Off to see the wizard
There might be no place like home, but for Sydney’s rising musical theatre star, Samantha Dodemaide, the Festival State has her heart.
“Adelaide’s a pretty special place to me,” she says. It could have something to do with meeting her partner Mark here when they starred together in the musical A Chorus Line seven years ago – or for a reason much sweeter.
“Haigh’s Chocolates is walking distance from the theatre,” Samantha laughs. “Sometimes I have to change my route on the way back home after shows so I don’t walk past it.”
Walking unfamiliar paths isn’t new to Samantha, who has been following a yellow brick road around Australia as Dorothy in the beloved musical The Wizard of Oz, which opens at the revamped Adelaide Festival Centre this April.
The 28-year-old performer was picked from 400 other Dorothy hopefuls to take on her first lead role in a major musical.
“During rehearsals, the director would tell me to try to remember how it felt to be 16… but I seemed to have blocked that time out of my life,” she laughs.
Still “pretty chuffed” to wipe 12 years off her age, Samantha – like many – grew up watching Dorothy’s adventures in the land of Oz.
“I’d spend Saturday afternoons at home watching all of those classic musicals on repeat,” she says.
“Doris Day, Marilyn Monroe and, of course, Judy Garland, were huge starlets and big inspirations for me.”
This latest production is produced by John Frost, who grew up in suburban Adelaide, and has a modern twist, with five new songs by English lyricist Tim Rice and composer Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber.
It still manages, however, to bring to life our favourite moments, including Over the Rainbow and that iconic click of Dorothy’s heels.
So, how does Samantha put herself in the shoes of that little girl from Kansas in the blue and white checked dress?
“Putting on a musical is so much bigger than what the audiences see, and even what the actors see.
“We learn our lines and go to rehearsals, but there’s so much more going on. From stage management to wardrobe, it’s really quite huge.”
