The Wiz

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Original Broadway Production
The Wiz
Music	Charlie Smalls
Lyrics	Charlie Smalls
Book	William F. Brown
Theatre	Majestic Theatre (1975 - 1977) Broadway Theater (1977 - 1979)
Opened	January 5, 1975
Closed	January 28, 1979
Producer(s)	Ken Harper
Director	Geoffrey Holder
Choreographer	George Faison
Scenic designer	Tom H. John
Costume designer	Geoffrey Holder
Lighting designer	Tharon Musser

This article is about the musical. For its film adaptation, see The Wiz (film). For the defunct chain of New York area electronics stores, see The Wiz (store).

The Wiz is a 1975 Broadway musical, an adaptation of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum exclusively featuring African American actors. The play features music and lyrics by Charlie Smalls, and a book by William F. Brown, and starred Stephanie Mills, Hinton Battle, Tiger Haynes, Ted Ross, Dee Dee Bridgewater, André DeShields, and Mabel King. A motion picture adaptation of The Wiz was produced in 1978 (see 1978 in film) by Motown Productions and Universal Pictures, starring Diana Ross (no relation to Ted), Michael Jackson, Nipsey Russell, Ted Ross, Lena Horne, Richard Pryor, and Mabel King.

1 History
2 Instrumentation
3 Notes
4 External links

[edit] History

[edit] Broadway musical

The Broadway musical opened in January 1975 with Stephanie Mills as Dorothy, Hinton Battle as Scarecrow, Hannah Reid as Tin Man, Cathy Neal as Lion, Dee Dee Bridgewater as Glinda the Good Witch, André DeShields as the Wiz and Mabel King as Evillene the Wicked Witch of the West. The production was directed by Geoffrey Holder. The Wiz opened at the Majestic Theatre and later moved to the Broadway Theatre. It ran for four years and over 1600 performances, and won seven Tony Awards, including Best Musical. The most popular song from the production was "Ease on Down the Road", sung by the characters as they dance down the Yellow Brick Road.

Along with other musicals like Purlie (1971) and Raisin (1974), The Wiz was a breakthrough for Broadway, a large-scale big-budget musical featuring an all-black cast. It laid the foundation for later African-American hits like Bubbling Brown Sugar, Dreamgirls and Duke Ellington's Sophisticated Ladies.

It never performed on London's West End, but a handful of amateur and semi-professional productions have appeared in Britain with black and non-black casts.

During the tour, Stephanie Mills was replaced by Renee Harris in 1976. Deborah Malone replaced Harris in 1978.

[edit] Motion picture

For more details on this topic, see The Wiz (film).

Motown Productions acquired the film rights to The Wiz in 1977, and signed Stephanie Mills in anticipation of having her star in the film adaptation. Motown singer and actress Diana Ross asked Motown CEO Berry Gordy to cast her as Dorothy instead, but Gordy declined, feeling the thirty-three year old Ross was far too old for the part. However, Ross contacted Rob Cohen of Universal Pictures, who offered to have Universal finance the film if Ross were to play Dorothy, at which point Gordy acquiesced.

The resulting film version of The Wiz also starred former Motown star Michael Jackson as The Scarecrow, Nipsey Russell as the Tin Man, and Lena Horne as Glinda the Good Witch. Ted Ross and Mabel King reprised their respective roles of the Cowardly Lion and Evilene from the Broadway production. Sidney Lumet served as director, working with screenwriter Joel Schumacher (who used none of Brown's stage script) and music supervisor Quincy Jones. Although the stage musical's setting begins in Kansas before moving into the fanciful Oz (as do most other versions of the Oz stories), the film version of The Wiz is set in New York City: Dorothy's real-life home is in Harlem, and the Oz of the film is an alternate fantasy version of the rest of New York City. The $22 million production was poorly received by critics and grossed only $12 million during its original theatrical release.

The Wiz was Michael Jackson's first feature film, and Diana Ross's final theatrical feature film. Its commercial failure brought to an end the stream of all-black films that had begun with the "blaxploitation film" era of the 1970s. However, Michael Jackson and Quincy Jones' collaboration on the film's soundtrack led to Jones producing three of Jackson's most successful albums, Off the Wall, Thriller, and Bad. In later years, due to its recurrent broadcasts on television, The Wiz has become something of a cult classic among African-American audiences.

[edit] Dueling revivals: America vs. Holland

The Wiz was revived on Broadway in 1984 with Stephanie Mills reprising her role as Dorothy. The production, which played at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre, was a flop, lasting only 13 performances.

Dodger Productions acquired the worldwide rights to revive the Wiz in 2004. It is rumored that when Dodger Productions and Joop Van den Ende's Stage Entertainment split in 2005, the worldwide rights to the revival were split between the two companies, with the Dodgers retaining the US rights, while Stage Entertainment kept the European rights.

The new American production of The Wiz began in September 2006 at the La Jolla Playhouse in California. Tony Award-winning director Des McAnuff, and with Harold Wheeler, orchestrator of the original Broadway version, have revised the show for contemporary audiences. It starred David Alan Grier and featured sets by Robert Brill. Its run was extended by more than three weeks due to popular demand, and it is rumored to be headed for Broadway.

Simultaneously, Joop Van den Ende's Stage Entertainment is mounting a full-scale, Broadway-caliber production at the Beatrix Theater in Utrecht, Holland. Directed by Glen Castle, the production will feature choreography by Anthony Von Las of Mamma Mia fame, sets by Tony Award winner David Gallo and costumes by Miguel Humidor. It stars a number of Dutch theater and music stars.

Stage Entertainment also acquired ownership of Dodger Stages, a multi-theater Off-Broadway venue in New York City (now dubbed New World Stages) in the break-up.

[edit] Trivia

Phylicia Ayers Allen, best known as Clair Huxtable on The Cosby Show, got her professional acting debut in the play. Originally cast as a Munchkin, she was the first understudy to play Glinda the Good. When the original Glinda left the play however, Allen was passed over for Glinda in favor of the second understudy. Allen subsequently left the play. It was in The Wiz that she met a fellow cast member, Victor Willis, original lead singer of the Village People. They eventually married, but later divorced.

In the Scrubs episode "My Overkill", JD claims to have played The Wiz, hoping that the nickname "the Wiz kid" would catch on, however he was just called "Dorothy."