A ‘diabolical’ Wizard of Oz show charging £75 for tickets was hit with mass audience walk-outs and demands for refunds – as attendees branded it the ‘worst they’ve ever seen’.
Inept performers injuring themselves, random breaks in the action and a bizarrely suggestive cucumber scene were among the complaints from the Brighton performance – and now the producer has spoken out to defend the show.
Wicked Wizard Of Oz: A Cirque Spectacular showed at Brighton Centre on Tuesday and Wednesday this week as part of its UK tour, where tickets cost between £30 and £75.
The production company, World’s Biggest Productions, touted it as a ‘breath-taking’ interpretation where ‘panto meets Cirque’.
But audience members disagreed, complaining they were misled by false advertising and that the spectacle fell well short of their expectations.
The show got off to a flat start, and things only went downhill from there, according to a number of scathing reviews from the first night.
The Wizard himself opened the performance with a rendition of Happy Birthday on the piano whilst ‘technical faults’ were ironed out backstage.
Things finally got moving with an odd scene where two cowboys took turns to stack cardboard boxes on top of each other.
Wicked Wizard Of Oz: A Cirque Spectacular received a barrage of scathing reviews after its showing in Brighton this week
Audience members complained of amateur performers and unexplained lulls in the action at Brighton Centre
David Parker from Crawley, who watched the show with his partner and daughter, said the show was ‘so bad it was laughable’.
‘One performer did six tumbles and got five wrong,’ he told BBC Radio Sussex.
The group walked out ten minutes into the second half at the insistence of Mr Parker’s nine-year-old daughter.
He recalled one actor ‘eating a cucumber and spitting it on another performer’, and another ‘using a cucumber in a very provocative manner’.
Deborah Collins, another unfortunate spectator, made a break for it even earlier.
‘My husband and I left at the interval. I have never left a show early, it was that bad,’ she told The Argus.
‘It was an amateur production, completely mis-advertised. We thought we were sneaking out until we got to the foyer and saw hundreds had also decided to leave.’
Mike Naunton told the publication the show was ‘absolutely diabolical’.
‘I would guess half the audience left during or before the interval,’ he added.
Meanwhile, James Macmillan said the sound was ‘appalling’ and the dancing was ‘awful’.
‘I have seen better at a holiday hotel in Turkey,’ he said.
Some of the dissatisfied reviews left in Facebook comments
For Georgina Alexandra, the cucumber scene was the final straw – which she referred to as a ‘gloryhole skit’.
Katherine Hollisey-McClean, reviewing the show for Sussex World, lamented having to stay for the whole performance.
She wrote: ‘After just 15 minutes of this bizarre panto/circus/musical, I really wanted to [leave].’
The journalist recalled the performance grinding to a halt for ten minutes while The Greatest Showman blared over an empty stage, before the cast reappeared without explanation.
The audience could reportedly hear panicked shouting from behind the curtain during the lull.
Keely Beecroft from Seaford was equally unimpressed, insisting the ‘awful’ show was a ‘misrepresentation’ of what was advertised.
She told the BBC that the lighting was dodgy and one of the acrobats even injured themselves during their tumbles.
Production company World’s Biggest Productions touted the show as a ‘breath-taking’ interpretation where ‘panto meets Cirque’
One of the performers reportedly injured themselves in a fudged acrobatics move
The disastrous reviews continued on the Ticketmaster website, where on wrote: ‘This must be the worst production I’ve seen in a long time.
‘As I’m writing this, it is only halfway through and so many people have walked out.’
Another wrote: ‘Childish. The “acrobats” were very basic.
‘Lots of people left early and we didn’t even make it to half time. We feel conned.’
As the reviews piled up, Jon Conway, the show’s producer, was forced to speak out and explain the shambles.
He said: ‘Wicked Wizard Of Oz: A Cirque Spectacular opened its tour three weeks ago to great critical acclaim and fantastic audience reviews at the Winter Gardens Blackpool.
‘Due to unforeseen technical issues on the first performance in Brighton last night a number of items had to be cut for safety reasons and the show had to start 25 minutes late.
‘We acknowledge that some audience members were disappointed and will be contacting them.
‘However, more than two thousand people gave the show a rapturous reception at the finale and all issues have been resolved for tonight’s sell out performance.’
Daily Mail has contacted World’s Biggest Productions for comment.
Some had better assessments of the show
