MUSICAL MAYHEM: MY TOP TWENTY-FIVE MUSICALS – Part 9 - THE TOP TEN – #10

MUSICAL MAYHEM: MY TOP TWENTY-FIVE MUSICALS – Part 9

THE TOP TEN – #10

There are so many wonderful musicals out there and so many that I dearly love, so choosing my top twenty-five was difficult.  Some of them were critical and financial hits, some not, but all of them are musicals that speak to me. I've written about my Honor Roll musicals. Now it's time for my Top Ten. Some will be predictable, if you know me at all, and some might surprise you. 

So without further ado….let's start.

# 10: THE WIZ  – Book by William F. Brown, Music and Lyrics by Charlie Smalls

A troubled tryout tour is not particularly unusual for a new Broadway-bound musical, but The Wiz's tryouts in Baltimore and Detroit were especially challenging, awash with bad reviews, apathetic audiences, internecine conflicts among the creative staff resulting in the firing of the original director, and a dismissal of nearly all of the principal actors, including Butterfly McQueen, whose role as the Queen of the Field Mice would be eliminated after Detroit. With little advance sale, little pre-opening interest, and a collection of decidedly mixed-to-negative opening reviews, producer Ken Harper posted a closing notice on opening night, standard issue to meet union obligations if you think a show has no chance to succeed. Thankfully, Twentieth Century-Fox, who bankrolled The Wiz, believed it in enough to put more money into it, enough to cover its losses and to mount a new publicity campaign that featured the irresistible invitation to visit the Majestic Theatre and "Ease on Down the Road." Positive and enthusiastic word-of-mouth took over, andThe Wiz soon became a sell-out hit and Broadway's hot ticket. And, a few months after it's unhopeful opening night, it would triumph at the 1975 Tony Awards and win seven awards, including Best Musical. It would be made into a unloved, critically-slammed film starring an over-aged Diana Ross as Dorothy.

Surprisingly, considering it's one of my Top Ten musicals, my first viewing of The Wiz, only a few short weeks after its Tony wins, left me a bit ambivalent towards it. I enjoyed it, but… It wasn't until the First National Tour arrived at the Shubert in Chicago where I totally fell in love with this hip, clever, urban, funny, stylish, touching, and very tuneful reworking of The Wizard of Oz and all initial ambivalence would melt away, and yes, the WWOTW reference was intentional. Let's start with that glorious, glorious Overture, sadly not preserved on the original cast recording. I'm a total overture geek, and this ranks among the very best. And then to end the evening, composer Charlie Smalls trots out this little bombshell called "Home," which always, always wipes me out, and when Toto runs onstage and leaps into Dorothy's arms as the curtain falls, well, I'm just a puddle. Totally. Seriously, I'm a mess. Now, it's not a perfect show. My least favorite character in the classic MGM film is that of the Scarecrow. He annoys me. Ray Bolger's performance annoys me. I want to set him on fire myself. Unfortunately, in The Wiz, the part hasn't really changed all that much. The Scarecrow is still annoying; his song is my least liked in the entire score, and I eagerly wait for his solo moment to pass. I sort of miss the pre-Oz stuff that occupies the first ten minutes or so of the film, but the creators were wise enough to give Aunt Em a lovely song to start off the performance, so there's that. Reducing the truly irritating Glinda, all big poofy dress and creepy birdlike voice, to a diva part near the end of the show and replacing her, sort of, with the very cool and hip Addaperle was a stroke of genius. Ditto giving the Lion an actual character instead of the borderline-by-21st-century-standards offensive portrait that was Bert Lahr's performance. There's no "Follow the Yellow Brick Road," but there is the infectious "Ease on Down the Road." Also, instead of recycling the same melody for the solo songs for the Scarecrow, Tinman, and Lion, composer Smalls gave each of those characters their own voice. Let's face it: Margaret Hamilton was flawless as the Wicked Witch of the West, and Messrs. Brown and Smalls wisely chose not to imitate her iconic portrayal. Instead they gave us a fresh and funny Evillene with the killer "No Bad News." "Be a Lion" soars into the stratosphere, "What Would I Do If I Could Feel" tugs at the heart, "Everybody Rejoice" is pure joy, and Glinda's diva moment in "If You Believe" will make you believe. And let's not forget the inspired transformation of the Wizard of Oz, aka The Wiz, from a doddering, uninteresting old man into a vibrant force of nature. Did I mention the Overture and "Home"?

