I thought it would be interesting to go back over something Andrew Lloyd Webber said about The Wizard of Oz and Over The Rainbow way back during one of the early audition sessions, in fact in Scotland. Andrew Lloyd Webber talked about Over The Rainbow and the Wizard Of Oz production as one of his most ambitious projects yet but said he wanted to steer clear of the classic 1939 movie.

He said:

This is the most difficult show I’ve had to cast. Joseph, Oliver and Maria all came from established theatre productions which are huge hits.

The Wizard Of Oz has been done before, but it’s never worked properly because they’ve tried to recreate the movie too closely.

I’m essentially writing a whole new musical with some of the greatest songs ever written and composing completely new music for it.

There’s at least half a dozen new songs.

So that’s a tantalising insight into what the forthcoming London production at The Palladium promisies. A new musical with half a dozen new songs, a fantastic Dorothy (no matter who wins) all based on but not recreating the original American story.