After two years on the road, Jessica Grove, the current Dorothy in Radio City Entertainment's The Wizard of Oz tour, will hang up the ruby slippers and return to the normal life of a seventeen year old in late 1999.

To fill her role, Radio City has been holding open call auditions across the country. Potential Dorothys should be between the ages of 12-18 and able to sing 16 bars of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow." Equity and non-Equity actors are welcome. A minimum of one candidate per city will be chosen to face off in a semi-finals and finals to be held in New York City in mid- June.

Auditions were held in Atlanta April 13, with upcoming auditions due at the following locations:

May 4: Des Moines, IA, Civic Center
May 4: New York, NY, The Theater at Madison Square Garden
June 8: Tempe, AZ, Gammage Auditorium
June 15: Los Angeles, Pantages Theatre

Finals will be held at a date TBA at the Theatre at Madison Square Garden. For information on the auditions, call (212) 465-6773. Pictures, resumes and tapes can be mailed until June 1, 1999. Send them to: National Search for Dorothy, Madison Square Garcen PR Department, Attention: Cathy, 2 Penn Plaza, 14th Floor, New York, NY 10121.

For further information, visit the Wizard of Oz website at http://www.ozontour.com.

As for the show itself, The Wizard of Oz, featuring Grove, Mickey Rooney and Jo Anne Worley returns to Madison Square Garden May 6-16. After that, it's on to Tempe, AZ (June 3-13), Los Angeles (June 16-July 4) and Costa Mesa, CD (July 9-18).

-- By Christine Ehren