The Wiz is back on Broadway for its fiftieth anniversary (photo by Jeremy Daniel)
THE WIZ
Marquis Theatre
210 West Forty-Sixth St. between Seventh & Eighth Aves.
Tuesday – Saturday through August 18, $88.75-$319.25
Monthly Monday nights: free with advance RSVP
wizmusical.com
The Wiz is back on the Great White Way, in a fiftieth-anniversary version at the Marquis Theatre that just began previews prior to an April 17 opening.
The world has been following the Yellow Brick Road since 1939, when Victor Fleming’s beloved film, The Wizard of Oz, dazzled audiences in theaters. Adapted from L. Frank Baum’s 1900 children’s novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, the first of fourteen books that would continue through 1920 — including the presciently titled Tik-Tok of Oz — the story was previously told in a 1902 Broadway musical and a series of silent films.
In October 1974, The Wiz: The Super Soul Musical “Wonderful Wizard of Oz” opened in Baltimore before moving to the Majestic Theatre on Broadway in January 1975. The all-Black cast featured Stephanie Mills as Dorothy, Hinton Battle as the Scarecrow, Tiger Haynes as the Tin Man, Ted Ross as the Cowardly Lion, Tasha Thomas as Aunt Em, Dee Dee Bridgewater as Glinda the Good Witch, Mabel King as the Wicked Witch of the West, and André De Shields as the Wiz. The production was nominated for eight Tonys and won seven, for Best Musical, Best Original Score, Best Direction, Best Choreography, Best Costume Design, and Best Performances by a Featured Actor and Actress in a Musical.
Director Sidney Lumet and screenwriter Joel Schumacher adapted the show into an all-star film in 1978, with Diana Ross as Dorothy, Michael Jackson as the Scarecrow, Nipsey Russell as the Tin Man, Ross as the Cowardly Lion, King as the Wicked Witch of the West, Lena Horne as Glinda, and Richard Pryor as the title character.
Beginning today, April 1, and happening the first Monday night of every month during the show’s run, the Marquis will replace the current live Broadway performers with holographic AI images of the actors from the film as they sing and dance on Hannah Beachler’s set. The technology was first used when a holographic Prince joined the real Justin Timberlake at the 2018 Super Bowl halftime show in Minneapolis and has since shown up in commercials with John Wayne, Tupac Shakur, and others.
“We believe this is a wonderful way to honor Baum’s original story and how it has impacted American culture, from 1900 to the 1970s up to today,” said Cloten Costard, spokesperson for the international AI conglomerate Le Premier Avril. “The Wiz is very much about belief in oneself and acknowledging that you are allowed to have your own feelings; you might not be able to reach out and touch these characters, but they will fill you with emotions, turning you inside out and upside down.”
Admission is free with advance RSVP to ease on down the road like never before.
[Mark Rifkin is a Brooklyn-born, Manhattan-based writer and editor; you can follow him on Substack here, where it is April 1 only once a year.]