The Wiz - Definition and Overview

The Wiz is both a 1975 Broadway musical and a 1978 film adaptation of the play. Both are urbanized adaptations of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum.

The Broadway musical opened in January 1975 with Stephanie Mills as Dorothy, Hinton Battle as Scarecrow, Nipsey Russell as Tin Man, Ted Ross as Lion and Mabel King as Evillene the Wicked Witch of the West. The production ran for four years and over 1600 performances, and won seven Tony Awards. The movie was directed by Sidney Lumet, written by Joel Schumacher and filmed at Astoria Studios in New York City. The decaying New York State pavilion from the 1964 World's Fair was used as the set for Munchkinland. Mabel King and Ted Ross from the Broadway production continued their roles in the film; the rest of the cast included Diana Ross (Dorothy), Michael Jackson (Scarecrow), Nipsey Russell (Tin Man), and Lumet's mother-in-law, Lena Horne, as the Good Witch.

Despite the impressive talent involved, the overblown production was panned by the critics, many of whom directed their venom at Ross who, in her mid-30s, was far too old to play Dorothy. Most agreed that what had worked so successfully on stage simply didn't translate well to the screen.

External links

• The Broadway play (http://www.ibdb.com/production.asp?ID=3716)
• The movie (http://imdb.com/title/tt0078504/)