Wicked Wizard of Oz in Brighton – so bad I left at half-time

Or so I thought – before I had the misfortune of attending Wicked Wizard of Oz: A Cirque Spectacular at the Brighton Centre tonight.

Billed as a “breath-taking Cirque staging of The Wizard of Oz”, the audience were instead left cold and short-changed by a glorified panto without the laughs.

Things got off to a shaky start, with the Wizard – lead Kevin Orkian – buying time by playing Happy Birthday on a piano while ‘technical faults’ were addressed backstage.

Lead actor Kevin Orkian did his best to get a laugh (Image: World’s Biggest Productions)

After things did finally get underway, with two Kansas cowboys taking turns stacking carboard boxes on each other, there was then a strange, unexplained five-minute break, in which the audience were left to guess what was going on while shouting could be heard backstage.

And things never really improved from there. We were promised “spectacular aerial stunts and amazing special effects” – microphones that worked properly would have been a good start.

The main thing that had drawn me into coming was the extremely high-production-values trailer on the show’s website, which gives the impression of Cirque du Soleil levels of spectacle. If only some of the money spent on that trailer had been reserved for the actual show itself.

The show was pretty light on acrobatics (Image: World’s Biggest Productions)

Unlike the trailer, the performance on the night was light on acrobatics and heavy on panto. Unlike a good panto, this show was light on humour, and heavy on jokes that no one laughed at. And who wants to watch panto in a 4000-person arena?

Confused concept aside, the whole thing felt like it was being rehearsed for the first time.

Stagehands struggled to bring props on and off like they’d just woken up from a coma and been thrust backstage at the Brighton Centre. Acrobats whispered to each other nervously and examined their equipment closely before taking flight. The Strawman spat half-chewed cucumber all over the Wizard, while neither could keep a straight face.

The Strawman’s trousers repeatedly falling down got old pretty quickly (Image: World’s Biggest Productions)

As the interval approached, it wasn’t just Dorothy who was desperately looking for a way home. One hour of this was plenty enough for many in attendance, with considerable numbers clicking their heels together and rushing for the exit at half-time.

And I must confess I was among them. “There’s no place like home, there’s no place like home”, I thought.

With tickets ranging from £30-£75, I couldn’t help but feel for all the families who had paid to be there.

It was difficult to hear performers during musical numbers (Image: World’s Biggest Productions)

Unsurprisingly, a fair few could be heard grumbling during the intermission.

“I’d rather have just gone to the panto, it would have been cheaper”, one such mother complained to a member of staff.

And quite right. At least panto is meant to be bad.

“This international class arena show is the event of the year – not to be missed.”

There’s a typo there. It should read:

“This primary school class show is the most overpriced event of the year – to be missed.”