The Tik-Tok Man of Oz | |
---|---|
A Companion Play to The Wizard of Oz | |
Music | Louis F. Gottschalk Victor Schertzinger |
Lyrics | L. Frank Baum Oliver Morosco |
Book | L. Frank Baum |
Basis | Ozma of Oz by L. Frank Baum |
Productions | Oliver Morosco, 1913 Eric Shanower, 2014 |
The Tik-Tok Man of Oz is a musical play with book and lyrics by L. Frank Baum and music by Louis F. Gottschalk that opened at the Majestic Theatre in Los Angeles, California on March 31, 1913. [1] It is loosely inspired by Baum's book Ozma of Oz (1907), incorporates much of the material from Baum's book The Road to Oz (1909), and was the basis for his 1914 novel, Tik-Tok of Oz . It was promoted as "A Companion Play to The Wizard of Oz" and directed by Frank M. Stammers. The play is known from its advertising and published music, but survives only in earlier manuscript.
The Shubert Organization expressed interest in an extravaganza based on Ozma of Oz in 1909. [2] The play began as a collaboration between Baum and composer Manuel Klein, an employee of the Shuberts, which they worked on during February–April 1909, first under the title, The Rainbow's Daughter, or the Magnet of Love, but eventually retitled Ozma of Oz, or The Magnet of Love. [3] It incorporated elements of The Road to Oz , which was published that July, mainly in the inclusion of two of its new characters, the Shaggy Man and Polychrome, the Rainbow's daughter (which created some continuity inconsistencies when it was adapted to the novel), both of which were influenced by Prince Silverwings . Betsy Bobbin was intended to be Dorothy Gale, but the characters in The Wizard of Oz and The Woggle-Bug were contractually unavailable to him—although "Ozma" remained from The Woggle-Bug, she was a wholly different character renamed Ozga for the books. It also adapted the Rose Kingdom from the Kingdom of Mangaboos in Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz , and Queen Ann was derived from General Jinjur in spite of the failure of The Woggle-Bug. The show languished before 1912, when Oliver Morosco agreed to produce it. [4]
The musical play The Tik-Tok Man of Oz was based on L. Frank Baum's 1907 Oz book Ozma of Oz, which in turn had incorporated material from Baum's unpublished manuscript King Rinkitink. The play incorporated material that Baum also used in his 1908 Oz book Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz. Baum used his characters of the Shaggy Man and Polychrome in both the play and his 1909 Oz book The Road to Oz, which he was working on at the same time. Newspaper accounts indicate that Baum began work on the play in late 1906 or early 1907, but it would take until March 1913 to be produced on stage.
L. Frank Baum based two of his Oz stories, the novel Tik-Tok of Oz and the short story Tiktok and the Nome King, on this play.
In the play, Ozma is a princess in the Rose Kingdom and is analogous to Ozga in the novel, who is Private Files's love interest, as is Ozga in the novel, there described as Ozma's cousin. Michael Patrick Hearn speculates that both names are in honor of Baum's wife, Maud Gage (MAud GAge).
The play introduces several characters that will be familiar with readers of the novel, Tik-Tok of Oz , such as Private Jo Files, who was portrayed by Charles Ruggles during the beginning of his career, and Queen Ann Soforth of Oogaboo, who was ultimately played by Charlotte Greenwood near the end of the run.
The musical was directed by Frank Stammers, with scenery designed by Robert Brunton. [5] It was produced by Oliver Morosco. The production opened at the Majestic Theatre in Los Angeles on March 31, 1913. [6] By September 1913 Morosco deemed it not successful enough to take it to Broadway, even though he had inserted three songs of his own writing with music by Victor Schertzinger. The show was extremely popular in Los Angeles and San Francisco, but it was greeted lukewarmly by critics in Chicago, who consistently compared it to the earlier 1902 play The Wizard of Oz. Among the mixed to negative reviewers was Amy Leslie of the Chicago Daily News, who described it as a "revival instead of a sequel," finding Gottschalk's music "delicious" but inconsequential to the spectacle of pretty girls and special effects. Leslie claimed that Baum "has no more sense of humor than one of his talking bats or mealy kittens." The show ran successfully through much of the summer in Chicago, despite critical boredom. The New York Review on October 18, 1913, noted that the play was to close for two weeks for practical reconstruction of the sets, and noted it was likely to open in winter in one of the three largest Eastern cities, but this was still up to Morosco. The article described it as "a Western production." Although The Tik-Tok Man of Oz was still making money, Morosco decided it was too expensive to continue running [7] or to risk the Broadway run that had been originally planned. After the Chicago run, it continued for five months on the road throughout the American midwest, Canada, and the American west, before closing once again in Los Angeles in late January 1914.
