Every night, the Tin Man is given his missing heart, only to have it break.
Those are real tears scrolling down actor Mike Jacksons face as he watches Dorothy Gale leave Oz to head home to Kansas.
In a lot of ways, its a fairy tale, Jackson says of bringing L. Frank Baums famous 1900 folk story to life in Broadway Across Canadas The Wizard of Oz. You walk a fine line of being as natural as possible but these characters are larger-than-life and so embedded in our minds from those performances in the movie.
Developed from the popular 1939 MGM screenplay (the most watched film in history), this new production contains all the iconic moments and beloved songs from the Oscar-winning movie, plus four new songs by Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber.
For Jackson, the timeless parable hits hardest when he (the Tin Man), Lion and Scarecrow get the gifts they have been searching for.
Immediately, I turn around and find out that Dorothys going to leave us, and I realize how much I love her.
The Dorothy in question is 21-year-old Danielle Wade chosen to play Ozs chatelaine by the Canadian public through CBCs Over The Rainbow competition.
Shes incredible, gushes Jackson. I sort of fall in love with her every night, so when shes going to leave, its very emotional.
Jackson has had to say goodbye to the leading lady in his life once before.
At the age of 16, while playing the Tin Man for the first time in a North Delta community theatre production, Jackson lost his mother to cancer. He says that entire experience is a blur, and he privileged to get to revisit the role 27 years later.
But it shouldnt come as a surprise not only is the stoic 63, 225-lb star built to play the Tin Man, he is a musical theatre machine.
After graduating high school in North Delta in 1988, Jackson ventured into Vancouver to audition for Theatre Under the 
Stars, where he caught the attention of one Belinda Sobie.
Sobie saw the potential in the mountainous young man with zero dance experience, and brought him to meet her cohorts at the Harbour Dance Centre.
There, owners Pam Rosa and Danielle Clifford saw it too, and developed Jacksons dance ability on full scholarship.
Jackson will humbly tell you they handed him his career, which took off so fast that he has barely returned to Vancouver since.
So, after two months on the road with Oz, the veteran of more than 20 darker, more adult affairs such as Chicago and Cabaret, is basking in the family atmosphere and eagerly anticipating his first professional homecoming.
Its amazing that I get to come home with such a fun part. You can actually hear little kids in the audience laughing and cooing. Kids are wonderfully unedited. They call out; sometimes theyre even dressed up, he says from a tour stop in San Francisco.
Im so excited about coming to Vancouver. Its really the theme of our show, isnt it? That theres no place like home? Although the skyline changes every time he concludes with a laugh.
The Wizard of Oz makes its Vancouver premiere Nov. 5 to 10 at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre. Tickets start at $35; Ticketmaster.ca
