Based on the beloved novel by L. Frank Baum and featuring songs by Harold Arlen and E. Y. Harburg, the all-time classic film premiered at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre on August 15, 1939. Starring Judy Garland, Ray Bolger, Jack Haley, Bert Lahr, Billie Burke, and Margaret Hamilton, the movie musical opened to critical acclaim and achieved legendary status through decades of annually televised broadcasts.

This is a more faithful adaptation of the film. A more technically complex production, it recreates the dialogue and structure of the MGM classic nearly scene for scene, though it is adapted for live stage performance. The musical material also provides more work for the SATB chorus and small vocal ensembles.

This original stage version (1942) is more theatrically conservative, using L. Frank Baum’s book as its inspiration. The story and the music are treated by the adapters as elements of a classic stage musical without reference to their use in the film. This version does not include Toto, but instead adds new characters like Gloria of Oz and Lord Growlie,

This one-hour adaptation of the R.S.C. Version is specially tailored for school-aged actors and includes most of the much-loved musical numbers in the full-length versions.