Recent Visits to Oz

Ozma of Oz, one of the 20th century's
earliest transgendered characters. Isn't she fabulous?

I finally did get around to seeing the current film Oz The Great and Powerful in IMAX and 3-D. The prequel to classic MGM film The Wizard of Oz purports to tell the story of how the Wiz got to the enchanted land long before Dorothy. The production design was beautiful and I'm glad I saw it in 3-D, but you don't need to spend the extra $10 for IMAX, at least not in the theater I went to on 34th Street in Manhattan.

The mythology put forth conflicts with that of L. Frank Baum's Oz books and Gregory Maguire's Wicked series. Yes, for those who don't know there are about 40 Oz books altogether. Baum wrote 14 of them and Ruth Plumly Thompson carried on after his death. She stopped in 1939 and others carried on periodically after that. In the new movie, James Franco as the Wizard has affairs (or stays up all night "dancing") with both the Wicked Witches of the East and West and does some serious canoodling with Glinda the Good Witch of the South. The good witch of the North is missing. In the Baum books, the Wiz unseats the rightful ruler, a fairy baby named Ozma, who is turned by enchantment into a boy. Outside of Virginia Woolf's Orlando, Ozma is probably literature's most famous transgendered character. In The Land of Oz, the first book after the Wizard of Oz, the transformed Ozma, now named Trot, goes on an adventure with Jack Pumpkinhead, and is eventually re-assigned by Glinda to his/her original form. "I'm the same as I was before," she explained to the astonished Ozites,"only now I'm a girl." And a fairy to boot. This was in 1904, long before LGBTQ issues were on anyone's mind.

News Flashes: James Franco and Bartlett Sher for Bway Revivals?

Mila Kunis and James Franco in Oz the Great and Powerful

It's probably because of the smash release of Oz the Great and Powerful which I haven't seen yet, but the adorable James Franco is all over the news lately. The Guardian UK reports the multitalented Franco will be starring a Broadway revival of John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men as George, the drifting ranchhand who is best friends with the baby-like giant Lenny. Here's a link to my review in Backstage of the Acting Company's recent touring revival. If this pans out, it will mark Franco's Broadway debut. He was to have starred opposite Nicole Kidman in a new production of Tennessee Williams' Sweet Bird of Youth, but that bird never hatched. In the New York Post, the star-artist-writer-director's California neighbors have complained Franco's home is really a production company with so many people coming and going, their peace of mind has been shattered.

Oz received a decidedly mixed press, but was number one at the box office, raking in $180 million. A lot of my Facebook friends have given it negative reviews, but I'm still curious, mainly because it's in 3D and IMAX. I've only seen one picture in this double-format (Prometheus) and the experience was exciting, so I'm willing to risk some story shortcomings for visual thrills.

In other news, Tony winner Bartlett Sher is reportedly in talks with Clive Davis to direct the record mogul's projected revival of My Fair Lady. Davis says he wants Anne Hathaway and Colin Firth for the leads. I predicted Hathaway as a prime choice for Eliza before that news broke. But I said Sting for Higgins. This lead to speculation as to the rest of the cast--What would be your ideal MFL company? In addition to Hathaway and Firth, I would say Paxton Whitehead as Col. Pickering; Debra Monk as Mrs. Higgins; Jeremy Jordan as Freddy Enysford-Hill or if you want to get really crazy, Justin Timberlake; Jim Norton as Alfred P. Doolittle; Mary Testa as Mrs. Pearce; and me as Zoltan Karpathy, the role I played in two different high-school productions. What are your picks?