The Wiz. After forty-one years, to paraphrase one of the songs, y'all still got it!

The original marquee was straight-forward. Here's The Wiz.

Once it was determined the show would run, the producers sprang for a more eye-catching marquee.

June, 1975. At the Majestic Theatre, everything was going smoothly and entertainingly for that year's unexpected Tony-winning musical, The Wiz. By the end of Act One, our intrepid foursome of Dorothy, Scarecrow, Tinman, and Lion had eased on down the road to the Emerald City and into the Throne Room where this imposing head was giving everyone grief about obtaining an audience with the elusive Wiz. In frustration, Dorothy suddenly screamed out "Mr. Wiz!" and the most amazing thing happened. The orchestra began this hard, sexy vamp. The lights began to do all sorts of terrific things. Smoke filled the stage, the head's mouth opened, a ramp slid out and standing on the ramp, basking in the applause that erupted throughout the theatre, and poured into a skintight white suit was The Wiz himself, a strutting, mesmerizing André De Shields. When he pounded out the first words of his song, "So you wanted to meet the Wizard," I knew I definitely wanted to meet him, and in a way and place that would shock our innocent Kansas teen. I mean, the man was sex on a stick. Wow. Just wow. Definitely the highlight of the show up to that point. Curiously, however, and despite the fine performances of all involved, and despite the fact that Stephanie Mills' "Home" tore the roof off of the Majestic Theatre, the show seemed disjointed, uninvolving. Individually, everything was fine, more than fine, but the show just didn't gel for whatever reason. Maybe everyone was a bit tired after a week of performances. Maybe it was undue pressure because of the Tony wins. The one true negative, for me at least, and I know I'm in the minority here, was Dee Dee Bridgewater's Glinda. Tony Award notwithstanding, it just didn't feel like she was invested in that night's performance. Her songs were sung well and all, but it just didn't land. While I enjoyed the evening, I left less than completely satisfied. Perhaps it was because I was in the Standing Room section at the far back of the theatre ($4.00!!). Or perhaps seeing the just-opened Chicago the night before had something to do with it. Whatever the reasons, that indifference would change twenty months later. (See the next entry.) – at the Majestic Theatre, New York  

Casting note: Phylicia Rashad, then Phylicia Ayers-Allen was in the ensemble and was Glinda's understudy. And, strangely, Dee Dee Bridgewater was the understudy for Aunt Em. Huh?

Carolyn Miller had taken over Evillene by my second visit at the Shubert.

February, 1977; March, 1977. Shortly after The Wiz began its Saturday matinee performance at the Shubert Theatre, all the indifference I felt towards the New York performance I saw in June, 1975, melted away. The magnificent Overture seemed brighter. Roz Clark oozed motherly, or in this case Aunt Em, love and Reneé Harris' Dorothy lit up the stage with her talent and energy from the moment she made her first entrance until she took her final well-deserved solo bow to ecstatic applause. Ken Prymus as the Lion, Ben Harney as the Tinman, and Charles V. Harris, who opened this First National Company in Los Angeles as "Valentino," as the Scarecrow were all worthy companions to the radiant Ms. Harris (still don't like the character of Scarecrow, but was ably performed). Vivian Bonnell was suitably addled, but ultimately wise, as Addaperle, Queen Yahna and, in March, Carolyn Miller both powered through Evillene, Roz Clark returned in the second act as a silky-voiced Glinda, and Kamal, though he didn't fill out that tight, white suit with quite the same, uh, "flair," yeah, that's it, as originator, André De Shields, was a damn sexy Wiz in his own right. Unlike New York, everything gelled, everything worked, everything was involving, and every single member of the cast from the principals to the ensemble was fully invested in the performance. It was like I was seeing a completely different show. A show I liked with reservations became I show I love to this day. #WizLove – at the Shubert Theatre, Chicago

