Lillias White and/or the Wiz : Perfect Cast

[Justice]

Posted: 12/18/04 at 8:03pm

What the hell has Lillias White been up to? She is one of the most underated actresses, who hasn't done an actual Broadway show since The Life....correction: Off-Broadway: Dinah Was..
Where is she? And why aren't they reviving The Wiz starring Lillias as Auntie Em and Queen Latifah as EvilLynn? Anika as Dorothy, and Adrienne Lennox as Miss One. Let's not forget Tanya Pinkins as the Good witch of the North? And Taye Diggs as the Wizard.

Updated On: 12/18/04 at 08:03 PM

[broadwaystar2b]

Posted: 12/18/04 at 8:35pm

well, Lillias has done the Actor's Fund Dreamgirls Concert
but yes, she does indeed need to return to the Broadway in a more permanent nature

[Thetruth]

Posted: 12/18/04 at 10:30pm

I'm a big Lilias fan. Her live CD is in heavy rotation in my CD player. I'm with the idea of her being in The Wiz, but I don't know about Queen Latifah playing Evilene. Lilias should be Evilene and QL should be Auntie Em, the role she's playing in that new Muppets Wizard of Oz movie. I would've liked to see Lilias as Rose in Gypsy. Somebody needs to write a show (not a jukebox show) for the older soulful ladies of bway so Melba Moore, Jennifer Holiday and Lilias can come back.

[bjivie2]

Posted: 12/18/04 at 10:34pm

I've been pulling for Jennifer Holliday as Evilene ever since they announced the show. And yes, Lillias would be great as Aunt Em. Anika as Dorothy. Billy Porter as The Wiz. Phylicia Rashad as Glinda? This could be a great cast...

[Gothampc]

Posted: 12/18/04 at 10:36pm

I don't believe they will do a Broadway revival of The Wiz while Wicked is still running. It's just too much Wizard.

[morosco]

Posted: 12/18/04 at 10:41pm

Interestingly enough....Lillias White was a great Dorothy in one of the tours of THE WIZ in the late 70's.

[bjivie2]

Posted: 12/18/04 at 10:41pm

I doubt that they'll back out now. It's been officially announced that a revival is happening next year. They might even have already booked a theatre... I'm not sure. I think it's a great time for a Wiz revival, as long as they don't do "color-blind" casting. It's a black show, people. Leave it that way.

[morosco]

Posted: 12/18/04 at 10:45pm

An interesting quote the January 1976 Playbill for Broadway's THE WIZ:

"My favorite musical on Broadway at the moment is THE WIZ...because it captures the most elusive quality there is...joy." -Stephen Sondheim

[maybethistime]

Posted: 12/18/04 at 11:02pm

also keep in mind that the stage version of THE WIZ isn't as "motown"-ish as the movie and doesnt have to be an all-black cast

[bjivie2]

Posted: 12/18/04 at 11:06pm

I'm not even talking about the music. I'm just talking about the show in general. It was conceieved as an all-black version of The Wizard of Oz. And I disagree with you about the sound of the musical and the movie. The musical is definitely much more raw than the movie, but it's just as Motown. If anything, the movie is more disco than the musical. And it's not called the "super Motown" musical, it's called the "super soul" musical... or something like that. Haha.

[morosco]

Posted: 12/18/04 at 11:28pm

The Broadway production was: THE WIZ the Super Soul Musical "Wonderful Wizard of Oz"

When it went on the road: THE WIZ the new musical version of "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz"

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 12/19/04 at 3:33am

Well, the late Charlie Smalls wrote an R&B/gospel score for The Wiz (and a great one). "The Wiz" doesn't HAVE to be an all-black show, but it does need to have singers who can comfortably do R&B and gospel.

There hasn't been any news on the progress of the revival in the last several months, but they've apparently been working hard to update the book (that's laden with early 70s slang). Des McAnuff (who's in charge of directing the production) has said that the Broadway revival will feature a multi-racial/multi-ethnic cast -- I suppose that could be fine, but I'm personally hoping that at least Dorothy (and by extension Aunt Em) and Evilene (because as Smalls wrote the music for the character, it requires a REAL powerful gospel-trained singer) will be cast with African-American performers.

I, too, immediately thought Jennifer Holliday was the obvious choice to play Evilene -- as a Dreamgirls fanatic from way back and having watched that woman deliver standing ovation after standing ovation throughout the last 20+ years, they'd be crazy not to give her a chance to stop the show nightly and totally wipe out the audience with "No Bad News" (not to mention, it'd be great to double-cast her as Aunt Em -- she'd be amazing doing "The Feeling We Once Had"). Lillias is, of course, first rate (though, as good as she is, don't forget that there was a reason that she was Jennifer's understudy in Dreamgirls -- Jennifer, even now when her voice is not quite what it was 20 years ago -- has at least an octave more range than Lillas does). Mary Bond Davis is also a good choice.

