PROMOTERS James Erskine, John Frost and Ken Mackenzie-Forbes aren’t letting the failure of Hair scare them from opening a new musical in November.

Nikki Webster has been cast in the Judy Garland role of Dorothy in their $4 million production of The Wizard of Oz, to open at the Lyric Theatre.

Ironically, Webster was set to star as an orphan in their production of Annie, but asked to be released from her contract after the Olympic opening ceremony to pursue her music and movie career. “We let her out of her contract because we knew she had better things to do, and also knew the public would have been upset to see her for only 10 minutes on stage in Annie,” Erskine told Confidential yesterday.

He says he is confident that although other shows aren’t able to get off the ground, this one will sell tickets. “The Wizard of Oz is one of the most loved musicals as well as being complete family entertainment.

Plus every little girl under 13 wants to be Nikki Webster.”

Source: Sydney Confidential