Oz Blog: Over The Rainbow kicks off with weekend special

Friday

A farm full of would-be-Dorothys, a new panel of judges, and Graham Norton welcoming “the Lord” back to his Saturday night TV throne – this weekend saw Andrew begin the search to find a Dorothy for his upcoming West End production of The Wizard of Oz. The show kicked off with a two-part special, all Emerald green t-shirts and sparkle – but the next seven weeks are, as Andrew himself said, “going to be difficult, tough, sometimes heartbreaking.”

We got a glimpse into some of the heartbreak in Friday night’s opening episode as West End casting director David Grindrod took charge of the regional auditions. Approximately 9,000 girls from around the country auditioned – in some cases, in front of Andrew himself. We saw Andrew arrive at the snowy Glasgow auditions to the strains of The Phantom of the Opera overture. “The Lord,” Graham said, “is back.”

Of the thousands of girls, 110 were selected for the London call-backs and it was then, at the Hackney Empire theatre, that we got our first glimpse of new panellists Sheila Hancock and John Partridge in action. And if the would-be Dorothys were expecting an easy ride they would have been disappointed: “If they can’t deal with [the auditions], they shouldn’t be here,” said Sheila.

Andrew, on a quick visit to the Hackney Empire, took some time out to tell Graham (and us) what he’s looking for. “We want someone with a contemporary edge… someone rebellious, but with charm.” Charmers onstage included glamour girl Amy; Sarah, who confessed to not having perfect pitch and brought her recorder to help find it; and cousins Stephanie and Gemma from Liverpool, who insisted that there would be no problem should only one of them go through to the next round.

So, 50 girls from the London call-backs were selected to go forward to Dorothy Farm, where they were put through their singing, dancing and acting paces… in a barn. But what’s that? The panel had a sleepless night following the London auditions and chose an additional four girls to join the final group. As Graham said earlier in the show, “at this rate we’ll need Dorothy Ranch.”

Then the final 54 were whittled down even further as third new panellist Charlotte Church joined Sheila and John to select the 20 that went on to perform in front of a live audience. Charlotte, as befitting her Voice of an Angel status, wanted to hear the girls sing – “find your honeypot,” she said. Meanwhile, Sheila was looking at the girls’ acting skills – “there’s not many lions in this room!” – and John helped out with the choreography.

But it was down to Charlotte to indicate, by tapping on the shoulder, who was in and who was out. Liverpudlian Gemma didn’t make the final 20 but her cousin Stephanie did, as did Amy and recorder-playing Sarah.

Read our Saturday show Oz Blog here

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For more information on Over The Rainbow, visit www.bbc.co.uk/dorothy.

AndrewLloydWebber.com

Oz Blog: Over The Rainbow kicks off with weekend special