After previews in the West End from 7 February, the musical opened on 1 March 2011, directed by Jeremy Sams, and closed on 2 September 2012.

The roles and original cast included Danielle Hope as Dorothy Gale, and Sophie Evans as alternative Dorothy, Michael Crawford as the Wizard, Paul Keating as the Scarecrow, Edward Baker-Duly as the Tin Man, David Ganly as the Cowardly Lion, Helen Walsh as Aunt Em, Stephen Scott as Uncle Henry, Emily Tierney was Glinda the Good Witch of the North, Hannah Waddingham as the Wicked Witch of the West, and four different West Highland Terriers alternated in the role of Toto.

After a similar Canadian reality TV search show, a Toronto production (starring Danielle Wade as Dorothy) began in December 2012 and closed in August 2013, and was followed by a North American tour.

A loose adaptation based on his 1900 novel, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (there is no Wicked Witch or Toto, and there are some new characters) first played in Chicago in 1902, and was a success on Broadway the following year.

[citation needed] In 1945, the St. Louis Municipal Opera (MUNY) created a version with a script adapted by Frank Gabrielson from the novel, but it is influenced in some respects by the motion picture screenplay.

Their next piece was Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, followed by two more concept albums that became hit musicals, Jesus Christ Superstar (1971) and Evita (1978).

[19] The musical was produced by Lloyd Webber and Bill Kenwright,[20] with direction by Jeremy Sams, choreography by Arlene Phillips and sets and costumes by Robert Jones.

[19] An autumn 2012 reality TV show, Over the Rainbow, hosted by Daryn Jones, searched for a Canadian girl to play the role of Dorothy in a Toronto staging by Mirvish Productions.

[23][24] On 5 November 2012, viewers of the show chose Danielle Wade, a 20-year-old University of Windsor acting major, to play the role, with Stephanie La Rochelle as first runner up.

Besides Wade, the all-Canadian cast also included Cedric Smith as Professor Marvel/the Wizard, Lisa Horner as Miss Gulch/The Wicked Witch of the West, Mike Jackson as the Tin Man, Lee MacDougall as the Cowardly Lion, Jamie McKnight as the Scarecrow and Robin Evan Willis as Glinda.

[28] The musical received a North American tour beginning on 10 September 2013 at the Smith Center for the Performing Arts in Las Vegas, Nevada, with the original Canadian cast, except that Jacquelyn Piro Donovan played Miss Gulch/The Wicked Witch of the West.

[3] The musical was scheduled to make its UK regional premiere in a new production directed by Nikolai Foster at the Curve, Leicester over the Christmas 2020 season.

The cast includes Georgina Onuorah as Dorothy[31][32] with Jonny Fines as the Scarecrow, Paul French as the Tin Man, Giovanni Spanó as The Lion, Ben Thompson controlling the puppet of Toto, Christina Bianco as Glinda the Good Witch, Mark Peachey as the Wizard, and Charlotte Jaconelli as the Wicked Witch of The West.

[35][36][37] Also featured in the cast are Louis Gaunt as the Scarecrow, Dianne Pilkington as the Wicked Witch, and Bianco and Onuorah reprising their roles of Glinda and Dorothy, respectively, from the Leicester production.

[38] The set design was by Colin Richmond, with projections by Douglas O'Connell, costumes and puppetry by Rachel Canning and lighting by Ben Cracknell.

[40][41] The production also returned to the West End from 15 August 2024 for a limited 4 week run at the Gillian Lynne Theatre with Merrygold and The Vivienne reprising their roles from the tour as the Tin Man and the Wicked Witch.

[42][43] Orphaned teenager Dorothy Gale lives on a farm in Kansas with her Aunt Em, Uncle Henry and dog Toto, but feels misunderstood ("Nobody Understands Me").

Just before the balloon flies off, Toto runs into the crowd, and Dorothy retrieves him, missing her ride; she is seemingly stranded in Oz.

As Aunt Em and Uncle Henry leave her alone in her bedroom to rest, a gust of wind blows open her cupboard door, revealing the ruby slippers.

[52] Opening night reviews were mixed but generally praised the designs, the special effects and several cast members, especially Waddingham.

Dorothy's flight to the enchanted land is thrillingly caught with the help of film effects that wouldn't look out of place on Doctor Who and the story is told with clarity and pace", but added that Hope "offers a thoroughly competent rather than an inspired performance" that "lacks the heart-catching vulnerability of the young Judy Garland".

[53] Paul Taylor of The Independent gave the show four out of five stars, commenting: "Jeremy Sams's production is a marvel of beguiling narrative fluency and, with Robert Jones's superb designs, of endlessly witty and spectacular visual invention – from the digitally-enhanced hurricane transition to Oz to the skeletally twisted Gothic palace of the Wicked Witch and her totalitarian, helmeted guards.

"[54] Henry Hitchings of the London Evening Standard also gave the show four out of five stars, praising Jones's "lavish costumes and lovingly conceived sets.

The Kansas cyclone that whisks Dorothy into a dreamworld is evoked through vorticist projections (the work of Jon Driscoll) that betoken chaos in the cosmos.

The Emerald City is full of steeply inclined walls suggesting a drunkard's vision of the Chrysler Building lobby.

Dorothy is given a good plaintive opening number, and Red Shoes Blues, sung by the Wicked Witch, has a pounding intensity.