NEW YORK, Oct. 7 -- The Yellow Brick Road will lead right into the nation's sports arenas next year when a $10 million skating version of 'The Wizard of Oz' is staged by master showman Kenneth Feld. Like the proverbial cat with nine lives, the ice show production will be the ninth incarnation of L. Frank Baum's classic children's novel, counting silent and talking film versions and several stage productions, and it will develop the ballet potential of the story. Feld, who already has put 'Beauty and the Beast' and 'Aladdin' on ice, said Friday his Oz production will make its debut in the fall of 1995, making a 40-week tour of the United States and Canada to be followed by a four-year international tour. 'This is in keeping with the worldwide popularity of the 1939 film of 'The Wizard of Oz' and my company's global perspective and marketing expertise,' a reference to the international touring companies of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, of which Feld is president and producer. 'We are extremely pleased to present this genuine American classic in an exciting new balletic way with all the songs and great moments you remember from the film, but giving them even more magnitude through performance, lighting and theatrical technology,' he said. 'We are going to bring Dorothy, the Tin Man, the Scarecrow, the Lion and Toto to life before the eyes of family audiences around the world.' Felt said he has a licensing agreement with Turner Entertainment Company, which acquired the MGM motion picture version when Turner acquired the studio's film libary in 1986.
Rights to the film score by Harold Arlen and E. Y. 'Yip' Harburg were acquired from EMI Music Publishing. The role of Dorothy will have celebrity casting, Feld said, adding that he will have to cast several famous skaters in the role in the course of the American tour becasue 'top skaters don't want to be tied down to a 40-week contract.' Baum, a trade paper editor, published 'The Wonderful Wizard of Oz' in 1900 and followed it up with 13 other Oz books. He adapted the story for a smash hit Broadway stage musical in 1903 with a score by Paul Tietjens and A. Baldwin Sloane and silent film versions were released in 1910 and 1924. After the MGM Technicolor extravaganza starring Judy Garland as Dorothy, Ray Bolger, Jack Haley, Bert Lahr, Frank Morgan and Margaret Hamilton, a black contemporary version, 'The Wiz' with music by Charlie Smalls, was staged for Broadway and was made into a 1978 movie starring Diana Ross. The MGM Garland movie is believed to have been seen by more people around the world than any other film, including 'Gone With the Wind,' and is still a Christmas holiday TV movie favorite. 'The Wiz' had a Broadway revival several seasons ago and has toured nationally. Feld also is the producer of 'Walt Disney's World On Ice,' which has six touring units, and Siegried & Roy's Mirage Resort show, the longest-running show in Las Vegas.