Oliver Morosco would later cast Charlotte Greenwood, the final Queen Ann, in So Long Letty , a role he had commissioned for her that would make her a star. The Oz Scrapbook erroneously captions Josie Intropidi as Queen Ann with Charlotte Greenwood's name. [8]
An early draft of Ozma of Oz, provided by Michael Patrick Hearn, has been performed in readings at conventions of The International Wizard of Oz Club. It was performed with the Gottschalk songs (Klein was still assigned to the project when it had this title, but it is not known what, if anything, he composed) at the Ozmopolitan Convention (Holland, Michigan) in 1982 and the Munchkin (Wilmington, Delaware) and Winkie (Pacific Grove, California) Conventions in 1984. This production premiered at the Castle Club Theatre, June 19, 1982, and starred Marc Lewis as Tik-Tok and Ruggedo, John Fricke as Private Files, Rob Roy MacVeigh as The Shaggy Man, and Robin Olderman as Betsy, Polychrome, Ozma, and Queen Ann. For the 1984 performances, Jeryl Metz joined the cast to play Polychrome and Dick Martin provided the promotional artwork.
A fully staged revival prepared by Eric Shanower from the surviving portions of The Tik-Tok Man of Oz script supplemented by the earlier Ozma of Oz draft was performed on August 9, 2014, at Winkie Con 50 in San Diego, California. All nineteen of the surviving musical pieces were heard, along with commercially released "Selections" and music provided by Louis F. Gottschalk's daughter Gloria Gottschalk Morgan. Chrissy Burns directed a cast of nineteen, Joseph Grienenberger music directed, Jennifer Solomon-Rubio choreographed, Christopher Boltz designed the lighting, and David Maxine and Eric Shanower co-designed sets and costumes. [9]
Eric Shanower who prepared the 2014 revival wrote and published All Wound Up: The Making of The Tik-Tok Man of Oz in 2023 after 9 years of research on the show.
The plot, similar to the novel Tik-Tok of Oz, but lacking Quox and the journey to the kingdom of Tititi-Hoochoo, deals with the Shaggy Man's attempt to rescue his brother, Wiggy (unnamed in the novel), [10] from the Dominions of Ruggedo, the Metal Monarch. Meanwhile, Queen Ann Soforth seeks to lead an army against the world with every man (17 officers and one private) in her tiny kingdom of Oogaboo. Betsy Bobbin and her companion, a mule named Hank, are brought to the land in a shipwreck and storm not unlike the one in Ozma of Oz. In the Rose Kingdom they meet the Shaggy Man and rescue Ozma, the Rose Princess. Later they meet Polychrome, the Rainbow's Daughter, whom Ruggedo tries to keep in his kingdom to brighten it up. As Baum put it in the introduction of Tik-Tok of Oz, "There is a play called The Tik-Tok Man of Oz, but it is not like this story of Tik-Tok of Oz, although some of the adventures recorded in this book, as well as those in several other Oz books, are included in the play. Those who have seen the play and those who have read the other Oz books will find in this story a lot of strange characters and adventures that they have never heard of before."
Harry Kelly, who had previously turned down the title role in The Woggle-Bug , and Joe Whitehead replaced Morton and Moore in the leads while they vacationed. [15]
All songs are written by Baum and Gottschalk unless otherwise specified. Fourteen of the Baum/Gottschalk collaborations and three of the Morosco/Schertzinger collaborations survive. At least twelve musical numbers are lost.
Songs added throughout the tour are denoted by *
Two player piano rolls of suites and vintage recordings of "Ask the Flowers to Tell You" and "My Wonderful Dream Girl" can be found on Disc 2 of David Maxine's collection of Vintage Recordings from the 1903 Musical The Wizard of Oz (2003), while James Patrick Doyle performs a suite of many of the songs on synthesizer in his collection Before the Rainbow: The Original Music of Oz (1999), both released by Hungry Tiger Press.
Lyman Frank Baum was an American author best known for his children's fantasy books, particularly The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, part of a series. In addition to the 14 Oz books, Baum penned 41 other novels, 83 short stories, over 200 poems, and at least 42 scripts. He made numerous attempts to bring his works to the stage and screen; the 1939 adaptation of the first Oz book became a landmark of 20th-century cinema.
The Road to Oz is the fifth book in L. Frank Baum's Oz series. It was originally published on July 10, 1909 and documents the adventures of Dorothy Gale's fourth visit to the Land of Oz. It was followed by The Emerald City of Oz (1910).
