Ain’t No Party Like an Oz Party

On Tuesday, Beth and I saw The Wiz on Broadway for the first time, at the Marquis Theatre. It was revived recently, with Wayne Brady playing the titular role. Fortunately, he did not forget the lyrics. The show was a lot of fun, with excellent music and performances, very emotionally charged.

I’m not entirely sure how much the script has changed over time. I did notice some more contemporary references that I strongly suspect weren’t there in the seventies, but I think the show was designed to be somewhat loose and conceptual. The cyclone, Yellow Brick Road, and poppies were all played by actors. (In the latter case, that was true in the 1902 stage play of The Wizard of Oz as well.) Glinda’s role was expanded, with Addaperle calling her in near the beginning, and she sang lead on “He’s the Wiz” with her sister and the Munchkins on backing vocals. There was also additional backstory for Evillene, and personal reasons for the other characters to hate her. For instance, the Tin Woodman says that he was cursed because he criticized Evillene’s karaoke performance. Seems kind of crazy anyway, because whatever else you want to say about her, she can certainly sing. It’s also mentioned that Evamean, the Wicked Witch of the East, can control the weather, which helps to explain how her sister could keep away from water for all that time. The Cowardly Lion did a very gay-coded performance, including repeated references to finding the right color to dye his mane, in line with Bert Lahr’s take on the character. There were no Winged Monkeys in this version (Dorothy and her friends just walked right into Evillene’s castle), but there were Kalidahs (pronounced “Kal-EE-dahs), although they didn’t look like bears or tigers. I’d say this is definitely worth seeing.