Wonders of the World Lyrics – Wizard Of Oz, The

Song Overview

“Wonders of the World” is the new-for-2011 number written by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice for the London Palladium staging of The Wizard of Oz, voiced on record by Michael Crawford as Professor Marvel. It slots into Act I, just before the storm, where Marvel unfurls a patter-style travelogue that doubles as a character tell - showman’s sparkle with a wink of snake-oil.

Review and Highlights

Quick summary

1. Cast-album cut from The Wizard of Oz (2011 London Palladium Recording), track 4.
2. Performer: Michael Crawford as Professor Marvel; music by Andrew Lloyd Webber, lyrics by Tim Rice.
3. Function: pre-Twister scene-setter where Marvel dazzles Dorothy with a “magic lantern” tour.
4. Style: brisk list-song with music-hall flair and orchestral sparkle; vaudeville patter meets glossy West End sheen.
5. Release context: recorded for the 2011 London cast album, issued digitally in spring 2011 and on CD in late June in the U.S.

As a listening experience, the track moves quickly: a bright overture-like vamp, then Crawford’s sly, genial patter over buoyant pit-orchestra writing. The orchestration favors light brass and woodwinds with quick interjections, and the rhythm section keeps it clip-clopping forward - a traveling-show cadence, basically. Crawford talks-sings the verse lines with a friendly glint, then lands key phrases with laser clarity. It’s built to charm a family audience and to plant plot information without dragging the scene.

Creation History

When Lloyd Webber and Rice reunited to add new material for the 2011 Palladium production, Marvel’s number served a double duty: it restored a sense of itinerant showmanship and gave Crawford a bespoke entrance song. The staging leaned into a period “magic-lantern” conceit - a pre-cinema slideshow of marvels - which let the production beam images while the song rattled off pyramids, poles, and whales. Reviews at the time clocked its purpose: one critic called it the best of the added songs; another thought it slight but serviceable - which, frankly, is often the brief for an early Act I character turn.

Song Meaning and Annotations

Plot

Dorothy, restless and primed to run, meets Professor Marvel - a kindhearted but florid road-show conjurer. He gestures to his “magical lantern” and whisks her through a whirlwind sampler of the planet’s marvels: Nile facts, Everest boasts, auroras, city skylines, a rapid-fire sampler of geography-as-spectacle. The montage dazzles her long enough for Marvel to nudge her back toward home - moments before Kansas tears open and the narrative tips into Oz.

Song Meaning

The song is Marvel’s sales pitch and soft red flag. On the surface, it’s an upbeat travelogue. Underneath, it frames him as a master of glittering distraction. He promises worldly horizons without moving an inch - an echo of how the musical itself works: grand adventure conjured by light, music, and suggestion. The final turn - “home is one of many wonders” - plants the story’s thesis in plain sight: the thing Dorothy craves might already be under her boots.

Annotations

“Mirabile dictu et curibus pluribus unum”

The Latin-ish burst is intentionally garbled. It flaunts Marvel’s showman veneer while hinting he’s less scholar than patter-merchant - a small comic tell that later blooms into the Wizard’s smoke-and-mirrors.

Musically, it fuses music-hall patter with glossy West End orchestration - brisk two-steps, punchy winds, and crowd-friendly cadences. The emotional arc is light and tick-tocking: curiosity, awe, a hiccup of fear (his “private collection” gag), then reassurance as he steers Dorothy’s wonder toward home. Cultural touchpoints are baked in: Everest, Nile lengths in miles, Eiffel Tower postcards, polar lights - the sort of cabinet-of-curiosities list that Victorian showmen adored.

Instrumentation notes

Listen for bright brass punctuations on downbeats, woodwind filigree between lines, and light percussion that keeps the patter buoyant. The orchestra never crowds the vocal - it’s designed for a star talk-singing the patter with easy authority.

Key Facts

• Artist: Michael Crawford (as Professor Marvel)
• Featured: Danielle Hope (scene partner in the stage sequence)
• Composer: Andrew Lloyd Webber
• Lyricist: Tim Rice
• Producer (recording): Nigel Wright; Andrew Lloyd Webber
• Release Date: May 9, 2011
• Album: The Wizard of Oz (2011 London Palladium Recording) - track 4
• Label: Decca Broadway (U.S. CD release); Polydor via The Really Useful Group licensing (digital U.K.)
• Genre: Musicals, pop-theatre list-song
• Length: 3:51
• Instruments: orchestra with brass, woodwinds, strings, percussion
• Mood: sprightly, winking, demonstrative
• Track #: 4
• Language: English
• Music style: patter with music-hall color; family-friendly uptempo
• Poetic meter: mixed - conversational anapest and trochaic punches common to patter songs

Canonical Entities & Relations

Questions and Answers

Where does the song sit in the show’s timeline?

Act I, just before the Twister. It’s Marvel’s meet-cute with Dorothy that nudges her back toward home.

What is the function beyond spectacle?

Character reveal. The patter telegraphs Marvel’s charm and the Wizard’s future sleight-of-hand - sparkle as camouflage.

Is the lyric really selling travel?

Not exactly. It sells wonder itself. The punch line admits you can behold the world while staying put - a tidy preface to Oz’s “dream logic.”

Why give Professor Marvel a number?

2011 added several songs to deepen roles. Marvel gets an entrance that frames him as a reassuring trickster rather than a creep.

Any notable critical reactions?

One major broadsheet singled it out as the strongest of the new songs; a trade review deemed it pleasant but light. Fair split.

How does Crawford phrase it on record?

Talk-singing with crisp diction, slight rubato on punch lines, and a genial smile you can hear. Classic theatre patter craft.

Is this number in the 1939 film?

No. It’s exclusive to the 2011 stage adaptation and its later tours and revivals.

What musical DNA does it borrow?

Music-hall and vaudeville list-song tradition: quick images, comic asides, bright orchestrations.

Does the lyric hint that Marvel is a fraud?

Yes - the mock-Latin and exaggerated claims are breadcrumbs toward the Wizard’s smoke-and-mirrors in Oz.

Any studio trivia worth noting?

The album was produced by Nigel Wright and Andrew Lloyd Webber, with a tight, radio-clean mix that still feels theatrical.

Awards and Chart Positions

Production milestone: The 2011 London Palladium revival received a nomination for Best Musical Revival at the 2012 Olivier Awards. It did not win but the nod marks the show’s strong commercial and public profile.

Additional Info

Context helps: the show opened at the London Palladium in March 2011 after a BBC talent search crowned Danielle Hope as Dorothy. A U.K. newspaper praised “Wonders of the World” as the standout of the new songs; a trade reviewer called it amiable but thin - two readings that actually describe the same thing from different angles. That’s theatre arithmetic.

The cast album rolled out digitally in spring, with a U.S. CD release by Decca Broadway in late June. On streaming platforms the track clocks a shade under four minutes, enough time to set tone, sell the Marvel persona, and plant the home-as-haven thesis. According to Playbill and TheaterMania coverage of the release, credits on the commercial recording list Nigel Wright and Andrew Lloyd Webber as producers. And - as stated in the 2011 review round-ups - the staging leaned into projections and “magic-lantern” image play to keep the scene nimble for family audiences.

Sources: BroadwayWorld, The Guardian, Variety, Playbill, TheaterMania, Spotify, OVRTUR, Discogs, Apple Music, Wikipedia.