Entertainment
The revival of “The Wiz” is a reason to rejoice
Everyone looks around, they are singing festively at the Marquis Theater. There is reason to rejoice, you see.
For many theater fans, especially black audiences of a certain age, the return of the “Super Soul Musical” (this was the 1970s) The Wiz to Broadway after about 50 years is cause for celebration. For all its faults and the qualms that might exist today about a white writer, William F. Brown, happily writing in a black vernacular, The Wiz is just one of those rare and special titles that arouses an audience excited, glamorous and ready to drop. the large sums needed for an evening at the theater in the Emerald City,
Who can forget Stephanie Mills? Or Andre De Shields, the original Wiz, who I saw (more than once) showing off his 1970s costume with squeals of joy? Or songs from the greatsCharlie Smallslike Ease on Down the Road (one of the great connective tissue musical numbers of all time) and the power ballad Home, a favorite of every musical theater kid.
Smalls died in 1987 at age 44 from a burst appendix. Sitting at the Marquis, I began to think about what else he might have composed of this quality for Broadway if he had continued to tread more gently on the path of life.
This revival, directed by Schele Williams and with an update of the book by Amber Ruffin, toured the country before coming to Broadway, and will return later this year. II first caught it in Chicagowhile the production remained a bit of a mess, and may report that the Broadway version reflects a lot of good new work.
Brand New Day's initially bizarre approach has been visually revamped, and while JaQuel Knights' choreography retains an eccentric dimension, it's now a bright detour into Hair's psychedelic territory.
The show is modest in size, the original set is by Hannah Beachler and the costumes, fun and referential, are by Sharen Davis.
Wayne Brady has been added to the cast in a title role, it's more of a cameo, actually. But The Wiz really needs to be a face the audience recognizes, and that's about as important as the quality of the performance, even if Brady is well within his wheelhouse and perfectly fine. He does what needs to be done.
The cast boasts some other familiar faces, including none other than Deborah Cox as Glinda, an L. Frank Baum character who could have turned into the star of Wicked but was unfortunately underwritten in The Wiz. This means that Cox, veteran of many Frank Wildhorn tours and successful singer, remains underutilized, with Melody A. Betts receiving much more attention as Aunt Em and Evillene. I wish Cox had more to do, but that probably would have meant messing with the score.
Ruffin, witty, freshened up the book, but without being intrusive. And Dorothy's three friends who follow these yellow bricks towards self-realization, Avery WilsonsScarecrow, Phillip Johnson Richardson's Tinman (the most moving one I've seen) and Kyle Ramar Freeman's Lion, loose variety, are really at the heart of this particular revival. They make a delightful quartet when they bring in Nichelle Lewis, a much-improved Dorothy.
Dorothy is a difficult role in this series, not least because her big belt doesn't just function as the so-called 11 o'clock number, but it must justify the entire ending of the musical; few shows have such an abrupt ending. That doesn't satisfy here: Lewis hits the notes, and they're difficult notes to play, but the overall performance remains too reserved to really launch into the fans' hearts, although at the show I saw, all world was more than ready to receive and respond.
After all, he's The Wiz. This attracts a particularly generous audience, and it was really nice to see them.
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