La Jolla's "The Wiz"- Page 2

[sondhead]

Posted: 12/19/06 at 10:31am

"Actually, the immersive set was designed for a traditional proscenium space. La Jolla's Mandell Weiss Theatre has a traditional proscenium. The additional seating is on the stage (patrons had to make their way backstage to get to their seats) and the "yellow brick road" extended out over either side of the proscenium into the house. I was also told that the set was originally designed for the Hirschfeld when they were going to do a direct B'way mounting of the show 5 years ago."

DId you see the show? IF the Mandell Weiss had a proscenium, they took it out for this production. I'm telling you the set was specifically designed to be as immersive as possible. Aside from audience being on stage, several of the elements rolled out into the audience including a yellow-brick road that replaced a row of seats. Actually, if Circle in the Square were available, they wouldn't have to change anything. Those are very comparable spaces.

[broadwayguy2]

Posted: 12/19/06 at 11:24am

sond, that theatre IS a proscenium space... the set COVERED the proscenium and they removed a few rowas of seats.. go to the playhouse website... you can see a seating chart and pics of the theatre itself whithout the WIZ set. Sorry to burst your bubble..

[DAME]

Posted: 1/17/07 at 4:45pm

No broadway transfer after all huh?

[purpleprince101]

Posted: 1/17/07 at 5:00pm

i hope it transfers!

[otis33]

Posted: 1/17/07 at 5:16pm

I had a good friend in the show. She says there is still talk of tranferring the show - but, most of the cast has taken other jobs, and basically moved on. Not the greatest experience for her.

[SeanMartin]

Posted: 1/17/07 at 7:02pm

Having seen images of both this and the recent Netherlands production, I'd prefer seeing the latter. It seems much more Broadway friendly.

[neddyfrank2]

Posted: 1/17/07 at 7:38pm

Just remember how long it took Jersey Boys to transfer. That was well over a year and this show has only been closed for about two months.

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 1/17/07 at 9:27pm

It's not transferring. Not as it was at La Jolla, at least. Look for some "retooling" at another regional theatre in the next year or so.

Even if it had been better received in San Diego, the producers may have realized that this is really not a very good time for a revival of THE WIZ. There was apparently little interest from group sales floaters, and WICKED-mania is proving to be an obstical rather than an asset.

Des McAnuff's concept also apparently changed at fairly the 11th hour (his original idea was much more multi-cultural but he chickened out) - so the creative team needs more time to figure this out before braving NYC.
Updated On: 1/17/07 at 09:27 PM

[neddyfrank2]

Posted: 1/17/07 at 9:45pm

It's not transferring. Not as it was at La Jolla, at least. Look for some "retooling" at another regional theatre in the next year or so.

The La Jolla production has not said that they will not transfer. At the moment they still have two other shows that they are still planning on transfering (Zhivago and Palm Beach). They are not thinking about transfering it in this next year but there is a strong possibilty that it still may. Just because they haven't announced it transfering two months after it closed does not mean that it won't. If you look at the playhouses past records it takes them about a year or two to get to Broadway. Look at Spring Awakening which first started at the playhouse! Also with Des leaving and getting a new artistic director they have many other things on their minds...

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 1/17/07 at 10:27pm

I consider a transfer to be a production that moves directly to Broadway or moves with the same physical production/cast more or less in tact. JERSEY BOYS was a transfer - and opened on Broadway eight months after it closed in CA - but it was formally announced for Broadway very soon after it closed at La Jolla - certainly before two months.

I do not consider productions like DRACULA which played at La Jolla and opened on Broadway years later with a completely different cast and creative team to be a transfer.

I have no idea the fate that awaits ZHIVAGO or PALM BEACH, but I doubt either will turn up in NYC with the same cast/creative team - i.e in a form I would call a transfer.

Ditto THE WIZ. I didn't say the production wouldn't ever open on Broadway - but if it does - its not going to be a direct transfer of what was recently seen at La Jolla. There will be significant retooling of the show and I assume significant recasting because - as otis says, the cast has been released from their contracts and have largely "moved on."
Updated On: 1/17/07 at 10:27 PM

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 1/17/07 at 10:29pm

I still can't help but wonder if it doesn't make a LOT more sense for McAnuff to grab a new book writer and composing team and take the original Wizard of Oz property (which is in the public domain) and create a brand new 2007 reconceptualization of the original material, rather than trying to do some multicultural rewrite and update of a very 70s, very black, very specific vision of the tale (which was itself a reconceptualization) for today's audiences. He has all the resources he needs at La Jolla to create something new, so I don't see the point of expending so much energy in trying to re-think THE WIZ. Removing the "blackness" and "70s ethos" from THE WIZ removes its very essence and reason for even existing.

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 1/17/07 at 10:32pm

I am totally with you Margo. I think you and I have both been championing the case for simply a "new" urban musical retelling of THE WIZARD OF OZ rather than trying to update and multiculturalize the very 1970s, very black THE WIZ.

[neddyfrank2]

Posted: 1/17/07 at 10:40pm

Well he lost that chance! Eventhough he is director emeritus and will still be involved in the playhouse, he has a brand new job and the playhouse has a brand new artistic director so I doubt he will be involved with the playhouse for a couple of years. By the time he would get around to doing that people would just say that he is just copying what The Wiz and Wicked did to the story.

