DOROTHY is in her bedroom, listening to the radio. The tune is Somewhere Over The Rainbow, the song, that song, from The Wizard Of Oz.

The sound is fading in and out, when the record is interrupted with news of an imminent tornado heading for Kansas.

In fact, two storms are brewing: the first flattening the Kansas farmstead, the second blowing a gale through The Wizard Of Oz itself. Out goes Somewhere Over The Rainbow; out go The Wizard Of Oz drapes initially hanging beside Adam Tomlinson's breezy band on the mezzanine floor above the stage. Here comes the big brush, the big rush, of the new in the form of The Wiz, and its effervescent rock and soul score by Charlie Smalls.

First staged in New York in 1975 and then made into a film with Diana Ross as Dorothy and Michael Jackson as the Scarecrow, The Wiz is The Wizard Of Oz with a modern twist and a modern twister. The story remains the same, so too the characters, but in the words of director Scott Garnham, The Wizard Of Oz just got funkier (and not only in the case of Craig Barley's Funky Monkey, henchman for Pascha Turnbull's wickedly scary, gothic Evillene).

Garnham is the third whirlwind to hit Kansas. Newly turned 18, the Yorkshire Coast College student already has assistant and co-directing credits to his name and now he graduates to the directing role, co-choreographing the show too with Jacqueline Scott. He resists any temptation to act as well, although the voice of the American radio announcer sounds strangely familiar!

Garnham has given youth its wings, and the glee on the faces of Dan Hield and John Hall, as they play the minor role of crows, suggests these Shipton luminaries are happy to take a back seat for once in the group cause. Such is the infectious impact of young Scott.

The vibrant Crows, the exuberant Yellow Brick Road dancers and the Poppies, in their Chicago-style dance with chairs, all play their part, while Garnham's decision to dress the Munchkins like Ali G and turn the Kalidahs into gangland figures with baseball bats add modern nuance.

Alicia Roberts' bright-eyed Dorothy, Sandy Nicholson's lively Addaperle and Robert Readman's blustering Wiz all shine; Michael Oliver relishes his promotion to principal as Tinman; Martin Lettin's Lion is something of a ladykiller, and Callum O'Connell's Scarecrow is strong on clowning. Wonderfully wizard entertainment.

Updated: 10:02 Thursday, March 06, 2003