Tik-Tok of Oz is the eighth book in the Oz series written by L. Frank Baum, published on June 19, 1914. The book has little to do with Tik-Tok and is primarily the quest of the Shaggy Man to rescue his brother, and his resulting conflict with the Nome King. The book was based on Baum's play The Tik-Tok Man of Oz, which was produced in Los Angeles in spring 1913. It was followed by The Scarecrow of Oz (1915).
The Magic of Oz is the thirteenth book in the Oz series written by L. Frank Baum. Published on June 7, 1919, one month after the author's death, The Magic of Oz relates the unsuccessful attempt of the Munchkin boy Kiki Aru and former Nome King Ruggedo to conquer Oz. It was followed by Glinda of Oz (1920).
The Land of Oz is a magical country introduced in the 1900 children's novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz written by L. Frank Baum and illustrated by W. W. Denslow.
The Deadly Desert is the magical desert in Nonestica that completely surrounds the fictional Land of Oz, which cuts it off from the rest of the world.
Tik-Tok is a fictional "mechanical man" from the Oz books by American author L. Frank Baum. He has been termed "the prototype robot", and is widely considered to be one of the first robots to appear in modern literature, though the term "Robot" was not used until the 1920s, in the play R.U.R.
Oz Squad is a comic book series using characters and setting from L. Frank Baum's Land of Oz series, "updated for a more adult audience".
The Nome King is a fictional character created by American author L. Frank Baum. He is introduced in Baum's third Oz book Ozma of Oz (1907). He also appears in many of the continuing sequel Oz novels also written by Baum. Although the character of the Wicked Witch of the West is the most notable and famous Oz villain, it is actually the Nome King who is the most frequent antagonist in the book series.
Polychrome is a cloud fairy and the youngest daughter of the Rainbow, thus she is a "sky princess". She first appears in The Road to Oz (1909), which is the fifth book of the original fourteen Oz books by American author by L. Frank Baum. She also appears several times in later Oz stories of the classic series, and has a title role in the modern sequel Polychrome: A Romantic Fantasy by Ryk E. Spoor.
Billina is a fictional character in the classic children's series of Oz books by American author L. Frank Baum. She is introduced in Ozma of Oz (1907).
The Shaggy Man is a character in the Oz books by L. Frank Baum. He first appeared in the book The Road to Oz in 1909.
Oz Before the Rainbow is a book written by Mark Evan Swartz in 2000 chronicling the early stage and film versions of The Wizard of Oz, before the 1939 movie, as well as an album featuring music from the early stage versions.
The Patchwork Girl of Oz (1914) is a silent film made by L. Frank Baum's The Oz Film Manufacturing Company. It was based on the 1913 book The Patchwork Girl of Oz.
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is a 1900 children's novel written by American author L. Frank Baum. Since its first publication in 1900, it has been adapted many times by L. Frank Baum and others: for film, television, theatre, books, comics, games, and other media.
Queen Ann in Oz is a 1993 children's novel written by Karyl Carlson and Eric Gjovaag, and illustrated by William Campbell and Irwin Terry. The book is an entry in the large and growing literature in the Oz series, begun by L. Frank Baum and continued by many successors.
Prince Silverwings and Other Stories is a 1902 children's book by Edith Ogden Harrison. The book is best known because she collaborated with L. Frank Baum on an uncompleted stage adaptation of the book as a musical extravaganza. Baum composed music for the play as well, and at least one of these songs, "Down Among the Marshes," survives and has been recorded by James Patrick Doyle on his 1999 album, Before the Rainbow: The Original Music of Oz, and Baum scholar Michael O. Riley published a complete edition of their Scenario and General Synopsis for the play through the Pamami Press in 1982 in a limited run of 125 copies in white cloth bound in purple with illustrations by Dick Martin. It is otherwise known only from a typescript in the Chicago Historical Society.
The plays of L. Frank Baum are an aspect of Baum's writing career about which very little is known. While most biographies have noted Baum's work as a playwright, these works have been rarely performed beyond his lifetime, and almost none have been published aside from two scenarios and a first act of three unfinished works in The Musical Fantasies of L. Frank Baum, compiled with an introduction by Alla T. Ford. Aside from his youthful success with The Maid of Arran, his blockbuster eight-year run with The Wizard of Oz, his failure with The Woggle-Bug, and The Tik-Tok Man of Oz as source material for his novel, Tik-Tok of Oz, very little is known about his dramatic output, and mostly from the publications of Michael Patrick Hearn, Susan Ferrara, and Katharine M. Rogers. Hearn identifies 41 different titles in the bibliography of the 2000 edition of The Annotated Wizard of Oz, plus one play without a title, although some of these titles clearly refer to drafts of the same play, such as the early titles of The Tik-Tok Man of Oz.
This is a complete bibliography for American children's writer L. Frank Baum.