The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

A Radio Dramatization (Oz, Book 1)

By: L. Frank Baum, Jerry Robbins

Narrated by: Jerry Robbins, The Colonial Radio Players

One of the true classics of American literature. Originally published in 1900, it was the first truly American fairy tale, as Baum crafted a wonderful fantasy, peopled with memorable characters — a cornfield scarecrow, Tin Woodman, and a humbug wizard.

Follow the adventures of young Dorothy Gale and her dog, Toto, as their Kansas house is swept away by a cyclone and they find themselves in a strange land called Oz. Here she meets the Munchkins and joins the Scarecrow, the Tinman, and the Cowardly Lion on an unforgettable journey to the Emerald City.

©2000 The Colonial Radio Theatre on the Air. (P)2000 Brilliance Audio.

Dramatization of the original book, not the movie

This is a really nifty radio-style dramatization of the novel, not the movie. Obviously it had to be abridged to fit into a 2 hour format (the book runs about 5 hours), but it hits all the important details.There is some music and sound effects to enrich it, but not an overwhelming amount, just enough to fill in good bits, like the chattering winged monkeys, Toto's bark, or the Tin Man's chest getting repaired. In the movie, the characters all meet the Great and Powerful Oz as a floating mechanical head, but in the book each character meets individually with a different Oz --Dorothy meets the head, the Scarecrow meets a beautiful lady, the Tin Man meets a great beast assembled from various animals like a lion and a rhino, and the Lion meets a ball of fire. The movie ends with the Wizard departing, and Glinda stepping in to save the day, while the book sends our characters on another quest to find Glinda, encountering new hazards on the route. I enjoyed this enough to get the rest of the radio series, based on the first 6 Oz books by L. Frank Baum: The Land of Oz, Oma of Oz, Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz, The Road to Oz, and The Emerald City of Oz. I also found a nice theatrical adaptation of the next book, The Patchwork Girl of Oz, by a different production company. The voice actors are very good, and I thoroughly enjoyed this.

Love it! sounds and characters were awesome !!!

every noise makes you believe your really there! And the characters are so right on! I enjoyed very much-loved!

What A Deal!

The full cast production of the Oz stories was an amazing find! There are five in this series, and all of them are wonderfully performed. It was thoroughly entertaining for my two children and I as we listened in the car.

I simply cannot believe that such a spot-on production would only be about $3 to Audible members. For about the price of a novel, one can get the whole series and enjoy hours of entertainment with the kids.