Wizard of Oz Backlash Over Going Woke

A new West End production of the classic children’s story The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz has been blasted for going woke and turning capitalism into the villain of the piece. The Mail has more.

The new staging at the London Palladium, which stars Georgina Onuorah as Dorothy, Diversity dance star Ashley Banjo as the Tin Man and comedian Jason Manford as the Cowardly Lion, includes all the iconic characters and locations created by L. Frank Baum in his 1900 novel.

But Oz is now depicted as a cross between Las Vegas and New York, and features signs for brands such as ‘OzDonalds’, ‘Ozbucks’ and ‘Ozzo’, which is written in the style of the oil company Esso.

The yellow brick road has also been given a makeover, and resembles a grotty American highway littered with disused industrial machinery.

The Wicked Witch of the West, played by Dianne Pilkington, presides over a business empire called Wicked Witch Industries, which runs a factory manned by robot minions.

The Mail on Sunday‘s theatre critic Robert Gore-Langton, who reviewed the show for this weekend’s edition, wrote: “The look is evil American capitalism. The agenda is woke.”

Frank Furedi, Emeritus Professor of Sociology at Kent University, said: “This is another example of the disturbing trend of politicising children’s entertainment.”

The production, which is co-produced by Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Really Useful Group and directed by Nikolai Foster, premiered at the Curve Theatre in Leicester in 2022 before transferring to the West End last month.

‘Colourblind’ casting appears once again to have landed on a black actress taking on a classically white leading role. Amazing how often that just happens to turn out to be the case.

Worth reading in full.