Disappointed theatre-goers are now requesting refunds after The Wicked Wizard of Oz: Cirque Spectacular at Glasgow’s OVO Hydro, with numerous attendees saying they’ve seen ‘better school shows’
A pantomime staged at Glasgow’s OVO Hydro this weekend has been branded the “Willy Wonka Experience 2.0” after angry families stormed out during the performance. Furious theatre-goers are now demanding their money back, with many claiming they’ve witnessed “better school shows”.
The World’s Biggest Productions pledged a “brand-new, breath-taking, Cirque staging” of Frank L. Baum’s beloved tale.
The Wicked Wizard of Oz: Cirque Spectacular was billed as “Panto meets Cirque”, yet parents speaking to Glasgow Live have slammed the show as “inappropriate, overpriced and falsely advertised”, nicknaming it “Willy Wonka Experience 2.0”.
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Following Saturday’s performance on 27 December, a wave of complaints flooded in, with disgruntled audience members flocking to a Facebook group called ‘The Woeful Wicked Wizard of Oz – A Not-So Cirque Spectacular’, which has already attracted 1,200 members. The Hydro hosted a second performance today, 28 December, with doors opening at noon.
Glasgow Live has spoken to several attendees from Saturday’s showing. Mother-of-two Carol-Ann Henderson described it as a “shambles”, stating: “it has been completely mis-sold and advertised as a cirque spectacular. If I said it was an amateur production that would be a lie, I’ve seen better school shows”, reports Glasgow Live.
One father revealed he shelled out £297 for tickets for his family of five. He remarked: “This blows the Willy Wonka Experience right out of the water. Embarrassing performance from a high-profile production company.”
One disgruntled attendee, who preferred to stay anonymous, lamented that she had “never seen the Hydro empty so fast”. She criticised the sound quality as “awful”, and was unimpressed with the props and production, which included a witch on a bike attached to a golf cart, munchkins on stilts and a lack of coherent storyline.
A Facebook page, set up by a disappointed audience member who attended the Brighton Centre show on 16 December, is filled with irate posts from hundreds of spectators across the UK. Just an hour ago, Fiona Hanton vented: “Left after the first half, absolutely disgusting”.
Yesterday, Dawn Page chimed in with: “Just walked out of the terrible performance in Glasgow. The show is currently still on but absolutely shocking.”
In response to similar criticism from the Manchester Evening News, a spokesperson for The World’s Biggest Productions defended their show, stating: “Wicked Wizard Of Oz opened in Blackpool to a fantastic response in October.”
They added: “The promotional videos advertising the show featured the acts that appeared in the performance in Manchester, either taken during our workshop rehearsals or at live performances in Blackpool.”
They further explained: “The show title ‘Wicked Wizard of Oz’ has a smaller typeface descriptor “cirque spectacular” and ‘panto meets cirque’ which reasonably identified that circus elements would be included in a panto style show. Six of our talented circus cast won silver medals at this year’s European circus festivals.
“It was never suggested this was a Cirque de Soleil production and their forthcoming UK tour has tickets from £66 – £372 and when compared to our prices of £29 – £70 it would be unrealistic to expect similar production values as Soleil.
“Our show, like all pantomimes, contains some jokes in the pantomime tradition of being silly. Over 150,000 people attend our shows annually and if maybe 0.1% do not appreciate one joke in the show, it feels rather unbalanced reporting against the mass who enjoy a form of humour that has survived two hundred years.”
World’s Biggest Productions and the Scottish Event Campus, which owns OVO Hydro, have been contacted for comment.
