Tulsa Ballet Heads Over the Rainbow with Edwaard Liang's New "Dorothy and the Prince of Oz"
Dorothy returns to the Emerald City in Tulsa Ballet’s new full-length adventure, tentatively titled Dorothy and the Prince of Oz, running February 10–12, at Tulsa Performing Arts Center. The million-dollar co-production with BalletMet is the centerpiece of Tulsa Ballet’s 60th-anniversary season.
The ballet is choreographed by BalletMet artistic director Edwaard Liang and is based, in part, on Glinda of Oz, the 14th and final book in L. Frank Baum’s Oz series. Liang says the ballet won’t follow the familiar tale of Dorothy, Toto and the gang from the popular movie. “Tulsa Ballet artistic director Marcello Angelini and I really wanted to have a dramatic storyline beyond flying monkeys and another witch,” Liang says. He and librettist/composer Oliver Peter Graber took creative license to fashion the ballet’s tale of romance between Dorothy and the Prince of Oz and create a fable in the Prince’s relationship with his fighting parents King Sapphire and Queen Diamond.
Costume sketch for Queen Diamond. Photo Courtesy Tulsa Ballet.
Some familiar characters will appear, including Glinda the Good Witch and the Scarecrow. Award-winning set designer and puppeteer Basil Twist, who has contributed to several ballets by Christopher Wheeldon, will create a host of fantastical characters. Dorothy and the Prince of Oz may very well convince Tulsa audiences that there’s no place like home for a unique new ballet.
