London Palladium - The Wizard Of Oz

Act One

The Wizard Of Oz tells the story of teenager Dorothy Gale who  lives on a farm in Kansas with her Aunt Em, Uncle Henry and dog Toto, but feels that neither her aunt or her uncle understand her ("Nobody Understands Me"). The unpleasant Miss Gulch threatens to call the sheriff after Dorothy's dog Toto bites her leg. Dorothy wants to escape to a better place, somewhere "Over the Rainbow".

Dorothy runs away from the farm and meets Professor Marvel, who tells her all about "The Wonders of the World"^.  They are interrupted by a tornado, and Dorothy runs back home for shelter. Inside the farm house, she bangs her head on the bedside and the whole house is blown away by the storm.

Dorothy's house lands in the magical land of Oz, and flattens the Wicked Witch of the East. Glinda, the Good Witch of the North, greets both Dorothy and Toto and tells her where she is. Glinda calls for the Munchkins to "Come Out". These little people are all overjoyed at the demise of their wicked tormentor ("Ding Dong the Witch is Dead"). Glinda then presents Dorothy with the magic ruby slippers belonging to the dead wicked witch but this enrages the witch's sister, the Wicked Witch of the West. Glinda tells Dorothy that the Wizard of Oz might be able to help her return home, and how she can find him ("Follow the Yellow Brick Road"). Dorothy then sets off down the yellow brick road toward the Emerald City to speak to the great Oz ("You're Off to See the Wizard").

Along the way, she meets the Scarecrow, who feels inadequate with a head full of only stuffing ("If I Only Had a Brain"). Dorothy invites the Scarecrow to join her on the journey, hoping the Wizard can help him ("We're Off to See the Wizard"). Soon after that they meet the Tin Man, who is unhappy with his empty tin chest ("If I Only Had a Heart") and invite him to join them on their journey to see the Wizard.

The Wicked Witch of the West threatens to set the Scarecrow on fire unless Dorothy gives her the ruby slippers but Dorothy refuses.

In the dark forest, they suddenly encounter a very unhappy Lion, who seems to be afraid of his own tail ("If I Only Had the Nerve"). He too joins the group on the road to the Emerald City.

Emerging from the dark forest into the light ("We're Out of the Woods"), the friends encounter another obstacle. The Wicked Witch has cast a spell and created a huge field of poppies that puts Dorothy and the Lion to sleep. Glinda counters the spell with a snowfall that nullifies the poison, so the friends may continue their journey and arrive at the Emerald City, Dorothy and company persuade the gatekeeper to admit them.

They are all welcomed with open arms and are groomed in preparation for their meeting with the Wizard ("Merry Old Land of Oz"). The Wicked Witch flies down into the City with more threats to Dorothy, still angry that she doesn't have the ruby slippers. The four friends and Toto go into the Wizard's chamber. The great Oz appears as a terrifying, disembodied head and refuses to grant the group their wishes until they do something for him, and demands that they "Bring Me the Broomstick" of the Wicked Witch of the West.

Act Two

In the forest on the way to the castle of the Wicked Witch of the West, the Dorothy and her friends try to figure out how they are going to steal the broomstick ("We Went to See the Wizard"). They hide from a group of the Witch's Winkies ("March of the Winkies"). Meanwhile, in her castle, the Witch sends out her flying monkeys to capture Dorothy and Toto and bring them to her at the castle ("Red Shoes Blues").

She imprisons Dorothy and tells her to give up the ruby slippers within the hour or die. Dorothy wishes more than ever that she was back at home in Kansas ("Over the Rainbow" (reprise)). The Scarecrow, Tin Man and cowardly Lion consider how they are going to rescue Dorothy from the Witch's castle ("If We Only Had a Plan"). They disguise themselves as Winkies and sneak into the castle ("March of the Winkies" (reprise)). They find both the Witch and Dorothy and when the Witch tries to attack the Scarecrow, a Winkie hands Dorothy a bucket of water, which she then throws over the Witch, melting her.

The Winkies are all thrilled to be free of the Wicked Witch ("Hail - Hail - The Witch is Dead").

Dorothy and friends return with the witches broomstick to see the Wizard and Toto reveals that the Wizard's fearsome visage is an illusion; he is just an ordinary man. Still, he gives the Scarecrow, Tin Man and Lion tokens of the brains, heart and courage that they already had inside them and tells Dorothy that he himself will take her to Kansas in his hot air balloon, appointing the Scarecrow as the new prime minister of Oz, with the Tin Man and Lion as other ministers ("You Went to See the Wizard").

Just before the balloon takes off, Toto runs into the crowd, and Dorothy retrieves him, but misses her ride home; she is seemingly stranded in Oz.

Glinda , the good witch suddenly appears to tell her that she and Toto had the power to return home all along ("Already Home"). After saying goodbye to all her friends, Dorothy clicks her heels together three times, and chants "There's No Place Like Home".

Back in Kansas, Aunt Em and Uncle Henry tell Dorothy that she banged her head and had been unconscious for days. Dorothy insists her great adventure in Oz was real, not all a dream, but she is very grateful to be home. As Aunt Em and Uncle Henry leave her alone in her bedroom to rest, a gust of wind blows open her cupboard door, revealing the magical ruby slippers.

Theatre tickets to all performances of the Wizard Of Oz at the London Palladium are available to book securely through this website.

