SOMEWHERE over the rainbow – well, Yorkshire actually – you’ll find Dorothy and her friends Tinman, Scarecrow and Lion.

But as familiar as the characters and the story are, this musical twists L Frank Baum’s The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz into a show rooted in African-American culture.

In Josette Bushell-Mingo’s lively and likeable staging, this is a modestly scaled musical that sees the cast “ease on down the road” – to quote one of the songs – to the land of Oz to learn a valuable life lesson about being true to themselves.

Silver-shoed Dorothy just wants to get home to Leeds, while her travelling companions want courage, a heart and a brain. Can they persuade the all-powerful Wizard (Peter Straker, reprising a role he took in the 1980 UK premiere of the show) to make their wishes come true?

The main stumbling block is the unspeakably evil Evilene (Allyson Ava-Brown, channelling the spirit of Mae West and Sweeney Todd under a mad beehive hairdo) who runs a wig factory and likes nothing better than loping off ponytails and the like.

Treyc Cohen – an X Factor finalist in her professional debut in musical theatre – makes a feisty Dorothy, who learns there really is no place like home.

Her companions are impersonated by a talented trio of song and dance men – Horace Oliver (Tinman), Wayne Robinson (Scarecrow) and Clive Rowe’s Lion, who points out that it’s not a yellow streak running down his back but highlights in his mane.

Paul J Medford’s choroegraphy is foot-tapping good, while Bushell-Mingo allows herself an amusing injoke at the expense of The Lion King, a West End show for which she won an Olivier acting nomination.

Until July 16. Tickets 0113- 213-7700 and online at wyp.org.uk