From the time Jersey Boys opened at the playhouse to the time it opened on Broadway it was over a year.

Margo and Michael Bennett- Did either of you see the show at the playhouse?

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 1/17/07 at 10:47pm

JERSEY BOYS or THE WIZ? I saw THE WIZ and had a lot of problems with it.

JERSEY BOYS closed at La Jolla in March 2005. It began previews in NYC in October 2005. It was actually only seven months between CA and Broadway.

And SPRING AWAKENING only had a workshop at La Jolla - it also had workshop productions at Sundance and the Atlantic - who ultimately produced the show. What's on Broadway right now is definitely not a "transfer" from La Jolla.

[neddyfrank2]

Posted: 1/17/07 at 10:57pm

Jersey Boys opened at the La Jolla Playhouse October 17, 2004 (previews began the 5th) and was then extended three times and ran through January 16, 2005(becoming the longest running show in playhouse history). It was announced that Jersey Boys will make a Broadway transfer to the Virginia Theater on May 23, 2005 which was four months after it closed. The opening night date was November 6, 2005 which was 13 months after it opened at the La Jolla Playhouse and 11 months after it closed at the La Jolla Playhouse.

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 1/17/07 at 10:57pm

I didn't see THE WIZ at La Jolla. My comments on it were merely addressing the proposed "multi-cultural" non-70s reconception, not the actual execution (which apparently wasn't truly multicultural).

[lite2shine]

Posted: 1/17/07 at 11:41pm

I actually saw Palm Beach, Zhivago, and The Wiz and none of them has a potential for BW IMO. Well maybe Zhivago if they re-cast. Palm Beach reminds me of Drowsy Chaperone (even though PB opened earlier than DC), and I don't think it'll work on BW.

The reason I didn't see JB was that during the extension the show was SOLD OUT even during weekday. The aforementioned three shows were not. Updated On: 1/17/07 at 11:41 PM

[B3TA07]

Posted: 1/17/07 at 11:56pm

I like Zhivago.

[neddyfrank2]

Posted: 1/18/07 at 12:16am

The hope was that The Drowsy Chaperone would spark more people to invest in Palm Beach. The playhouse does not announce that a show is going to Broadway until it has ALL of the money, which is what the hold up is for Zhivago and Palm Beach they don't have enough investors...yet

[husk_charmer]

Posted: 1/18/07 at 12:16am

I am very inclined to agree with Margo and Michael Bennett. The farther it gets from the La Jolla production, the more and more disention I hear. From the sounds of it, all the "updating" was pretty bad. However, I don't think a 2007 version of Oz will work. Wicked and the MGM Film are too strong and too rooted in our psyches. Oz was still reaching it's cultural phenomenon status during the 70s, giving the Wiz good timing to create a new vision, however, as was wittnesed by the dismal failure of Burton's "Lost in Oz" and the "Muppets' Wizard of Oz" I think it has reached a level that is almost untouchable now. This may just be me.

[RentBoy86]

Posted: 1/18/07 at 1:37am

I think the problem lies with the word "updating." The Wiz can work in today's world and with today's audiences, but not like it was. I don't think we need "Totto Cam" and all that gimmicky stuff. It can still be interesting to teens/audiences today without making it all about Ipods and crap like that. That's what I hate about having a creative who's older try and update a story. They try to write what they think we like, but we don't. Give it to someone who's younger.

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 1/18/07 at 2:00am

My bad - I read a press release from March 2005 announcing that JERSEY BOYS had broken the long run of La Jolla Playhouse. Upon closer examination - it does say the show closed in January. Still, the show was announced for Broadway soon after and began previews in October.

But the arguement of dates is a little bit neither here nor there. JERSEY BOYS was an unqualified hit at La Jolla and there was never any industry doubt that it would be transferring to Broadway.

You can't say the same thing for THE WIZ, PALM BEACH or ZHIVAGO, and frankly without McAnuff there to push these musicals on NY investors, I don't really think any of them will be hitting Broadway any time soon.

[neddyfrank2]

Posted: 1/18/07 at 2:08am

You are right about them not hitting Broadway soon, but soon is the key word. That does not mean the will not be transfering at all. Also the Dodger Brothers were there Opening Night of The Wiz along with the other people from Dodger Theatricals (which Des is a part of).

[IAMmyownMUSICAL]

Posted: 1/18/07 at 2:13am

Courtney Corey talked to me today via myspace and I asked her about, because she's coming to the LA cast of Wicked and this is what she said:

"I'm glad you enjoyed The Wiz! I really enjoyed putting it on, we arent going to Broadway right now, especially because all the theatres are full, which is sad for The Wiz but really good for Broadway, you know? But there are talks about it going to Broadway which I would want to do because we would cut a cd and I would get to be apart of it again, so we will see!

Love Ya,
Courtney"

[AnythingCanHappen]

Posted: 1/18/07 at 4:15am

i hope one of the parishiners reads this and has a heart attack.

let the church/theatre be a theatre again.

its okay for churches to become theatres.

but vise versa? NO.