[2] Much of the original music was by Paul Tietjens and has been mostly lost, although it was still well-remembered and in discussion at MGM in 1939 when the classic film version of the story was made.

[4] The show premiered at the Chicago Grand Opera House[5] on June 16, 1902,[6] and then went on tour throughout the upper Midwest before moving to the Majestic Theatre on Broadway on January 21, 1903, where it ran for 293 performances through October 3.

[9] In order of appearance, the 1902 Chicago cast consisted of: [5] There were several major character changes from the original book: The main plot of the show, as recounted in newspapers of the time, is Pastoria's attempts to regain the throne from the Wizard of Oz.

Synopsis by David Maxine The show opens on a Kansas farm from which Dorothy and her pet calf Imogene are blown to the Land of Oz by a tornado.

The Good Witch of the North gives Dorothy a Ruby Ring and tells her to go to the Emerald City to ask the Wizard of Oz to send her back to Kansas.

L. Frank Baum decided to collaborate with his friend, composer Paul Tietjens, and The Wonderful Wizard of Oz illustrator W. W. Denslow as set and costume designer, to bring the book to the stage.

[10] They submitted the package to the manager of the Chicago Grand Opera House, Fred R. Hamlin, who liked it and approached Julian Mitchell to be director.

He rewrote the script, together with Glen MacDonough, introducing new characters and incidents, reducing the Cowardly Lion's role, deleting the appearance of the Wicked Witch of the West entirely, and substituting a cow for Toto as Dorothy's companion.

He hoped Mitchell's experience in directing, as well as the casting of comedy team Fred Stone and David C. Montgomery as the Scarecrow and Tin Woodman, would make the show a hit.

Baum described MacDonough as a New York joke writer in a letter to The Chicago Record-Herald, responding to criticism that the show "teemed with wild and woolly western puns and forced gags".

James O'Dea and Edward Hutchinson wrote one of the show's most celebrated songs, "Sammy", in which Tryxie Tryfle sings of a lost love before King Pastoria, though the only surviving recording of the piece was sung by a man (Harry Macdonough).

Although the lion costume was realistic, far more so than Bert Lahr's in the MGM film, his main purpose was a bit of comic relief and scaring off the villains on occasion.

The second is used to bring the Scarecrow to life, and the third is used so she can learn the song Sir Dashemoff Daily (a trouser role) has written to his girlfriend, Carrie Barry.

[citation needed] Probably the biggest influence on the 1939 MGM film, aside from making the story into a musical (but not using the score created for the stage version), is the field of poppies sequence that ended Act I.

[citation needed] This concluded Act I with an elaborate dance known as "Winter Jubilation", which James Patrick Doyle plays on synthesizers on the album, Before the Rainbow: The Original Music of Oz.

There were only a few cast changes in August prior to the tour: Carlton King and Grace Kimball took over the roles of Pastoria and Tryxie Tryfle, and Bobby Gaylor became the Wizard of Oz.

The show changed venues to the New York Theatre for a short run on May 2-21, 1904, and then returned to Chicago's Grand Opera House for a triumphant revival in its home city from May 23 - July 9, 1904.

The major characters continued to be played by Fred Stone, David Montgomery, and Anna Laughlin, while new performers took over other roles over the years.

[26] Leone Langdon-Key loved the scenery, but found Baum's script commonplace, commenting that many lines start with, "Well, wouldn't that..." and deplored Tietjens's "fondness for a lack of contrast and rhythms".

Grand Duke Boris Vladimirovich of Russia gained considerable notoriety by drinking champagne from the satin slipper of one of the chorus girls during a 1902 trip to Chicago.

After the team balked at leaving Wizard for a sequel, Baum wrote the stage musical, The Woggle-Bug, eliminating the Tin Woodman, replacing the Scarecrow with Regent Sir Richard Spud, replacing Glinda with Maetta from The Magical Monarch of Mo and renaming the Emerald City the "City of Jewels," though Oz is mentioned several times.

The play was performed at the Garrick Theater in Chicago and opened to reviews panning Baum's script and praising the score by Frederic Chapin.

No songs were interpolated (although two were derived from an earlier source and erroneously credited to Baum), but the general consensus was that the play was a cash-in or rip-off of The Wizard of Oz rather than a sequel.

In 1945, Milwaukee Civic Light Opera Company produced the Witmark rental version which includes Harburg/Arlen songs from the 1939 MGM movie.

In 1949 the Denis DuFor for the Louisville Park Theatrical Association produced the Muny version of Oz and included songs from the 1902 musical.

The musical was performed in a concert version in New York City's Alma Gluck Recital Hall in May 1982 by the New Amsterdam Theatre Company.

In 2016 a Swedish production was produced called "Trollkarlen av Oz" and adapted and directed by Dick Lundberg, who also played the Scarecrow and Sir Wiley Gyle.

During the Baums' 1906 stay at Shepheard's Hotel in Cairo, Egypt, a Hungarian Gypsy Band played songs from the musical in their honor.