The London Palladium is a 2,286 seat west end theatre situated off Oxford Street in the City of Westminster. From the roster of stars who have played there over the years and many televised performances, it is arguably the most famous theatre in London and the UK, especially for musical variety shows.

the London Palladium was built by Walter Gibbons in 1910 to compete with The London hippodrome and the London Colliseum. The facade (originally that of Argyll, which is why the pub opposite is called The Argyll Arms) dates back to the 19th century. Formerly it was a temporary wooden building called Corinthian Bazaar, which featured an aviary and aimed to attract customers from the recently closed Pantheon Bazaar (which is now the Marks and Spencer's on Oxford Street. The Palladium was rebuilt a year later by Fredrick Hengler, the son of a tightrope walker, as a circus venue that included an aquatic display in a flooded ring. After that it became the National Skating Palace, a skating rink with real ice. However the rink failed and the Palladium was redesigned by Frank Matcham, a famous theatrical architect who also designed the Colliseum., for a site that previously housed Hengler's Circus. The building now carries Heritage Foundation commemorative plaques honouring Lew Grade and Frankie Vaughn.

The theatre retains a lot of its original features and was Grade II listed by English Heritage in 1960.  The Palladium had its own telephone system so the occupants of boxes could call one another. It also had a revolving stage

The theatre started out as The Palladium, a premier venue for variety performances. In 1926, the pantomime starred Lennie Dean as Cinderella, footage of which remains to this day. It is especially linked to the Royal Variety Performances, where many were, and still are, held. From 1928 it was managed by George Black and was even a cinema for three months. During the 1930s it became the regular home for The Crazy Gang.  The ‘London' part of the theatres name was added in 1934. Black controlled the large Moss Empires group of theatres.

Val Parnell took over as Managing Director of the London Palladium in 1945. He adopted a controversial, but very successful, policy of presenting high-priced big-name American acts at the top of the bill. Among many, the list included Judy Garland, Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, Bob Hope and Frank Sinatra  freezing out British stars of the day, who were relegated to second-billing.

From 1955-67 the theatre was the setting for the top-rated TV variety show Sunday Night At The London Palladium hosted first by Tommy trinder and then by Bruce Forsyth.. The programme was broadcast live every week by ATV, which was owned by the famous theatrical impresario Lew Grade  Production was by Val Parnell. Six programmes aired as special episodes in the USA between May through August 1966 on NBC.

Val Parnell became associated with a property development company and began to sell Moss Empires' theatres for redevelopment. When it became known in 1966 that this fate awaited not only the London Palladium, but also The Victoria Palace and the Theatre Royal Drury Lane, Prince Littler organised a take-over to save the theatres and Val Parnell retired to live in France. The new Managing Director of Stoll-Moss was Louis Benjamin, who took on the role while continuing as MD of Pye Records within the ATV Group.

In 1968 Sammy Davis Jr starred in Golden Boy, the first book musical to be produced in the venue.

In 1970, the Palladium attempted to get Elvis Presley to perform 14 shows over a period of 7 days. When Tom Parker, Presley's manager, heard that the theatre was offering Presley 28,000 dollars, he reportedly said "That's fine for me, now how much can you get for Elvis?" Had Presley performed, it would have been his first and only overseas performance.

In January 1973, glam rock band Slade played a gig in the theatre which resulted in the venue's balcony nearly collapsing. In 1976 Marvin Gaye recorded a live concert at the venue. The performance documented on the resulting double LP, entitled Live At The London Palladium and released in 1977, is considered one of Gaye's finest live recordings.

In the late 1980s the Palladium was once again the setting for the popular TV variety show Live From The London Palladium, compered by Jimmy Tarbuck.  During this time, the theatre was under the ownership of the Stoll Moss Theatre Group, and the management of both Margaret and David Locke, who both were major shareholders of Stoll Moss at the time.

In 2000, ownership of the theatre changed once again when it was bought by Andrew Lloyd-Webber's Really Useful Group. From 3 May 2000 to 5 January 2002, the Palladium played The King And I starring Jason Scott Lee and Elaine Paige. This production was a west end transfer of the hugely successful 1996 Broadway production. Before the opening, the box office had already taken in excess of £7 million in ticket sales. The London version of the show was a lavish affair, with new dialogue and music added, while the original material was updated. After the production closed, the famous (but outdated) revolving stage was removed to make way for more modern technology.

From April 2002 to 4 September 2005, the London Palladium played host to a theatrical version of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang with  a musical score by the Sherman Brothers as a successor to The King And I.. Throughout its three and a half year run at the venue, the production starred many celebrities (see below). This show proved to be the most successful stage show to date, in the theatre's long history and reunited, 50 years later, the show's choreographer Gillian Lynne with the theatre in which she appeared as the Palladium's Star Dancer during the early 50s.

For Christmas 2005-06, the venue staged Bill Kenwright's production of Scrooge- The Musical starring Tommy Steele and other recent shows to have been staged there are Sinatra, The Sound Of Music, Sister Act-The musical and its current production, the Andrew Lloyd-Webber version of The Wizard Of Oz.. 

On 20th May 2007 the London Palladium was also the setting for the 2007 BAFTA awards, which were broadcast on BBC, and in 2010 the BAFTA Television Awards returned to the London Palladium.

Whilst the Theatre has a resident show, it is still able to have one off shows; this is enabled by the scenery of the resident show being designed to be easily removed. For example the set of Sister Act was able to be completely above the stage out of view in an area called the flyloft.

The London Palladium turned 100 years old on 26th December 2010, and a one-hour television special entitled '100 Years of the Palladium' aired on BBC 2 on December 31, 2010.

Theatre tickets to all performances at the London Palladium are available to purchase securely through this website.