It'll be interesting to see who ends up being cast as Dorothy (I've heard that Anika Noni Rose turned it down, but I'm not sure about that). Marcy Harriell is wonderful as well. There are lots of great young singers out there.

Last I heard, McAnuff and the producers are still aiming to bring The Wiz to Broadway this season (and incidentally, I would think that the success of WICKED just makes a WIZ revival that much more likely -- if I owned the rights to THE WIZ, to my mind, when would be a better time than NOW to cash in on the name recognition and popularity of the show, when so many people can't even get in to see WICKED because it's soldout so many months in advance?), but we'll have to see if they can pull it off .....

[broadwayguy2]

Posted: 12/19/04 at 3:51am

last I heard, the show is pretty much sehelved for now what with the dodgers and their producing issues...

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 12/19/04 at 4:19am

Not surprising (I was wondering why I hadn't heard any updates about it in months), but that's too bad. Hopefully the Dodgers will get their act together at some point.

And with or without them, The Wiz has SO much potential as a revival, with the right director, choreographer and design team. I saw the original with Stephanie Mills as a kid and would love to see a first rate revival of it at some point -- SOON.

[broadwayguy2]

Posted: 12/19/04 at 5:00am

I agree. I want to see a GOOD revival of the show. I love the stage version so much. I don't want Des McAnuff at the helm though.. he is SO hit or miss...

a few of my girls for Dorothy ::

~Anika Noni Rose
~Dequina Moore
~Sasha Allen
~Tracee Beazer

[Derek]

Posted: 12/19/04 at 3:41pm

I think a great choice for Evilene would be Mary Bond Davis. She plays Motormouth in Hairspray, I think she'd make a great one

[bjivie2]

Posted: 12/19/04 at 3:44pm

How's this for stunt casting: Stephanie Mills as Glinda

[PleaseChangeMe]

Posted: 12/19/04 at 4:02pm

My only choice for Dorothy is Anika Noni Rose. She's already proven she can act the stage, belt away, and is the PERFECT age.

[LoringsGuy]

Posted: 12/19/04 at 4:10pm

This thread has me thinking back to a tour of THE WIZ I saw about 8 years ago with Peabo Bryson as the Wiz, CeCe Peniston as Glinda, and Grace Jones as Evilene. It was wretched. More like a pop concert where they happened to be singing songs from THE WIZ, as opposed to an actual production.

[leomaxfrank]

Posted: 12/19/04 at 6:45pm

Also, Andrew Lippa is apparently writing a few more songs for the show.

[kyle.]

Posted: 12/19/04 at 8:22pm

LoringsGuy, i saw that production. what a horror.

the set was basically a turn table and a smoke machine that was almost ALWAYS ON.

i saw the production in detroit, and when evilene was carried out in the shoulders of hunky, shirtless men all the women in the audiance went crazy and a couple males in the back called out THERE ARE CHILDREN HERE! haha. it was great.

[Mojojo5]

Posted: 12/19/04 at 8:41pm

Lord, whenever there is a The Wiz thread I somehow feel compelled to re-think my Broadway dream cast...

Dorothy - Anika Noni Rose or Sasha Allen
The Scarecrow- Darius DeHaas
Tin Man- Ben Vereen
Lion- Billy Porter or Michael McElroy
The Wiz- Billy Porter
Addapearle, the Feel-good Girl - Lillias White or Carol Channing (I mean, she is half-black)
Glinda the Good- Vanessa L. Williams
Evilline- Jennifer Holliday
Aunt Em- Aisha DeHaas

Now, here's my made-for-tv version of The Wiz...
Dorothy- Sasha Allen
Scarecrow- Justin Timberlake
Tin Man- Wayne Brady
Lion- Rueben Studdard
The Wiz- Andre 3000
Addapearle, the Feel-Good Girl- Whoopi Goldberg
Glinda the Good- Whitney Houston
Evilline- Patti Labelle
Aunt Em- Queen Latifah

Well, that's my casting for the moment. I could change my mind at anytime.

Zach

[morosco]

Posted: 12/19/04 at 11:11pm

How about Fantasia as Dorothy?

[Mojojo5]

Posted: 12/20/04 at 2:28am

I think Fantasia is a little too fierce for Dorothy. I just can't picture her as a frightened little girl from Kansas. Now she would be a fabulous Lorrell in Dreamgirls ("Yeeeesss, I knew you was married when I met you!!!")

Zach

[kyle.]

Posted: 12/20/04 at 3:01am

i see what you are saying mojojo, but then again i am remembering her tearful performance of summertime on the show and she might be able to pull it off.