This Wizard of Oz is to the movie what Björn Again is to Abba. It sticks to the template, celebrates the original, yet carries enough zest of its own to go beyond pastiche. There is a right way to stage this show and Gill Robertson's wide-eyed production is pretty much it.
Nowhere is this more the case than in the role of Dorothy. Not only does Judy Garland's original interpretation have an unshakable hold on the popular imagination, the part demands extraordinary conviction. Any hint of irony in lines of innocent wonder such as: "We must be over the rainbow" and "I've never seen anywhere so beautiful", and the whole make-believe edifice would fall apart.
Denise Hoey understands this. So pure is her performance that the idea of camping it up can never have crossed her mind. She has already proved herself a gifted mimic and singer in the lead role of The Rise and Fall of Little Voice earlier this year; here she doesn't so much imitate Garland as subsume herself into the role. She invests every crisis with absolute conviction, whether it's Miss Gulch absconding with little Toto (amusingly realised in a cute hand puppet) or the wizard reneging on his deal to get her back to Kansas.
It means we too are propelled into the heart of this classic story of self-realisation, frequently on the edge of our seats despite the familiarity. Robertson adds some slick staging tricks to keep the action flowing - a billowing backcloth for the storm, Dorothy's family seeming to disappear into the stage, a computerised wizard - but it is the honesty of the eight central performances that means we believe in Oz just as much as the girl in the red slippers.
· Until December 30. Box office: 0131-248 4949.
