Wonderful Winter of Oz Cast Sing Mackenzie Ziegler's Praises

What's up guys? Young Hollywood has crashed a rehearsal with none other than Miss McKenzie Ziegler.

Hi.

And you are playing Dorothy.

I am.

This isn't the regular Wizard of Oz.

No, it's more of a modern version and I love it so much because I get to sing, don't stop believing on top of the world and there's it's really modern and I actually like it a lot.

Now, what's it called then if it's not the Wizard of Oz?

It's The Wonderful Winter of Oz because it's Christmas themed. And I think kids are going to really love it and I mean, it's for all ages as well.

We basically take the Wizard of Oz story that you and everybody knows and we kind of turn it on its ear. We just have as much fun with it as we possibly can. I think the thing that audiences will love probably the most is that Kermit the Frog is in it. It's crazy. He's like little green. Usually Oz is like big and green. Yeah. He's little and green but then the whole city is green, which makes sense, right? And the fact that we get to share a stage with him, I think we're all just pinching ourselves. It's the most amazing thing.

Is it a dream come true to play Glinda? Or you wanted to once play Dorothy?

No, no, no, no. Glinda is the role. I mean, they said what do you want to play? Do you want to be the good witch or the bad witch? I'm like, the good witch. I want the kids cheering for me and I don't want to have to do green makeup. So, it it seemed much prettier being Glinda.

So, we got the good witch and we got the bad witch.

I'm the bad witch.

You are the bad witch. That's a great part to play.

It's amazing. I get to play violin in the show and control the flying monkeys, you know, so that's super fun.

Your name is synonymous with perfection, performance, amazing. And you have another one right here.

Thank you. I try to get everything perfect because you know, we're talking about working with families here. I want families to walk into this theater, enjoy it, love it, and want more of it. I think I still have a little bit of a squeak in my voice.

You're very, very funny.

Oh, thank you.

You use your impressions like perfectly. Can you do them for me right now? Cuz I I want my one-on-one with you.

Well, I don't know if I can just do an impression just like that just go start doing a voice. But would not be appropriate for this sort of situation. But if you really want me to, I would be happy to Leslie. I just want to make you happy.

It's really good.

I love the show so much because I get to do the three things that I love, singing, dancing, and acting in one and I've never done theater before. So, this is way different than anything I've ever done because TV acting is so different than this and I thought I was gonna walk in and be like, oh yeah, this is fine. But no, it's a lot of work.

Talk about your Dorothy, a 14-year-old who is killing it. Yes. Kenzie Ziegler is playing Dorothy. She's the same age as my daughter and I'm just like, you're carrying this production. She's so charming, she's so talented, she can dance, she can sing. She is 14-years-old but she's leading the company and that is a very difficult thing to do and she's doing it with grace and she's doing it really, really well. She works really hard, she takes it very seriously and I'm having a great time with her. She's like wonderful and sweet and kind and works really hard and is not a diva and we've been cheering for her on Dancing with the Stars Juniors, like we've been like obsessed with her.

I've been watching McKenzie, Dorothy, since she was a little girl, when she was in Dance Moms. I always thought she was really great.

So what do you think of working with Kenzie Ziegler? One of the famous lines is there's no place like home. There's no place like home, there's no place like home. You click your heels three times. What does home mean to you?

Home is really just my family and my friends and I love spending time with my friends and family and people that support me.

I always think of like the East Coast and my home in New York and I'll always say to my husband like, oh, I just want to go home and that's like, I haven't been there in 20 years, but like I think of like the woods that I grew up in and that that's what I think of as home.

Home to me is family and wherever the heart is is like that's home.

I have done some dance moves today with my sprain ankle. No way. So, can we do a lot of pivots Let's do a dance move, Mr. Tin Man. We do the kick, kick, step ball change, kick, kick, step ball change. Look at that. Actually, this is the step in the show. We go like this. We go oh oh yeah, see.

From Dance Moms to now, how has life changed?

When I was younger, I had no confidence and I was just dancing on a stage. I mean, now I'm performing, singing in front of like 10,000 people and it's really scary but um I love what my life has turned out to be and I'm excited for the next year.

And you're so young. So you have the world ahead of you.

Yes. Yes, I'm so excited.

Follow the yellow brick road.

I I definitely will.