Louis Municipal Opera (The Muny!) decided to add OZ to its summer season in 1942, they circumvented the 1902 libretto and songs and had a new and mostly Oz book-oriented script version of the story adapted for their show by Frank Gabrielson. The script recounted an Oz that was vastly different than the ever-more familiar characters and stories of Baum and Ruth Plumly Thompson’s annual Oz books, and its score (while certainly and happily popular in – and fondly recalled by many from – its day) included no lasting “standards” or recurringly familiar melodies or lyrics.Īs such, when the already famed outdoor St. There were, however, comparatively few takers some two or more decades after the show’s debut. The triumphant original theatrical production of THE WIZARD OF OZ ran, more or less, for seven seasons – from 1902-1909 - and was still being licensed for production into the 1920s and 1930 by the Tams-Witmark Music Library organization. onward we go! Today, we look back at a few of the many musical celebrities who (with varying success) initially starred in THE WIZARD OF OZ across the first decades that the Baum story AND the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer movie score were initially coupled in “live” stage performances. Ironically, we’re not at all running out of honorees OR Oz-related Garland anecdotes instead, we remain confronted with the fact that these theatrical riches continue to evolve out of history. Frank Baum’s Kansas heroine first took to mass media 120 years ago.

We’re now beginning to wind down just a bit in our 2022 vlog/blog celebration of Judy Garland’s centennial year – but only chronologically! If you’ve been reading here since January, you’ll know that the Garland celebration has been coupled on a monthly basis with Ozzy recognition of some of the many other actresses who have played the role of Dorothy Gale since L. Wamego # 148 October 2022 WHEN MUSICAL CELEBRITIES ACCEPT THE CHALLENGE OF PLAYING “DOROTHY ON STAGE”! - PLUS: SOME OF JUDY GARLAND’S FINAL, FUNNY REMINISCENCES ABOUT BEING MGM’S DOROTHY GALE IN 1938-39 😊

The wizard of oz script play free