Sidebar: In the original Broadway production, at least when I saw it in its first year, one actress played Aunt Em and another played Glinda. What's become pretty much standard operating procedure is to double-cast the two roles and have one actress play both. Easy enough to do since the characters never overlap. In 1982, Tinman Ben Harney would win the Tony Award for Best Actor in a musical for Dreamgirls. Lion Ken Prymus achieved film immortality when he sang "Suicide Is Painless," which was written specifically for him, in the fake funeral sequence in the movie MASH. He also holds the record for the longest-running featured performer for his nearly 2700 continuous performance run in the original Cats.

Fun Fact: Apparently I was not the only person who was underwhelmed with the Broadway original. In her November, 1976, review of The Wiz when it opened at Chicago's Shubert for an open-ended run, critic Linda Winer said, "…I sat uneasily through the same show in New York two years ago wondering what all the Tony Awards were about…I tiptoed silently away, hoping the popular Wiz would click its platform heels three too many times and disappear…" But she loved the Chicago production, especially Ms. Harris, who she felt brought a "tender magic…missed in the original." Perfectly said, Ms. Winer. She was also noted how well André De Shields, who played The Wiz for the initial few weeks of the Chicago run, filled out his costume. See. I'm not a total perv. Other people notice these things, too.

August, 1978. The Wiz eased on down the road to Milwaukee for two weeks in August, 1978, and I took my parents to see it. I wasn't sure how they'd react to it since this wasn't quite The Wizard of Oz that they were familiar with and especially since my dad was a good, old, southern Illinois born-and-raised country boy. I was worried that the hip urbaness of the show would not be their thing. Therefore, with some trepidation I asked my dad at the interval if he was enjoying the show, and he laughed and quoted me one of the Wiz's lines about platform pumps. I nearly spit out my intermission gin and tonic. Yes, my dad could surprise me at times. This Second National Company tour didn't stint on the bells and whistles of the production, nor did it stint on the cast, which featured a wonderful lead performance by Deborah Malone as Dorothy. A great time was had by all – at Uihlein Hall, Milwaukee

Casting Tidbits: the wonderful Lillias White was not only in The Wiz ensemble, but also the understudy for Dorothy. What I wouldn't give to her hear wrap that voice of hers around "Home." Annie Joe Edwards, who spread evilness with sass as Evillene, played a supporting role, under the name of Annie Joe, in 1986's legendary, for all the wrong reasons, "Legends." She's now a music teacher in the Birmingham, Alabama, area.

Not an ideal place to see musicals, but a damn sight better than the cavernous and horrible Arie Crown Theatre at McCormick Place.

February, 1979. Two years after an extended stay at the Shubert, the First National Company of The Wiz played a return engagement, this time at the Civic Opera House, and once again starring the wonderful Reneé Harris as Dorothy. Kamal was still on board as The Wiz. So was Vivian Bonnell (Addaperle), Carolyn Miller (Evillene), and Charles Valentino, aka Valentino aka Charles V. Harris (Scarecrow). Apparently the man can't decide what moniker he wants to be known by. Considering this production had been on the road for over 2 ½ years by this time, the production still looked fresh and the performances still sparkled. A large group of us went, most newbies to the wonders of the show. They left the Opera House Wiz converts. – at the Civic Opera House, Chicago

A new logo for The Wiz. Not as striking as the original, in my opinion.

