Let me begin with a confession: I’ve by no means preferred “The Wizard of Oz.” However give me a retelling with, say, a Black Dorothy and Black Oz, and I’m instantly clicking my heels.
When “The Wiz” debuted on Broadway in 1975, it was a colourful exclamation of Blackness on the stage. That’s to say a Black rating, by Charlie Smalls, together with gospel and R&B; a Black solid; and Black audiences on the forefront.
Then three years later the beloved Motown movie adaptation, starring Diana Ross, Michael Jackson and Richard Pryor, pulled a Black Dorothy from her residence, not in Kansas however in Harlem, and the New York Metropolis boroughs have been cleverly transmogrified into the trendy, futuristic Oz.
Now “The Wiz” returns to Broadway in a revival directed by Schele Williams and an up to date e-book by Amber Ruffin, with the goal of making a take “via the Blackest of Black lenses.” This new manufacturing, which opened on the Marquis Theater on Tuesday, showcases artistic visuals and a few standout performances, however stops in need of bringing trendy Blackness to Broadway.
Right here, Dorothy (Nichelle Lewis, in her Broadway debut) is a metropolis woman who’s moved to Kansas to dwell along with her Aunt Em (Melody A. Betts, who later doubles because the deliciously brass-throated witch Evillene). However Dorothy doesn’t really feel at residence and is being bullied by her classmates. A sudden meteorological anomaly flies Dorothy to Oz, the place she seeks the counsel of the good and highly effective Wiz (Wayne Brady) on methods to get again residence. Alongside the way in which she’s joined by a scarecrow (Avery Wilson) in want of a mind, a tinman (Phillip Johnson Richardson) wanting a coronary heart and a lion (Kyle Ramar Freeman) determined for some braveness. (Sorry dog-lovers, there’s no Toto.)
There’s loads of gold to be discovered alongside this yellow brick highway. Deborah Cox’s Glinda, the great witch, in a shimmering gold robe, appears to be like like a jewel and seems like one, too, along with her crystalline voice switching from jazzy scatting to a glowing falsetto in “He’s the Wiz” and later providing a triumphant efficiency of “Imagine in Your self.”
Glinda’s not the one one with flashy vogue; the costume design, by Sharen Davis, attracts from a wild, unpredictable vary of time intervals and tendencies. Ozians with blue Afro puffs, inexperienced extensions and multicolored braids flounce round in vivid petticoats throughout a scene meant to duplicate a New Orleans second-line parade; Evillene’s military of evil poppies slinks round in ’70s-style Afros and flare-legged jumpsuits, and the denizens of Emerald Metropolis saunter in Afro-futuristic outfits with ornate collars and fringe.
There’s simply as a lot coloration within the choreography, by JaQuel Knight, which gives an evocative mélange of types. Dorothy’s twister is summoned with a flurry of pirouetting dancers in billowing grey materials. Later these stiff-backed, sleek turns are simply as shortly swapped for hunched, down-low Afro-Cuban steps and crisp hip-hop strikes.
One of the best performances within the manufacturing are likewise grounded in motion: Wilson is a playful scarecrow, his wobbly knees and freely flinging limbs exhibiting off spectacular flexibility and acrobatic ability. Freeman’s dramatic prancing and marching because the lion pair completely together with his character’s … nicely, leonine theatricality.
Add to the combo a popping-and-locking Tinman who additionally drops a soulful “What Would I Do If I May Really feel” and the charming showmanship of Brady’s Wiz (armed with a vigorous exit quantity much more pleasant than his entrance), and also you’ve bought a solid of sidekicks who outshine the hero.
As Dorothy, Lewis dutifully hits the notes however is dwarfed by the stage and the performers round her. Although Ruffin’s e-book gives a number of trendy updates to the lingo and offers her companions new again tales, Dorothy nonetheless lacks dimension, and Lewis struggles to fill her in with any emotional shading.
Regardless of its freewheeling fashions there’s a hemmed-in high quality to a lot of the manufacturing. This Dorothy and her journey, like the general route, is vivid and tidy however falls brief in character. The animated backdrops of Ouncesoften have a cutesy, over-glossed Pixar-movie really feel. The pacing doesn’t fairly “ease on down” because it does race via the present’s two-and-a-half-hour operating time; the settings and characters cross by in a blur. Even the musical arc of the present slumps right into a routine, with a predictable construct towards every large solo climax.
All of which is to say that “The Wiz” is a nice, serviceable time on the theater, however as a brand new manufacturing of a musical with a legacy of bringing Blackness to one in all Hollywood’s and Broadway’s favourite fairy tales, it’s much less satisfying.
There’s a more energizing manufacturing hinted at within the ecstatic array of costumes and mixture of choreography. There’s a stronger, extra daring illustration of modern-day Blackness instructed within the faint touches of New Orleans’s Tremé neighborhood and a personality’s quip about discovering their hair’s curl sample.
Previously this paper’s critics weren’t impressed by productions of this musical. In 1984 Frank Wealthy rashly dismissed the “cheesy” Broadway manufacturing of a musical that he deemed “hardly nice” however “a once-fervent expression of Black self-respect and expertise.” In his assessment of the unique, in 1975, Clive Barnes wrote of a manufacturing with “vitality” and “type” that was nonetheless “tiresome” — maybe as a result of, he ventures, for him such fairy tales are solely interesting once they’re grounded in a single’s personal expertise. Does the present “say various things to Blacks than to whites?” requested a Black author in The Occasions a number of months later. His reply was sure. So is mine.
Practically 50 years later, with the same diploma of ambivalence, I’m wondering if a revival of one in all theater’s beloved Black musicals is actually a Black expertise. It feels extra like simply one other night time on the theater.
The WizThrough Aug. 18 on the Marquis Theater, Manhattan; wizmusical.com. Operating time: 2 hours half-hour.
