[3] It incorporated elements of The Road to Oz, which was published that July, mainly in the inclusion of two of its new characters, the Shaggy Man and Polychrome, the Rainbow's daughter (which created some continuity inconsistencies when it was adapted to the novel), both of which were influenced by Prince Silverwings.

The show was extremely popular in Los Angeles and San Francisco, but it was greeted lukewarmly by critics in Chicago, who consistently compared it to the earlier 1902 play The Wizard of Oz.

Among the mixed to negative reviewers was Amy Leslie of the Chicago Daily News, who described it as a "revival instead of a sequel," finding Gottschalk's music "delicious" but inconsequential to the spectacle of pretty girls and special effects.

Oliver Morosco would later cast Charlotte Greenwood, the final Queen Ann, in So Long Letty, a role he had commissioned for her that would make her a star.

This production premiered at the Castle Club Theatre, June 19, 1982, and starred Marc Lewis as Tik-Tok and Ruggedo, John Fricke as Private Files, Rob Roy MacVeigh as The Shaggy Man, and Robin Olderman as Betsy, Polychrome, Ozma, and Queen Ann.

[9] Eric Shanower who prepared the 2014 revival wrote and published All Wound Up: The Making of The Tik-Tok Man of Oz in 2023 after 9 years of research on the show.

The plot, similar to the novel Tik-Tok of Oz, but lacking Quox and the journey to the kingdom of Tititi-Hoochoo, deals with the Shaggy Man's attempt to rescue his brother, Wiggy (unnamed in the novel),[10] from the Dominions of Ruggedo, the Metal Monarch.

Meanwhile, Queen Ann Soforth seeks to lead an army against the world with every man (17 officers and one private) in her tiny kingdom of Oogaboo.

Harry Kelly, who had previously turned down the title role in The Woggle-Bug, and Joe Whitehead replaced Morton and Moore in the leads while they vacationed.

Songs added throughout the tour are denoted by * Two player piano rolls of suites and vintage recordings of "Ask the Flowers to Tell You" and "My Wonderful Dream Girl" can be found on Disc 2 of David Maxine's collection of Vintage Recordings from the 1903 Musical The Wizard of Oz (2003), while James Patrick Doyle performs a suite of many of the songs on synthesizer in his collection Before the Rainbow: The Original Music of Oz (1999), both released by Hungry Tiger Press.