The Road to Shambala is a jukebox musical. As such it comes with all constraints specific to that genre. If the songs are song poorly, the audience is disappointed. If they are sung well, the audience will sing along to the songs while the character sings. If songs are rearranged, the audience feels betrayed. All of these things, plus the expense of the licensing makes a successful jukebox musical difficult to achieve.

Tami Griffen’s show is a reimagining of the Wizard of OZ with “college co-ed”, “pretty boy”, “cowardly Coyote”, “Pinocchio” and Jeremiah- the Male Shaman of Shambala instead of Dorothy, the Strawman, The Tin Man, the Cowardly Lion and the Wizard has created an interesting community theater show reimagined in a way that young children might reimagine it. That is not surprising since Griffin related how the show was originally created with one if her school theater classes in Arizona and has mostly been done in those settings since.

Quality acting, good voices and more immersive content than was able to be accomplished at the Producer’s Club might keep the show alive in a school/community theater/children’s theater circuit. It is a little bolder than the Wizard of OZ movie but sticks largely to the movie story. The show is not nearly as political as the original book or WICKED. Music licensing fees will be a challenge if the show attempts to move to any pay per view format.