ReviewHong Kong Ballet’s The Wizard of Oz has great dancing and effects but falls short on story

Hong Kong Ballet launched its 2024/25 season with The Wizard of Oz, choreographed by the company’s artistic director, Septime Webre. A family-oriented extravaganza, it has all the hallmarks we’ve come to expect from Webre – a big, bold show with spectacular designs and theatrical effects, a huge cast (albeit the same dancers in different roles), and lots and lots of dancing. While from a ballet perspective the production has flaws, it hits its target as family entertainment and received a warm reception from a packed house consisting largely of parents and children at the Saturday matinee. Written in 1900, L. Frank Baum’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz was the first in a series of books about the magical land of Oz. If the books – quintessentially American – are little known outside the United States, the 1939 film adaptation starring Judy Garland brought Baum’s fantasy international fame. Ninety-five years after its premiere, it continues to make lists of all-time great films and has given rise to numerous spin-offs in the cinema and on stage. The ballet basically follows the same storyline as the film (much shorter and simpler than the plot of the original book). Dorothy and her dog Toto are whisked up in a tornado from the farm where they live in Kansas and transported to Oz. There they encounter the Wicked Witch of the West, Glinda the Good Witch (who gives Dorothy the magic ruby slippers to protect her) and set out on the Yellow Brick Road to find the Wizard of Oz, who Dorothy believes can send her home. On the way, they acquire three companions – a Scarecrow in search of a brain, a Tin Man in search of a heart, and a Cowardly Lion in search of courage. There are some ingenious special effects and much flying on wires, a particular high point being the Wicked Witch’s Flying Monkeys, which are genuinely scary. Webre’s flair for comedy is on full display – the Lion is particularly funny – while the adorable Toto (a puppet brilliantly designed by Nicholas Mahon) steals the show. In terms of choreography, Webre shows his love for classical ballet in strong ensemble pieces for the denizens of the Emerald City (essentially a full 19th century style divertissement) and the Poppies (featuring a witty nod to the iconic “Entry of the Shades” from La Bayadère). The ballet’s structure is problematic – the first half is too long (the Munchkin sequence seemed interminable) and while the second half is stronger, the pace is so fast and furious that key moments are rushed. As is so often the case with Webre, storytelling suffers in favour of feats of technique – Dorothy’s meeting with Dr Marvel, normally a touching scene where he persuades her to go home as her aunt will be worried about her, becomes an acrobatic duet full of big lifts. Indeed, the lack of moments of real emotion – such as the poignancy that Dorothy’s Over the Rainbow represents – diminishes the impact of the story and of Baum’s moral that qualities such as intelligence, warmth and courage can be found within ourselves. Another issue is the music, the key to success for any ballet – you can make bad ballets to good music but you cannot make good ballets to bad music. The score by Webre’s long-time collaborator Matthew Pierce has some strong moments, notably when it veers towards jazz (it is no coincidence that the scenes for the Lion and in the Emerald City, which have the strongest music, are among the best in the production). Unfortunately it is monotonous on the whole, at times somewhat strident and sounds eerily similar to Pierce’s score for Webre’s Alice. It is worth noting that anyone expecting references to the songs from the film is in for a disappointment, since the score does not have a single note of classics such as Over the Rainbow or We’re Off to See the Wizard, presumably for copyright reasons. The costume designs by another Alice collaborator, Liz Vandal, are mostly excellent – the vintage Americana feel of the Kansas sequence is charming, the Poppies well imagined and the Emerald City and Winkies sequences witty and stylish. It was hard to believe that the same designer, within the same ballet, was also responsible for the Munchkin costumes – a cacophony of glaring colours, they were the visual equivalent of scraping nails across a blackboard. The whole company deserves kudos for dancing such an exhausting, technically challenging ballet with exemplary commitment and apparently boundless energy. As Dorothy, Hong Kong native Zoe Loo Suet-ying was making her debut in a leading role. Still in her teens, she has an impressively strong technique and danced the demanding choreography with remarkable assurance – a ballerina to watch for the future. Another young Hong Kong dancer, Natalie Lu, was a delight as the puppeteer for Toto – a born actress, she not only manipulated the puppet with admirable skill, but showed the little dog’s every emotion vividly through her facial expressions and movement. Basil James as the Scarecrow and Kai Kanzaki as the Cowardly Lion also showed off their acting skills, with deft timing and plenty of comic detail, as well as producing some dazzling virtuoso dancing. Yonen Takano was an endearingly hapless Wizard and Wang Qingxin a wonderfully wicked, gloriously glamorous Witch of the West. Hong Kong Ballet: The Wizard of Oz, Hong Kong Cultural Centre Grand Theatre. Reviewed: Aug 31 matinee.

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Septime Webre’s production has bold designs, spectacular effects and high-energy dancing, but the music is a little monotonous

Septime Webre’s production has bold designs, spectacular effects and high-energy dancing, but the music is a little monotonous