Who needs Esperanto when you could be speaking Munchkin? In Daniel Bye’s adaptation of the L Frank Baum tale, the colourful creatures speak a Latinate amalgam of languages that is almost – but not quite – comprehensible. It is as funny for us as it is frustrating for Hope Yolanda’s intrepid Dorothy who, as an orphaned Lancaster youngster, is already feeling misunderstood.
Shame we do not see more of them as we make our way to stages around Williamson Park, the Ashton Memorial serving as a suitably grandiose home for Matthew Ganley’s Wizard, but they do leave us with a Munchkin translation of “follow the yellow brick road” to sing en route. The score by Bay Bryan and Claire O’Connor sparkles with vocal harmonies and pretty tunes, momentarily making us forget the evergreen songs from the movie.
