Star turn for Power FM Ballarat’s Alex & LJ in The Wizard of Oz

The city of Ballarat recently shone with emerald and ruby when The Wizard of Oz came to Her Majesty’s Theatre.

But opening night had a couple of extras who were maybe not quite as classically trained as the rest of the cast.

Power FM Ballarat‘s brekky duo Alex Newman and Lara Jean ‘LJ’ Marshall were invited to be a part of the cast for the opening night of BLOC Music Theatre‘s staging of the classic musical in the ‘esteemed’ roles of Ozian #1 and Ozian #2.

View this post on Instagram

 

Quickly accepting the roles after being offered them on-air whilst chatting with director Gareth Grainger, the truth of what they’d signed up for quickly sank in when it was then revealed the parts came with a line, some singing … and a dance in the finale!

The next two weeks in the lead up to opening night were a blur of dancing and singing lessons, dress rehearsals and costume fittings.

On-air, the duo searched for their cheerleaders, giving out family passes to opening night.

While LJ has an esteemed acting history as a member of the beloved kids’ TV show The Saddle Club – Alex’s stage skills frankly needed some fine-tuning.

Luckily, LJ’s good friend Alicia Banit of Dance Academy and Summer Heights High fame gave them both some on-air advice about how to deal with those opening night nerves.

No Wizard of Oz coverage would be complete without a chat with the star of the show, Toto.

The canine megastar graced the studio with his presence and as you can see below, was a brilliant speaker!

View this post on Instagram

 

Opening night arrived and, of course, so did all the butterflies.

Thankfully, it all went to plan (as far as the audience could tell).

Whether Alex & LJ will be invited back for the next production remains to be seen.