Hannah Waddingham Casts Another Spell in Oz???

Fresh from the Regent’s Park open-air production of Into the Woods, Hannah Waddingham looks set to bewitch audiences again in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s revival of The Wizard of Oz next year. It was unofficially announced last night during A Very Musical Evening, a one-off concert at Wilton’s Music Hall, that Waddingham has been cast as the Wicked Witch of the West. This follows last week’s announcement that Michael Crawford will return to the West End stage as the Wizard.

Waddingham had ample preparation for the role, and the gruelling make-up routine that goes with it, during her recent run as the Witch in Sondheim’s Into the Woods. Her other recent credits include another Sondheim show, A Little Night Music, a performance for which she was Whatsonstage.com and Olivier Award nominated. The revamped version of The Wizard of Oz, complete with new songs written by Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice, opens at the West End’s London Palladium on 1 March 2011 (previews from 2 February), with Over the Rainbow winner Danielle Hope filling Judy Garland’s ruby slippers as Dorothy.