The Wizard of Oz (1942 musical) The Wizard of Oz (1942 musical) The Wizard of Oz is a musical commissioned by the St. Louis Municipal Opera (The Muny) based on the novel, "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" by L. Frank Baum and the 1939 film, "The Wizard of Oz" and using the film's songs by Harold Arlen and E.Y. Harburg. The book of the musical is by Frank Gabrielson, who would later write an adaptation of "The Marvelous Land of Oz" for Shirley Temple (1960). The musical was first presented in 1942 at The Muny and has been revived many times thereafter, both by The Muny
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz Bobbs-Merrill Company. The editions they published lacked most of the in-text color and color plates of the original. It was not until the book entered the public domain in 1956 that new editions, either with the original color plates, or new illustrations, proliferated. Notable among them are the 1986 Pennyroyal edition illustrated by Barry Moser, which was reprinted by the University of California Press, and the 2000 "Annotated Wizard of Oz" edited by Michael Patrick Hearn, which was published by W.W. Norton and included all the original color illustrations, as well as supplemental artwork by Denslow. Other centennial editions included