 THE WIZARD OF OZ
by L. Frank Baum adapted by Frank Gabrielson
With music and lyrics from the MGM motion picture score by Harold Arlen
and E.Y. Harburg
Background music by Herbert Stothart
The first stage version of The Wizard of Oz was presented on 21
January, 1903 at the Majestic Theatre Broadway where it ran for some 293
performances. The Music at that time was composed by A Baldwin Sloane
& Paul Tietjens with lyrics and Book by L. Frank Baum
SYNOPSIS
Little Dorothy Gale of Kansas, like so many girls her age,
often dreams of what may lie over the rainbow. One day a tornado hits
her home town and carries her away to Munchkinland - at the end of the
rainbow. The Munchkins fete Dorothy as a heroine. Dorothy wants to go home to
Kansas and seeks the help of the kind Sorceress of the North. Only the
great Wizard of Oz, says the Sorceress, can help Dorothy get back to Kansas.
Dorothy persuades three friends to accompany her on the trip to the Emerald
City to see the Wizard. They are Scarecrow, who lacks a brain, he thinks;
the Tin Woodman, who has no heart, and the Cowardly Lion, who would like
to have some courage.
The Wicked Witch of the West vows vengeance on Dorothy and does all she
can to stop the friends getting to the Emerald City. But they do reach
it, and manage to see the Wizard. He will only help them, he says, if
they kill the Wicked Witch of the West, an apparently impossible task.
They do succeed, they get all their wishes and the Wizard accompanies
Dorothy to Kansas in a rocket ship.
The Well-known score includes some of the best loved songs in the American
musical pantheon.
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