• The four visit and are banished from the Dainty China Country for breaking some of its inhabitants
• The Lion becomes King of the Beasts after killing a giant sleeping spider.
• In the Emerald City, instead of everything actually being green, everyone must wear green spectacles to protect their eyes as so ordered by Oz
• When the foursome meet the Wizard of Oz, instead of giveing them objects that represent the heart, brain and courage the tin man, scarecrow,and lion are looking for, he gives them potions to ingest.
• Oz is depicted as a real place instead of a dream. When Dorothy returns home, she runs towards her home, instead of being in bed.
• Dorothy is able to control the winged monkeys with the use of a magic cap. The leader was once a prince who was transformed by the Wicked Witch of the West.
• In another gruesome scene, the Tin Man chops up a pack of wolves with his axe. He was once a real man.

click here to read excerpts from The Wizard of Oz

The Stage Play-The First Adaptation

On June 16 1902, an adult version of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, opened as a stage play in Chicago. In 1903 based on the show's prior success, the play went to Broadway. Baum wrote the play, along with the book's illustrator William Wallace Denslow, and his business partners Paul Tietjens and Julien Mitchell. In this version, Dorothy is a young woman who falls in and out of love and walks through Oz with her cow Imogene. Her character is based on William Shakespeare's Lady Ophelia from Hamlet; however, she is not the focus of the story. Cynthia Cynch a.k.a. the Lady Lunatic Munchkin who is the Tin Man's scorned lover is the protagonist. There is no Wicked Witch and the Wizard is embroiled in a battle over his throne in Oz. Songs include, "The ways of Making Love", and "I'll be your Honey in the Spring Time".

Josette Blackwood

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