1986+The+Wizard+of+Oz

Dorothy and Toto (her dog), with the Scarecrow and the Tin man
Here they are, Jo Instrall as Dorothy and little Nicola Balfour as her dog Toto. They had the audience in tears singing "Somewhere over the Rainbow" and again when they returned home to "Auntie Em." With Dorothy is the Tin Man played by the elder of the Witcher's children Alistair, and in the background Danny Leatherdale as the tin man. As well as Toto we had to provide another part so I took a chicken out of one of the other books about Dorothy. Wendy Cooper got this part - I'm sorry Wendy I did my best. Both the Witcher boys were great little actors. If you are wondering about the other books about Dorothy by Frank Baum, my advice is don't baother, apart from the first they are all dreadful.

Nicola Balfour as Toto - the cutest animal ever in any of the pantos. Despite lots of competition. Here is the start of the show before the "twister". Dorothy and Toto are in disgrace and we seem to have doubled up on the number of teachers compared to the film. This was a problem with this panto I had to invent lots of parts and it was hard. On the left is Jonathan Hayward and Emma Tyrrell as Auntie Em and whatever the uncle's name was. Marian Young wrote her first pantomime song for these two. I remember being very impressed. "We've certainly onto something good here" I thought. And I was right.

On the right is Bridget Payne. A great stalwart of the pantos. Payne's, Witchers, Haywards, Leatherdale's we had some terrific actors in those pantos.

The Toto Offenbach mix up - now it can be told
Somebody put up the wrong photo

Oh yes he did!
According to Nicola (who ought to know) the photo Nick first put up was actually from Pinocchio; Nicola was the little girl on the left. She couldn't throw light on the identity of the bigger girl and the dog but my records show a dog called "Offenbark" (!) played by Tammy Parris, who belonged to someone called Lupin, played by Vicky Saunders. //Isabel// Nicola was quite right. //Nick//

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