Lions and tigers and…Ashanti. Oh my! The Wiz returns to the stage in NYC.
Can I tell you how much I loved “The Wiz” growing up? I loved it so much that I went on eBay a few years back and bought a copy on DVD for my collection of classics. “The Wiz” original movie has greats like Michael Jackson who played the Scarecrow, before all of the plastic surgery, and Diana Ross who played Dorothy.
For those of you who don’t know, The Wiz is basically a black version of The Wizard of Oz. It was performed onstage and onscreen back in the 1970s and early 80s. My mom was particularly good at making sure I got some exposure to theater growing up, and I’m so lucky she paid for me to see the touring musical when Stephanie Mills was playing the role of Dorothy somewhere in Washington, DC.
From The 70s Movies Rewind…
The home-life settings from “The Wizard of Oz” are as different from each other as black and white (no pun intended). In the general version, Dorothy and her family lived in the vast plainlands of Kansas, a state know for its wide open spaces and tornadoes. In “The Wiz,” the setting is Harlem, New York; a heavily populated area with wall to wall elevated gray buildings, brought to life by the occasional patch of spray painted graffiti artwork. In the original, Dorothy is carried away o Oz by an ominous cyclone, however, in “The Wiz,” Dorothy magically finds herself in Oz after getting lost ina blizzard in which her dog Toto had a naughtily run away in.
From New York City Center (you can also purchase tickets from this link)…
The Wiz, the 1974 rock and soul musical based on the beloved L. Frank Baum story about Dorothy and her adventures in Oz, won seven Tony Awards including Best Musical, Best Score and Best Choreography. The Encores! Summers Stars production of The Wiz will be directed by Thomas Kail and choreographed by Andy Blankenbuehler, the duo who brought the Tony Award-winning In the Heights to Broadway last season.
This onstage revival is being directed by Thomas Kail and Alex Lacamoire and will feature none other than Ashanti as Dorothy.
Time to “ease on down, ease on down the road” and get those tickets before they sell out!
