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- For the New York area electronics stores, see Nobody Beats The Wiz.
The Wiz is a 1975 Broadway musical; an urbanized 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. The Wiz was adapted into a motion picture in 1978 by Motown Productions for Universal Pictures, starring Diana Ross, Michael Jackson, Nipsey Russell, Ted Ross, and Lena Horne.
History
Broadway musical
The Broadway musical opened in January 1975 with Stephanie Mills as Dorothy, Hinton Battle as Scarecrow, Tiger Haynes as Tin Man, Ted Ross 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. 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.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.
Motion picture
The movie was directed by Sidney Lumet, written by Joel Schumacher and filmed at Astoria Studios New York City. It was produced by Motown Productions and released to theaters by Universal Pictures. The decaying New York State pavilion from the 1964 New York World's Fair, in its final appearance in a film, is used as the set for Munchkinland, as well as the World Trade Center (which serves as the Emerald City). In addition to the modern setting, the script is a total revamp, completely abandoning the dialogue and concepts of Brown's play. Mabel King and Ted Ross from the Broadway production reprised their roles for the film; the rest of the cast included Diana Ross (Dorothy), Michael Jackson (Scarecrow), Nipsey Russell (Tin Man), Richard Pryor (The Wiz), Lumet's mother-in-law, Lena Horne, as Glinda the Good Witch, and Thelma Carpenter as Miss One (the film's counterpart to the stage version's "Addaperle, the Feel Good Girl").Quincy Jones served as the musical supervisor and music producer for the film, marking his first collaboration with Michael Jackson. Jones would produce three hit albums for Jackson: Off the Wall, Thriller, and Bad.
Despite the talent involved, critics panned the production. Many critics directed their venom at thirty-four year-old Diana Ross, who they believed was too old to play Dorothy. Motown's original choice to play Dorothy was twenty year-old Stephanie Mills, a veteran of the stage play. Mills was replaced after Ross went to Universal and had them cast her as Dorothy (going around Motown CEO Berry Gordy, who had refused to cast Ross). Most agreed that what had worked so successfully on stage simply didn't translate well to the screen. The Wiz was later nominated for three Academy Awards: Best Art Direction, Best Costume Design, and Best Original Music Score, although it did not win any of those awards.
The Wiz proved to be a financial failure, losing ten million dollars upon its original theatrical release, and essentially marked the end of Hollywood's "blaxploitation" era. The pop single version of "Ease on Down the Road", sung by Diana Ross and Michael Jackson, failed to become a hit.
Today, the film is seen as a cult classic, particularly among African-American audiences. It has been available on home video since the 1980s, and is periodically broadcast on television.
External links
1978 films | All-Black cast Broadway shows | Blaxploitation films | Films based on children's books | Films directed by Sidney Lumet | Michael Jackson | Motown films | Musicals | Musical films | Oz in stage and film | Broadway musicals | Musicals based on films
"The Wiz"