October, 1983. On a cross-country tour that would end in a critically-dismissed, twenty performance, rather spectacularly failed Broadway return, original star Stephanie Mills, now billed above the title as "Stephanie Mills in…," returned to the role that made her a star, and she was pretty much the only thing the Chicago critics liked about this production. (The New York critics were even less kind.) Charles Valentino apparently decided on his go-to name and was still playing the Scarecrow some 6 ½+  years after I'd first seen him in the role at the Shubert. For this tour the roles of Aunt Em and Glinda were once again played by two actresses. I don't remember much about this production, so overall I must not have been very impressed. I do remember Stephanie Mills, except for a blazing "Home," didn't do it for me and I sorely missed the warmth and charm of Reneé Harris. In New York, this failed revival would be the only full-scale revival of the show to date. – at the Shubert Theatre, Chicago

Unrelated-But-Still-Interesting-Sidebar: Surprisingly, another smash hit, this time from the 60s, the 1508-performance Mame, has had only one full-scale revival to date. That one, in the summer of 1983, like The Wiz, was a critical miss, even with a raft of stars from the original production, including Angela Lansbury, and closed after a month's run. Will the Bette Midler-led Hello, Dolly! fare better?

June, 2009. An Encores Summer Stars presentation, this was the first full(ish)-scale production of The Wiz in twenty-five years, or since the short-lived 1984 revival. Come to think of it, this was the first production of any scale of The Wiz to play Broadway since 1984. I say full(ish) because the scenery, while serviceable, lacked a feeling of being designed for permanence, a feature not lacking in either the costumes by Paul Tazewell or the lighting by the redoubtable Ken Billington. It gave the production a bit of a summer stock look. Director Thomas Kail and choreographer Andy Blankenbuehler would both earn Tony Awards in 2016 for their contributions to Hamilton, but here both direction and choreography were a bit messy and unfocused. And the show itself showed its age a bit and could have used a judicious cut here and there. Casting pop star Ashanti as Dorothy may have been a wise box-office move, but perhaps was not the wisest choice for the part. Known for her formidable voice, she sang the hell out of her numbers, and gave a sweet and personable, if wooden, performance as everyone's favorite girl from Kansas. To her credit, though, and she gets major props for this, she was obviously working very hard to give the very best performance she could and that eagerness to please and her glittering smile both went a long way. Second-billed-above-the-the-title Orlando Bloom (The Wiz) was weak in Act One, but solid in Act Two. The supporting cast was uniformly fine, especially future Tony-winner James Monroe Iglehart (Aladdin) as the Lion (his "Be a Lion" duet with Ashanti stopped the show) and an affecting performance by Joshua Henry (future star of The Scottsboro Boys) as Tinman. In the end, however, it was the luminous LaChanze who made the whole thing more than worth the price of admission with her showstopping and effortless rendition of  "If You Believe," inexpicably called "Believe in Yourself" in the program. Showstopping? Did I say showstopping? Hell, the audience screamed their approval. And then screamed and applauded some more. And, oh, yes, it was quite wonderful to hear the show's magnificent overture played by a large, lush orchestra. Sigh. – at New York City Center, New York

Final thoughts. The Encores production was not much-loved by the critics, praising some parts of it, while dismissing others, and this is pretty much the history of this show since it first appeared in 1975. It is not a perfect show. Not everything works. Some parts, not many, but some, border on dull. But, here's the deal. This show brings me such joy, I really don't care what the critics think. And that's why this is my #10 on my Top Ten List.

Postscript: In December, 2015, NBC telecast a live production of The Wiz, officially called The Wiz Live! that justifiably garnered good reviews. This version included a new song for the Scarecrow, though the character was still annoying as hell. The big change, however, was a gender switch for The Wiz, casting top-billed Queen Latifah in the role. The switch provided some fresh perspective and most of it worked really well. However, the songs were not Queen Latifah's friends and she vocally struggled with them. Based on the positive reception, it's been rumored a revival based on this version will be coming to Broadway.

Well, enough easing down the road. Until next time.

© 2016 Jeffrey Geddes