You may think you know all the characters from The Wizard of Oz story. Perhaps you’ve read the book and seen the film. But have you ever seen a pantomime version?
With the huge success of the release of Wicked (Part 1) in cinemas in late 2024, and the anticipation for Wicked (Part 2) at fever pitch, you wouldn’t be alone in considering The Wizard of Oz script for your production this year.
There will be maximum awareness of the story and the characters, and that’s what I’m focussing on today. Who’s who in The Wizard of Oz pantomime script?
Pantomime Dame
One of my first decisions when adapting a new pantomime script title is to consider the character of the pantomime dame.
Are there existing characters in the story that might fit the role of dame well? Or perhaps there’s already a traditional role in the story where the panto dame is usually placed.
Some titles like Peter Pan, The Little Mermaid and Robin Hood have less obvious dame roles and so the character is mostly added into the tale in addition to the other characters we know and love.
When I adapted The Wizard of Oz into a pantomime script, I wanted to try and honour the pantomime tradition of the dame often being related in some way to the principal lead. In this case: Dorothy.
Panto dames are often mothers, and in this case an anglicised Aunty Em seemed like the natural choice for the dame. Other writers have chosen to use Glinda the Good Witch as the dame, or to drag-up the villain the Wicked Witch of the West. Or perhaps even brought on board a dame from Munchkin land or the Emerald City.
In my script the Aunty Em gets swept away to Oz with Dorothy and Toto. This opens up lots of room for comedy throughout the adventure, and means we get to include that time old panto tradition of the dame being related to the principal lead. Huzzah!
Principal Lead
In this case, the principal lead is very straightforward. Dorothy is the clear choice, and there is no love interest in the original book or film, so I’ve chosen to keep it that way, and not add in that additional storyline.
Dorothy also has her dog Toto. I did consider making Toto more of a ‘skin role’ akin to Jack’s family cow in Jack and the Beanstalk, or Flynn’s horse in Rapunzel. However Toto doesn’t have much to do in the story and it felt like it would be shoe-horning the character in especially as I’d already added Aunty Em.
An example of where this has worked better is in my recent pantomime adaptation of Treasure Island where Long-John Silver’s French parrot Claude (see what I did there?) is a key part of the plot later in the show, and creates much comic chaos in the meantime!
Pantomime Comic
Another tricky category for this adaptation was choosing the pantomime comic. In this case I didn’t need to add a character as there are three obvious contenders: the Scarecrow, the Tin Man and the Cowardly Lion.
Each of the three roles has great potential for physical comedy thanks to their physical attributes, and the lion’s cowardliness. So it was not a great jump to give them more text-based gags in the script.
In the end, I decided to make Scarecrow the main pantomime comic. Partly because he’s the first to meet Dorothy, so we get an injection of extra comedy early on in the script. Partly because both the Tin Man and the Cowardly Lion have a bit more potential for physical comedy and can still play comic parts, but in slightly different ways to the Scarecrow.
Pantomime Villain
When you think of this title, the first thing that will spring to many people’s minds is the pantomime villain. The Wicked Witch of the West is the iconic ‘witch’ role. Her green skin has inspired many witches in other stories, and iconic pointy hat and broomstick are the archetypal witch across all genres and presentations.
The challenge in this adaptation is how to turn the Wicked Witch of the West from villain to pantomime villain. I decided that the ‘evil’ and ‘threat’ elements needed to be more focussed on children to help make the villain boo-worthy. It also involved camping-up some of the interactions with the flying monkeys and Dorothy herself.
Fairy Godmother
All good pantomimes need a Fairy Godmother in one form or another and this title probable has the most obvious to choose from in adaptation. Glinda the Good Witch has become as much an archetypal fairy godmother as the Wicked Witch of the West has an archetypal villain.
Travelling by bubble might not be possible on every size of stage, but it certainly makes for an appropriate pantomime entrance, and can be do creatively in many budgets.
Helpfully for any writer, Glinda can travel throughout Oz and pop up at any point in the story to help solidify some plot or move things along a bit.
It may be interesting to note that I chose not to make Glinda a rhyming fairy. Generally I like to have some rhyming in my scripts to include that most traditional of pantomime elements, but for this script it felt like Glinda had so much interaction with ‘regular’ characters who don’t speak in rhyme it would have been odd to include rhyming in her speech pattern.
Other Roles
Among the other roles in the pantomime you have the titular Wonderful Wizard of Oz himself, and the ensemble who are kept busy playing rural folk, Munchkins, Emerald Citizens, guards, and Flying Monkeys.
Free perusal script
If you’re intrigued by the script and would like to give it a read, head to my free perusal copy form where you can order your perusal and see how the script develops beginning to end.
