Oz: The Untold Story

THE SHOW

“Oz: The Untold Story” is a brand-new retelling of L. Frank Baum’s classic American fairy tale. We went back to Baum’s original 14 Oz books to revisit this iconic story, looking to retain all the magic of Dorothy’s visit to the marvelous land of Oz while subtly updating parts of it to better suit a 21st-century audience. For example, Baum never says how old the Scarecrow, Tin Man, or Lion are. We’ve chosen to make them only slightly older than Dorothy herself. The friendships that form between these teenagers make the decisions that Dorothy faces at the end take on a very different dimension.

    We’ve also drawn on Baum’s rich mythology to fill in many of the characters’ back stories, giving them previously unseen richness and depth. Our audience will learn how the Wizard could ever have been so cruel as to send Dorothy right into the clutches of the Wicked Witch, how the Tin Man came to be made from tin, and why the Lion is cowardly. Most of all, they’ll get to follow Dorothy as she discovers who she is and begins taking responsibility for her decisions and the people around her.

The Script

Michael and Dave, the co-writers, are both serious long-time Oz fans. We’ve tried to retain and respect Baum’s material as much as possible. From the very beginning, we’ve been engaging with the international Oz fan community to get feedback on our interpretation of Baum’s characters and plot. Most of the changes we’ve made are due to two reasons.

    The most obvious reason is that not everything that works in a book will work on stage. Two hours, give or take, just isn’t enough time to cover a whole novel’s worth of material, and there are distinct differences in style as well.

    Also, although there’s no question that Baum was way ahead of his time regarding things like his attitudes toward women, his time was still over 120 years ago, so some things that may have seemed reasonable back in 1900 we now recognize as problematic. For example, the Good Witch of the North explains that you can tell she’s a good witch because she’s pretty. Bad witches are ugly. You don’t have to be all “woke”-ified to see that connecting ugly and bad is just plain mean and wrong-headed; we clipped that line out.

The Music

Dave Howell, the composer/lyricist, has a Bachelor of Musical Arts in composition from Pacific Lutheran University but hadn’t really been putting his degree to use until he got involved with OzTUS. The results have surprised almost everyone, especially Dave himself. The music includes classic Broadway-style ballads and anthems, gospel, Caribbean-flavored tunes, jazz, pop, and even rap. Here are some demos of a few of the songs in the show:

Looking (3:15) http://celadonent.com/gofundme/l1-vr.mp3

The show starts with Dorothy on a train on her way to Aunt Em and Uncle Henry’s. She’s newly orphaned after a tragic accident and feeling pretty down.

Let’s Eat Some Corn (1:45) http://celadonent.com/gofundme/lesc-cp.mp3

When the crows show up at the Scarecrow's corn field for a snack, they have a thing or two to say about people trying to frighten them! For this demo, all three crows are sung by the composer.

Tyrant’s Tango (Part I, 1:20) http://celadonent.com/gofundme/tyta1-hr.m4a

The Wicked Witch of the West has taken over as the ruler of Winkieland, but does not find the results entirely to her satisfaction. Enjoy this demo of the first segment of the song, which thankfully has somebody other than the composer singing the part of the Wicked Witch.

Why Are We On GoFundMe?

Except for a couple of instrumental background songs, the show is done and ready to go. We have done multiple table reads and partial workshops, and we’ve reached the point that further improvement will only come from producing the actual show on stage with an audience and everything.

    OzTUS is a big show. It calls for at least 25 actors, 4-6 dancers, and at least four musicians. (The full pit orchestra is probably ten, but that comes later.) We’re hoping to stage OzTUS in Spokane, WA in summer 2023. Spokane should be quite a bit less expensive than doing it in Seattle (where we're based), but it will still probably take around $400,000.

We are not planning on raising all of that through GoFundMe! We'll try to raise most of the capital the traditional way: finding people to invest in the show. More specifically, we're planning to retain the services of a Certified Fund Raising Executive for the next step, who should be able to help us obtain grants and locate interested accredited investors. However, the next few steps are much easier if we have at least a little bit of capital in our bank account.

Why Should You Help Us?

Here's three reasons why you might want to give us a hand:

1. You're a Wizard of Oz fan and are excited about having more good Oz storytelling available.

2. You're an Oz: The Untold Story fan and you'd like to see and hear as much of the show as you can. We're going to make some content available only to people who've helped us on our journey.

3. You're intrigued by the possibility of investing in musical theatre.

To be perfectly clear, contributing to this GoFundMe project is NOT an investment in the show: it's a gift to us. Becoming an investor/producer is somewhat complex: there will be a minimum amount needed, investors will probably need to qualify as "accredited" (although there's a possible loophole for residents of Washington), and there's a lot more paperwork involved, among other things. However, our GoFundMe backers will certainly be among the first, if not the first, people who will be offered the opportunity to invest when we get to that stage.

The Budget

Our fundraising goal for this event is $2020, broken down as follows:

Total: $ 2,020

People who have already backed us are aware that our plans have changed a bit since we launched. We originally had been planning to do a preview of the show in August, but we lost the actor that was going to play Dorothy, and with one thing and another, decided it would be better to regroup and make new plans instead of trying to replace her on short notice. We are still on the hook for the rehearsal space. We need a pretty modest amount for the choreographer who's been working on the show; most of his payment will be part of the budget for the main production. Govt. Paperwork covers the filing fees for our production company for the last two years. Travel Expenses is there to help us get to Spokane this fall to do some on-site meetings and appointments.

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT

Spokane

We're just beginning the planning process with our brand-new directory to get ready to stage the show for the first time in Spokane, starting by raising funds required to produce the show. Based on our spreadsheets, it looks like this production could easily break even. Amazing! We expect all the income from this stage will roll right into the next one.

Chicago

If the Spokane production goes well, then it’s time to raise the money for the big leagues. As just about any Broadway fan knows, before a show opens on Broadway or the West End, there’s almost always an “out of town tryout,” where the full production is staged in order to work out any last minute kinks. Our Spokane production will have pretty limited sets and we’ll skip many of the potential special effects: we’re just trying to make sure the script itself is solid.

The “Chicago” run (it could be somewhere else, possibly in the U.K.) will be where we test out the full-blown version, with a full pit orchestra and hopefully such effects as pyrotechnical fireballs thrown by Malica, Dorothy magically disappearing during the monkey attack, actual wind during the cyclone, and some other tricks that we’ll keep under our hats for now.

London

If that production goes well, then it’s time to open on the West End. The reason we’re looking to open it in London rather than New York is because we already have a producer who’s committed to opening OzTUS there: Jordan Mullineaux. Which, for a show that has yet to be produced anywhere in any form, is extraordinary. We are very excited!

THANK YOU!