Wizard of Oz

Oh good old Mr Sting again. I saw your ... um.. review... of Paris not long ago, and I must say after losing all credibility in that one, were you attempting to try and gain it back? If so you failed miserably. You are of course entitled to your opinion as much as the next person, but please try to learn some people skills and basic manners in the way you address that opinion. Look, SOME of your points I agreed with, as I said in my own review (whilst others I completely disagree with) but there is absolutely no need to say it the way you do. It makes the term "I'd like to see you do better" come to mind. There are some truly talented individuals I've seen in both Paris and Wizard of Oz who you have tried to claim are worthless that simply need to ignore you. But this IS a discusion forum after so lets discuss your points shall we? You said Jennifer Wickham was boring and no emotion. Well I humbly disagree.... she was in tears much of the play! How can you claim there is no emotion here? Just curious. You dislike the obvious attempts to recreate the film's characterisations. That is obviously one opinion that some people hold. You are not alone, I realise many agree with this opinion. I personally disagree. Although there is room for personal interpretation and style that EVERY actor/actress does automatically, I feel one should at least stick to the original characterisation of the story. I don't like it when they diverge too far from the original vision. I felt the professional Grease in the Burswood Dome in 2005 did this, as well as MLT's We Will Rock You last year. However you have to understand that this tends to be a directors choice. Some directors instruct their actors to study up on a previous incarnation of the show, whilst others encourage the exact opposite. Its not necersarily the actors who choose this. Now how they pull this off is dependant on their acting ability. I personally thought the cast of Wizard of Oz pulled this off superbly. I do agree with your comments of the Tinman's costume obviously, but I try not to go around saying "Oh that was just appalling" in a public review. Those sort of comments don't help matters. The lion's hiding in the jitterbug, again I agree with your point, it seemed a bit strange story wise. Of course I had already heard the story of Darren collapsing in the tech rehearsal so I managed to put two and two togethor at that point and forgive them for it. I disagree with your comments on Carole. And the comments on Karen actually remind me of another audience member who actually commented that she really didn't like Glinda because of the very reason you praised her - she was different to what this audience member thought Glinda was supposed to be due to the movie. Now I'm not saying who is wrong or right, just that different people have different opinions on that, so you shouldn't be going around saying its awful because of the show choosing a different opinion to your preference. Your comments on Malcom Pratt I have to say, despite whatever you may think of a persons performance, to go and tell them its time to retire is uncalled for in amateur theatre. But then you told cast members of Paris to stop singing now if I recall correctly, some of whom had brilliant singing voices, so Malcom, don't take those comments to heart please. The scene changes comments I obviously have already agreed with in my previous review so I will say no more on the topic But to end I just want to point out your statement to Darren: "I look forward to your eloquent and highly biassed response" you do realise how highly biassed your own critique of Darren's is right? It is no secret to anyone who read the Paris reviews that you and Darren clash. Just look at your comments on him in comparison to the rest of the cast, can you really try to claim your response is unbiassed. So now I think your just a hypocrit as well as a sad lonely audience member who has obviously been passed over in one too many auditions in the area. Anyways, now that I got that out of my system, lets just ignore comments that are obviously intended to hurt rather than constructively criticise and await some more instructive reviews. "Nothing to see here, move along, move along"