors as the show finished. The audience were on their feet, cheering and applauding, the children were smiling ear to ear and I had a tear of pride in my eye.

As soon as we put the kids in front of an audience everything just seemed to click for them. I think, because of the language barrier and the fact that most of them have never even been in a performance before, they didn’t understand the humour in certain parts or why they had been asked to do certain things. But as they saw the audience’s reaction they were instantly energised and this made for a very special performance indeed.

The audience loved Toto, the balloon dog that Dorothy (Mary) has attached to her arm the whole performance – thanks to Auntie Molly’s balloon artistry. They loved the stuffed tights with the silver slippers that we used as the legs of the Wicked Witch of the East that stick out from underneath Dorothy’s house as she crashes down in Oz. They have been so crudely created (by stuffing them with cardboard, banana leaves and noodle packets!) that one leg is longer than the other and the poor witch has about 4 knees per leg! If she wasn’t dead she would need major surgery to correct all of her issues!

The song and dance to “He’s the Wiz” was fantastic and got a massive cheer at the end. The girls all looked very cute and the stylised dance in the background was well received and got a couple of chuckles and smiles. Momatha and Sandya (the Good Witches) took the lead in this song and managed, for the first time, to keep in time with the music and didn’t need me to correct them at all. This left me free to dance behind the audience to keep the rest of the girls together (with only 8 days of rehearsals the dance wasn’t 100% cemented in their minds). They did brilliantly well and, even though they didn’t finish centre stage (I think I’ve only asked about 1,000,000 times!), they were all looked happy and pleased with themselves!

There was a collective “awwww” from the audience as the Tinman (Johtikka) came on stage. She is the smallest performer and, dressed in her head-to-toe silver costume, her silver facepaint and carrying her axe that is about the same size as her (!), she looked every bit the part!

Shwetha’s Wicked Witch of the West was as brilliant as ever. Shwetha doesn’t speak much English (she is only very young) but once she is shown something she runs with it, completely uninhibited. When she lurched towards the audience and hissed in their faces the collective intake of breathe (followed by nervous laughter) was brilliant! The flying monkeys took a lot of convincing in rehearsals to go over the top with their jumping/ flying (they’re all at the age where their inhibitions are overwhelming!) but it paid off as the reaction from the audience to both the characters they’ve created and the masks that Molly and I made was amazing.

“Brand New Day” was really good again! As it’s quite a fast song and there is a lot of English to fit into each sentence, I sang all of the verses for the girls from behind the audience and they sang the bridges and the choruses. I was very proud as most of them managed to get the works “liberty” and “independently” out during the bridges whilst dancing - not bad for girls whose first language is Canada! The audience loved this song and dance and cheered wildly at the end again!

When the Lion got his courage, the Tinman got his heart and the Scarecrow got his brains the audience joined in with the applause too – they really felt engaged and part of the show at this point! And the icing on the cake was when they realised that Molly had made a scale version of the hot air balloon that the Wizard floats away in at the end! It looked really good as it flew above Dorothy and her friends.

Mary spent hours in rehearsals learning the song and the words to the first verse of “Home” which she sang beautifully acapella  at the end before clicking her heels three times to get home. The audience erupted at the end as they were astounded that she had the courage (and the skills in English) to sing on her own in front of all of those people.

In rehearsals I don’t think the girls had understood why silly Auntie Jenny had asked them to stand in line and take a bow at the end. Once the audience jumped to their feet in gratitude, clapping furiously, whistling and cheering I think they got the message. They were all beaming with pride as they took their bows – it was at this point that I realised I had actually managed to make a difference in the lives of these girls and this was truly humbling! The audience swamped the stage at the end eager to congratulate the stars of the show. They were full of compliments for the girls and I believe that they were genuinely impressed with what the girls had managed to achieve in such a short timescale!

Overall, the narrators were clear (a special mention should be made to Shalini (the Scarecrow) and Shaini (the Lion) who had learned their narration and didn’t need the script!), the dances were crisp and energised, the singing was clear and strong, the characters were well sustained and the props were all on at the right time in the right place (once again, another first!!). Ashwini also did a great job with the music as she didn’t miss a cue.

I can’t explain how proud I felt of everyone who has been involved in putting together this show. I think this must be how a parent feels when they watch a school nativity concert, however, there was an added sense of pride as I have seen the growth of all of these children, not just on the stage but also within their day to day lives. I have taken a special interest in a girl called Nandini who is an orphan. She has no immediate family (siblings, Aunts, Uncles etc) and during rehearsals she was prone to mood swings that would mean her storming out or sitting in the corner with a face like thunder. I decided to befriend her and build up her confidence. I started to watch her closely as she performed and give her a couple of extra responsibilities as I was confident that she could handle them. I made an effort to talk with her about singing and dancing and promised that I will learn a Canada song once we are back from surfing. This gave her the confidence to commit to The Wiz and the progress that she has made in her performance as well as in her daily life (I haven’t seen her sulk for about a week!) is brilliant!