The last time I checked the RSC version cost $600 per performance, plus buying each script.
My Wizard of Oz script costs 1/12 of that and you print your own copies.
Because the music is on an affordable set of CDs, you save the expense of an orchestra.
Unfortunately, if you want live music, you will have to dig up sheet music, which exists, but I do not have it.
The "Wizard of Oz" book by L. Frank Baum, is in the public domain, so for me to re-write the story was no problem. I knew people associate the story with the MGM music, so I set out to find equally beautiful music in the public domain which, at the moment, means it was copyrighted prior to 1922. I also knew that parody is an exception to copyright law. My mother was music teacher so I already had catchy substitution songs running thru my head.
It wasn't easy, but I did it.
Besides my script having better humor, wit, action, and great lines for supporting actors than the MGM movie/RSC version, mine has equally beautiful music, comprised of classics and old favorites that older people will recall with delight, and the younger will discover anew.
My audiences commonly react saying, "That wasn't what I expected, but I liked it."
The music is public domain in its various forms:
old music favorites including folk songs and popular ("Oh Danny Boy", "Grandfather's Clock", "Hail Hail the Gang's All Here", "My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean", and Irving Berlin's "Simple Melody/Musical Demon")
and classical music ("Hall of the Mountain King" by Edvard Grieg, "Danse Macabre" by Saint-Saens, "Thus Spake Zarathustra" by Strauss, and more),
and "Little Girls" from the movie "Annie" used as parody (an exception to copyright law) in the Witch's song "Monkey Brats" which actually refers to the original: "I'd trade my pearls for flying squirrels, Even singing Orphan Girls" (Monkeys sing, "Tomorrow! Tomorrow!). -- Now THAT is parody.--
Plus the incredible mood & set change music from Kevin MacLeod's Creative Commons website at www.incompetech.com.
You can hear much of the song music at http://www.ecstatic-theatrics.com/wiz/wiz2012music.html.
Listen to some of the classical music:
Danse Macabre - http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?collection=5&Search=Search
Hall of the Mountain King & Also Sprach Zarathustra http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?collection=8&Search=Search
And here is one of the many mood music/background/set change music tracks by Kevin MacLeod - Dark Hallway: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?collection=32&Search=Search No sheet music exists for Kevin MacLeod's wonderful music.
Here is the CD tracks list: http://www.theaterfunscripts.com/scripts/oz-music.html
And though I got MacLeod's music free, I had to pay a musician to record the old favorites -- those are the piano ones, and I paid licensing fee for "Little Girls" parodied to "Monkey Brats", and also "Hall of the Mountain King" before MacLeod produced a free version. So it goes.
I also edited much of the music to have a proper intro before the singing cue, and fit the new lyrics. And I dug up sound effects to edit onto some of the music, such as the breaking glass, rain, thunder, cows and chickens edited onto "Hall of the Mountain King" to make the Tornado music that go with the optional free Tornado video for projection. And that is why, even though I have just given you the links and information to compile or copy almost all of the music yourself, my extra work is worth the $45 I charge for the set. Plus, these links are not all of the music.
For those who want sheet music, it will be a bit of work to find sheet music in the correct key for the instruments, plus come up with substitutes for the MacLeod music, plus sound FX.
Some of the classical music needs a full orchestra. "Thus Spake Zarathustra" needs kettle drums.
A solution could be to do some live music and some recorded tracks.
All in all, my Oz CD set (including a rehearsal CD with voice tracks to practice with) saves you a LOT of work.