Victor Herbert had already enjoyed several operetta successes by the time he wrote Babes in Toyland (1903), but this was the first of hi stage works that would become a beloved classic. It was designed by producers Fred R. Hamlin and Julian Mitchell as a follow-up to their spectacular stage presentation of The Wizard of Oz, which had premiered earlier that year. Like The Wizard of Oz, Babes In Toyland featured children, a devastating weather event, a scary journey through the forest, and, finally, arrival at a magic city. The spectacular scenery and special effects outdid their predecessor, and the score became an instant classic. For the next fifty years, barely a theater season passed that Babes in Toyland wasn't appearing somewhere on the nation's stages. Numerous film versions were made, the most memorable being Hal Roach's 1934 production starring Laurel and Hardy.                      
   Glen MacDonough's all-star cast of characters included such luminaries as Little Bo-Peep, Red Riding Hood, Tom Tom the Piper's Son, Miss Muffet, and Simple Simon. Evil Uncle Barnaby has developed a plan to do away with the "Babes," his young niece and nephew, Jane and Alan, in order to keep their inheritance for himself. The Babes flee through the forest and eventually find themselves shipwrecked in Toyland. There they run afoul of the nasty Master Toymaker, who is aiding Uncle Barnaby in his wicked scheme to kill them. With the help of Tom Tom and Contrary Mary, the Babes emerge victorious, and the villains meet gruesome ends: Uncle Barnaby accidentally drinks a glass of poisoned wine intended for Alan, and the Toymaker is done in by his own creation-a pack of vicious mechanical dolls.                   
   Babes in Toyland was beloved by critics and audiences alike. Here's an excerpt from the New York Sun review by James Gibbons Huneker: "The songs, the dances, the processions, the fairies, the toys, the spiders, and the bears! Think of them all, set in the midst of really amazing scenery, ingenious and brilliant, surrounded with light effects with counterfeit all sorts of things from simple lightning to the spinning of a great spider's web, with costumes rich and dazzling as well as tasteful, and all accompanied with music a hundred times better than is customary in shows of this sort. What more could the spirit of mortal desire?"