THE WIZ Officially Part of La Jolla Season

From Playbill.com:

"Des McAnuff's long-expected new staging of the musical The Wiz will come to life at his La Jolla Playhouse as part of the company's new season along with the latest stagework from Aaron Sorkin and the announced world premieres of the musical Zhivago and Zorro in Hell.

The artistic director of the California company announced the additions to the 2006-07 Season Jan. 12. Also joining the schedule are a production of Bertolt Brecht's Mother Courage and all wear bowlers. Lee Blessing's Great Falls will not appear, as previously was expected.

"The Wiz has been a dream of mine for some time. I cannot wait to engage the minds of some of America's premiere theatre artists in re-imagining a modern Oz." Based on L. Frank Baum's "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz," Charlie Smalls scored the urban take on the classic Dorothy tale featuring orchestrations by Harold Wheeler — who will be part of the process. McAnuff stated, "Our production will reflect the shifts that have occurred in the dominant pop culture, in both music and theatre, since The Wiz's history-making Broadway debut in the 1970s. This is modern Oz, with a modern look and modern sounds."

News about the forthcoming revival broke in April 2003 and was expected to reach Broadway in spring 2004 but never came to fruition. Now following McAnuff stagings of Dracula, the Musical Billy Crystal's 700 Sundays and Jersey Boys, the work will see the stage. (All three of those works first appeared at La Jolla.)"


http://www.playbill.com/news/article/97303.html

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I am so excited for this. I wonder what sorts of changes will be made to the music.

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I'm jealous of anyone in California...so basically i'm crossing my fingers that this will come to Broadway.

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marcy harriell as dorothy?

Click on the photos of the theatres on the right hand side on the link.
La Jolla Playhouse

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Excellent.

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I have always wanted to deign the set for this show, with 3-D grafitti intertwining and jutting all around the theatre. I hope the deigns are great.

Akiva

Finally! I am so exited!

I would love to see Tamyra Gray as Dorothy. I don't know how well she can act, but she's got the voice. Anika Noni Rose would be a good choice as well.

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"Mary Bond Davis for Evilene."

I second that! Bring Mary back to San Diego!

What does everyone think about the idea that they are making this a multicultural show?

Yeah, does this show have to be an all black cast? I mean color purple I understand, but is there a reason it couldn't be multi-cultural or whatever? I also agree with whoever said that they def. do not need to try to make it sound "hip hop." Ugh, I can't stand when older people try to appeal to the youth by trying to make the music "hip" (I.E. Princesses). Just get rid of the funk, and get rid of the synths.

I don't know, as much as I'd like to see this show on a professional stage again (I saw the original production back in the 70s) I think it's impossible for me NOT to have mixed feelings about it being brought back and completely rethought and revised, especially without any input of Geoffrey Holder and George Faison. This show was originally created to be a re-thinking of "The Wizard of Oz" as a reflection of the BLACK, urban cultural ethos of the 1970s. Certain aspects of the slang in the dialogue, staging and the wonderful score by the late Charlie Smalls are now dated and need to be rethought for 2006. It was decided that Des McAnuff was the man for the job...... OK, we'll see what he comes up with.

But, without seeing anything that's been done, I will say that if it involves getting too far away from the original concept, then I wonder whether McAnuff and the rest might not have been better off just coming up with an ORIGINAL 2006 concept for the show rather than trying to re-invent THE WIZ. I'm not criticizing something I haven't seen, but "The Wizard of Oz" is out there in free public domain for anyone to take if they want to create a new show based on it. THE WIZ was a very specific show of a very specific time when black urban culture had completely taken over popular music and fashion, so much so that a mainstream re-thinking of a classic with afros and bell bottoms and a (then) contemporary r&b score was tried and found to appeal to a wide (white) audience and ended up running on Broadway for several years (not to mention a movie that doesn't need to be ..... mentioned).

Many basic and fundamental changes are said to have happened with this new version of the show. Understand that some shows cease to work entirely once they lose their original visions.

In 1975, THE WIZ was a new hip "funky" version of "The Wizard of Oz" with a score and design that was very much OF the time. In 2006, that's no longer the case, so this is what the new creative team is trying an update. OK. So 30 years later they're attempting to do a complete revision of a complete revision of a 100 year old work? Using a 30 year old score which is now not even remotely (even with major remixing and reorchestrating) hip or funky or contemporary in any sense -- though some of the ballads may still work? Rewriting a book filled with jokes that were lame and Beacon Theatre level 30 years ago -- for those who don't get that reference, please go see "My Grandmomma Prayed For Me" or "Beauty Shop 12" the next time they go through town?

What was briliiant about THE WIZ in 1975 was Geoffrey Holder's extraordinary (later Tony winning) costumes as well as his remarkably imaginative staging (also Tony-winning), George Faison's brilliant (Tony-winning) choreography, Charlie Smalls wonderful (Tony-winning) score and what was, at the time a very fun and funny "hip" version of the Wizard of Oz tale in William F. Brown's (Tony-winning) book and the wonderful performances. If you toss out the the original sets, the book (which apparently they've done -- not much of that book is left now, which in 2006 makes sense), the brilliant costumes, staging, and choreography, they're so "rewriting" and "reworking" "rethinking" and "reorchestrating" the score that it barely resembles what Charlie Smalls wrote.

So exactly what's left of this show???? The Wizard of Oz story, a bunch of black people on stage and Des MacAnuff to tell them what to do. Only it's no longer just black people -- it's now "MULTI-CULTURAL" so it's black and Asian and Latin and white people staring at him, wondering what they're supposed to be doing, since he's tossed out everything else.

I really don't mean to be cynical -- OK maybe I am. But, given everything, with tons of money at La Jolla and the freedom of YEARS and YEARS to develop something, why not AT LEAST come up with (yet another) NEW version of the Wizard of Oz if that's what he wanted instead of spending THREE YEARS overseeing a rewrite of a rewrite of it? Using a 30 year old score, making it now "multicultural" and thereby destroying what made it originally interesting and unique?" But why would anyone expect more from someone who's now considered as some kind of "savior of Broadway" for delivering a successful Four Seasons jukebox musical and a Billy Crystal standup act? Both are/were competently presented, well-attended and now offer millions to their investors -- that's all that the contemporary theatre is supposed to offer, right? MacAnuff the Hero! Hail Broadway!

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Updated On: 1/13/06 at 07:42 AM