The Rescue - Melting Lyrics – Wizard Of Oz, The

Song Overview

Review and Highlights

Quick summary

1. Compact set piece from the 2011 London Palladium production that scores Dorothy’s castle jailbreak and the Witch’s downfall.
2. Primarily orchestral underscore with punctuating Witch dialogue; functions as the hinge between the castle siege and celebration.
3. Appears as track 21 on the London cast album, seated between “If We Only Had a Plan” and the “Ding-Dong!” reprise.
4. First issued in the UK via Polydor on May 9, 2011, then on Decca Broadway for the US market later that June.
5. Publisher timings place it around one minute-twenty with a high-energy pace that matches the stage action.

Creation History

The 2011 West End adaptation kept the 1939 film standards and added new material where stage storytelling demanded propulsion. “The Rescue” is one of the album’s purest bits of theatre craft - a through-composed burst that threads chases, a douse of water, and the Witch’s famous collapse into the next plot beat. The recording captures the pit driving at a brisk clip, spiking into the Witch’s spoken fury before resolving into victory music. According to Playbill, the album was slated for a May 9 UK release on Polydor, with a June 28 US street date through Decca Broadway.

Song Meaning and Annotations

Plot

Inside the Witch’s fortress, Dorothy’s friends mount a break-in. Water hits, the Witch crumples, and her power evaporates. The scene moves quickly from panic to release, then straight into the chorus outside. On record, you hear the whole sprint - footsteps, orchestral surges, a scream, and the aftermath.

Song Meaning

It’s an action button, not a standalone song - the musical equivalent of a cut-and-thrust film montage. The cue translates physical danger into musical velocity, then punctures it with the Witch’s last words. The mood snaps from peril to catharsis in under ninety seconds, reminding us how often theatre relies on underscore to carry story beats between lyric moments.

Annotations

"You cursed brat! Look what you’ve done! I’m melting, melting!"

Iconic film text reframed for the 2011 stage arc. The line lands as climax rather than camp, and the orchestration clears a pocket so the words bite.

"Help me, I’m melting!"

A villain’s coda. The pit eases off just enough to let the voice fray, then re-accelerates toward the company’s relief outside the castle.

Production and instrumentation

Think rapid strings, urgent brass figures, and tight percussion hits. It is all muscle and motion - a through-line that syncs to doors slamming, buckets splashing, and torches dying out. The dialogue stings ride atop the texture like exclamation points.

Key Facts

• Artist: Hannah Waddingham, Nigel Wright, Andrew Lloyd Webber
• Featured: Wicked Witch sequence with company underscore
• Composer: Andrew Lloyd Webber
• Lyricist: Tim Rice (score-wide collaborator; this track is largely instrumental with quoted dialogue)
• Producer: Nigel Wright; Andrew Lloyd Webber
• Release Date: May 9, 2011
• Genre: Pop, Musicals, underscore
• Instruments: Orchestra - strings, brass, woodwinds, percussion
• Label: Polydor UK; Decca Broadway US
• Mood: Urgent, breathless, triumphant
• Length: about 1:20
• Track #: 21 on the 2011 London cast album
• Language: English dialogue elements
• Album: The Wizard of Oz (2011 London Palladium Recording)
• Music style: Through-composed action underscore
• Poetic meter: Not applicable - primarily instrumental with quoted lines

Canonical Entities & Relations

Questions and Answers

Where does “The Rescue” fall in the show’s arc?

Right after “If We Only Had a Plan,” it scores the castle break-in, the water splash, and the Witch’s collapse, then hands off to the victory chorus.

Is it a full song or an underscore?

Underscore with sharp dialogue punctures - designed to move scenery, bodies, and plot.

Who delivers the spoken lines on the recording?

The Wicked Witch, performed on the album by Hannah Waddingham.

How fast is it?

Publisher data pegs the cue around the mid-150s BPM - brisk enough to feel like a chase.

Why does it feel cinematic?

Because it uses film-style orchestrational shorthand - ostinatos, brass stabs, and suspended cymbals - to paint action beats.

What follows on the disc?

The “Ding-Dong!” reprise, flipping the mood from fear to communal celebration.

Does this track quote earlier material?

Motivic flashes tie back to the show’s tension cues, but the cue mostly sprints forward to clear the stage for the next number.

Awards and Chart Positions

Production note: The London revival that yielded this recording was nominated for Best Musical Revival at the 2012 Olivier Awards. No separate single or chart entry is documented for this specific track.

How to Perform The Rescue

At a glance: Approx. 1:20 duration at a driving tempo around the mid-150s BPM. Treat it as a precision-cued action scene with dialogue beats for the Witch. If you are staging it in concert, the drama lives in dynamics and timing more than melody.

1. Tempo and count-in: Lock a crisp 2-feel subdivision so chase figures stay clean. Conductor gives clear bar-lines before the spoken hits.
2. Cues and dialogue: Mark the Witch’s lines as fermata points. Underscore ducks slightly on “I’m melting” so the text slices through.
3. Orchestration balance: Keep low brass articulate, not blaring. Let strings carry the motor; percussion should punctuate, not swamp.
4. Breath and pacing for the Witch: Sit the breath low and project forward - think speech with bite, not a scream that shreds.
5. Transitions: Pre-set cutoffs so the ensemble can tumble cleanly into the next track without dead air.
6. Mic craft: If the Witch is on a handheld, step closer for the taunts, then pull back on the collapse so the cries do not clip.
7. Pitfalls: Over-revving the tempo, drowning the dialogue, and forgetting the final dynamic taper that sets up the reprise outside the castle.

Additional Info

CastAlbums Database lists “The Rescue” at track 21 with a 1:20 run time, matching music library data. As stated in a Playbill news item from May 2011, the UK album dropped through Polydor, with the US CD following on June 28 via Decca Broadway. MusicBrainz mirrors those timings across the disc. The official album upload on YouTube confirms the cue’s placement in sequence. According to NME magazine’s long-running shorthand for film-to-stage transfers, underscore cues like this are the hidden engines - they keep the book breathing while the show sprints toward its next tune.

Sources: Playbill; CastAlbums Database; MusicBrainz; Universal Music Publishing; YouTube; Decca Broadway listings; Official London Theatre; WhatsOnStage.