The film’s two Oscar wins were both for music: Arlen and Harburg won Best Original Song for "Over the Rainbow" and Stothart won Best Original Score. (Arlen and Harburg gave us “Over The Rainbow” and “If I Only Had A Brain” and Stothart contributed the iconic musical motif for Miss Gulch and the Wicked Witch of the West.) Harburg, coupled with that indelible instrumental score by Herbert Stothart. Of course, the greatest strength of The Wizard of Oz – and the most likely reason for its timeless appeal – is the glorious collection of songs from composer Harold Arlen and lyricist E.Y. “Perhaps most important of all,” Piz added, “we created and strengthened connections with our students that have cascaded from the theater into the halls, classrooms, and the school community at large.” This year, once you add all of the leads, chorus parts, mini-Munchkins and stage crew, our production involved over 250 children.”Īnd thanks to its universal appeal and variety of roles, the show thrives in productions featuring actors ranging from pre-school beginners to adult professionals, creating new communities of actors of all ages and abilities. The content is very appropriate and enough parts exist for anyone interested in participating.
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Sanford Pilz, Drama Club Supervisor at Martin Kellogg Middle School in Connecticut wrote, “ The Wizard of Oz is the perfect musical for students of this age. In Tams-Witmark’s longtime newsletter Musical Show, several directors have shared their experience with the musical over the years:Ĭhris Bundy of Floyd Central High School in Indiana loved the experience, declaring, “Few musicals inspire a cast and create such a sense of magic and nostalgia as The Wizard of Oz.” Right now, somewhere on this globe, a theatre company is actively creating a new family by rehearsing and producing The Wizard of Oz on stage. That sense of community extends from the story itself to productions of its stage adaptation. Then something like The Wizard of Oz comes along… and you find a community and you want to go live there. “When you're an outsider, when you're not understood by your own family, much less society at large, you want to escape into fantasy. In a recent interview with Breaking Character, Pacheco cited the “idea of escape,” noting that the Dorothy longs for a new community-an idea with particular appeal to young people who don’t quite fit in. Patrick Pacheco, veteran journalist and bestselling author of The American Theatre Wing, An Oral History, attributes the musical’s success to that promise of liberation. Today, eighty years later, we still seek escape from the fatigue of a wearying news cycle, and what better destination than a twinkling emerald fantasy land? Baum’s wonderland of witches, wizards, talking animals, flying monkeys and magic slippers fit the bill. When the film premiered, America was enduring the hardships of the Great Depression, and audiences sought entertainment offering a reprieve from their daily concerns. Undoubtedly, a huge source of the musical’s charm is the allure of Baum’s magical world, a colorful dreamland far from the drudgeries of home. The answer is a combination of factors, including the story’s escapist appeal, its celebration of community, and that gloriously memorable score. How and why did this odd story capture our hearts? What is the secret of its enduring appeal?
#WIZARD OF OZ MOVIE#
And quotes from the screenplay continually top the American Film Institute’s “Top 100 Movie Lines of All Time.”
In 2004, the song “Over the Rainbow” was ranked #1 by the American Film Institute in on its “100 Greatest Songs in American Films” list.
#WIZARD OF OZ TV#
In his 1989 book The Wizard of Oz: The Official 50th Anniversary Pictorial History, author John Fricke noted that the Library of Congress declared The Wizard of Oz “the most-seen film in movie history,” thanks to repeated TV broadcasts and home video viewings. Frank Baum’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, debuted 39 years earlier, in September 1900.Ĩ0 years after the film premiere, and an astonishing 119 years after the publication of the novel, The Wizard of Oz remains a cultural treasure, beloved by millions of fans around the world and celebrated in thousands of live performances every year. The Wizard of Oz, MGM’s groundbreaking Technicolor sensation, was released on August 25, 1939.
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