|
''The Wiz: The Super Soul Musical "Wonderful Wizard of Oz"'' is a musical with music and lyrics by Charlie Smalls (and others) and book by William F. Brown. It is an urbanized retelling of L. Frank Baum's classic 1900 children's novel ''The Wonderful Wizard of Oz'' in the context of modern African-American culture. It opened on October 21, 1974 at the Morris A. Mechanic Theatre in Baltimore, Maryland and moved to the Majestic Theatre〔This was not the same Majestic Theatre that played ''The Wizard of Oz'' in 1903, which was on Columbus Circle, where Time Warner Center now stands.〕 with a new cast on January 5, 1975. The 1975 Broadway production won seven Tony Awards, including Best Musical. The musical was an early example of Broadway's mainstream acceptance of works with an all-black cast. The musical has had revivals in New York, London, San Diego and the Netherlands, and a limited-run revival was presented by ''Encores!'' at New York City Center in June 2009. A big-budget film adaptation of the same name was released in 1978 and has since become a cult classic. A live television production of the stage show, ''The Wiz Live!'', will be broadcast on NBC on December 3, 2015. ==Auditions and Broadway== The idea for the musical originated with producer Ken Harper. He replaced the original director, Gilbert Moses, with Geoffrey Holder in Detroit during out-of-town tryouts. The original Baltimore cast included Renee Harris as Dorothy, Charles Valentino as the Scarecrow, Ben Harney as the Tin Man, Ken Prymus as the Cowardly Lion, and Butterfly McQueen as the Queen of the Field Mice. Only Harney would remain in the Broadway cast, but in a much smaller role. Harris stayed on as understudy for the role of Dorothy, as did McQueen for the role of Addaperle. The musical opened on January 5, 1975 at the Majestic Theatre, with Geoffrey Holder as director and the following cast:〔. 〕 *Stephanie Mills as Dorothy *Hinton Battle as the Scarecrow *Tiger Haynes as the Tin Man *Ted Ross as the Lion *Dee Dee Bridgewater as Glinda, the Good Witch of the South *André DeShields as the Wizard *Mabel King as Evillene, the Wicked Witch of the West *Clarice Taylor as Addaperle, the Good Witch of the North *Tasha Thomas as Aunt Em *Ralph Wilcox as Uncle Henry *Phylicia Rashad as a Munchkin *Victor Willis as Uncle Henry (replacement), The Wiz (understudy), The Lion (understudy), Tin Man (understudy) () See also () After drawing mixed critical reviews, producer Ken Harper considered closing the show after its Broadway opening night. One source attributes its turnaround success to a publicity campaign that included a TV commercial featuring the cast singing "Ease On Down the Road," a song that proved so popular that it was released as a single recorded by the disco group Consumer Rapport;〔Green, Kay, ''Broadway Musicals, Show by Show'' (1996), Hal Leonard Corporation, ISBN 0-7935-7750-0, p. 241.〕 The single hit the ''Billboard'' Soul Singles chart, peaking at #19 and the Hot 100, peaking at #42. William F. Brown, who wrote the book, gave a more specific explanation in 1993: "20th Century-Fox, the show's major investor, put in another $100,000 to keep it going and everyone agreed to royalty cuts until the production's cost—about $1.1 million—was recouped....By the eighth week, we were selling out." The Broadway production moved to The Broadway Theatre on May 25, 1977, and closed on January 28, 1979, after four years and 1,672 performances.〔 Along with other musicals including ''Purlie'' (1971) and ''Raisin'' (1974), ''The Wiz'' was a breakthrough for Broadway, a large-scale big-budget musical featuring an all-black cast. It laid the foundation for later African-American hits such as ''Bubbling Brown Sugar'', ''Dreamgirls'' and ''Duke Ellington's Sophisticated Ladies''. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「The Wiz」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|