Andrew Lloyd Webber Follows the Yellow Brick Road to New Version of The Wizard of Oz

Although more than a dozen stage adaptations of Frank L. Baum’s 1900 novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz exist, Andrew Lloyd Webber believes he can do better, reports London’s The Daily Mail. The musical mogul has secured the rights to the famous 1939 film and Baum’s original story, as well as permission to include new songs alongside the movie’s classic E.Y. Harburg and Harold Arlen numbers "Somewhere Over the Rainbow," "Follow the Yellow Brick Road," "If I Only Had a Brain," etc.. Working with lyricist Glen Slater, his collaborator on the upcoming The Phantom of the Opera sequel, which premieres in the West End this fall, Lloyd Webber intends to open his Wizard in London late next year.

Referring to previous stage adaptations of Dorothy’s quest for home, Lloyd Webber told The Daily Mail, “They attempt to do it exactly the same as in the movie. That’s completely wrong! You’ve got to think of it as a theater piece, which just happens to have three or four of the greatest songs of all time.”

The article quotes Slater, too, who drops hints of where the new songs could fit in. The Wizard doesn’t have a number of his own, for instance. “It doesn’t have an opening number,” says Slater. “It doesn’t have a song for the Witch. It’s missing what it needs to become an actual theatrical piece.”

Jeremy Sams has been approached to direct, but rumors of the show opening at London's Palladium, and of Dorothy being cast via a reality-style TV show by as panel of judges including Liza Minnelli, daughter of the 1939 film's star, Judy Garland remain unconfirmed.