The Wizard of Oz stage show opens at Newcastle Entertainment Centre

The audience watches intently as Dorothy, a country girl, is blown by a strong wind into space and deposited in the land of Oz.

She meets characters who help her to travel to the Emerald City, the home of the ruling Wizard who could help her get back to Earth. As the famous story unfolds on stage, the nature of the places Dorothy goes through is very riveting, with amazing moving images projected across the full width of the arena's back wall.

In the Wizard's palace, for example, various types of television sets are seen on the walls, with many having stern male faces that focus on Dorothy and her helpers as they shift around.

The walls of the street buildings in the Emerald City are various shades of green, contrasting with the unsettling black and dark red nature of the castle of the Wicked Witch of the West that Dorothy's team later find themselves in.

Brisbane-based Harvest Rain Theatre Company, which produced Grease and Hairspray, recruits local young performers to be ensemble members at each venue of its touring productions.

Harvest Rain is premiering The Wizard of Oz in Newcastle, and once again it shows how well it helps to develop the skills of local young people, with more than 600 in this show.

At one point those cast as people called the Winkies move briskly around in the song The March of the Winkies in striped garb and with high curly white hair on each of their heads.

The main actors, including Carly Bettinson who is making her professional debut as Dorothy, all do excellent work under the astute direction of Tim O'Connor and his team.

Simon Gallaher, who was cast as the Wizard, sadly isn't appearing in Newcastle because he is recovering from an illness.

But the skill of his replacement, Grant Couchman, makes the Wizard a very magical figure.