This show made me sad. Mostly sad for the performers who are so talented, yet are stuck in a production that looks SO cheap, even some community theatres would be embarrassed by it. I was hoping folks on this board were exaggerating but wow, every time a new scene began I was taken aback by just how terrible everything looked. I truly wonder how much work Hannah Beachler (Scenic Design) and Sharen Davis (Costume Design) actually did on this show. If I were them, I’d be too embarrassed to have my name attached to this. There wasn’t a single thing on that stage that was visually appealing. The costumes were as cheap as they come. My jaw dropped seeing the cast in tie-dye sweat suits during Brand New Day. It was giving elementary school talent show. The set pieces were shockingly bad, including the AI rendered images on the LED screen. I keep hearing people excuse the poor set design by saying “Well, it’s a tour, so the set couldn’t be that elaborate.” BS. Plenty of shows have great sets on tour. Hell, I saw the non-equity tour of THE WIZARD OF OZ 8 years ago, and that looked 10 times better than this. I mean……they couldn’t even have Glinda fly??? NO stage magic at all? Where was the creativity? What was the vision for this show? I just wanna know how things went so wrong.
The changes to the book were hit and miss. Something that I think Harvey Fierstein got right with his adaptation for THE WIZ LIVE is Dorothy still not wanting to be in Kansas even after Aunt Em sings The Feeling We Once Had. Having her join in and sing with Aunt Em didn’t make sense to me. If things are resolved between her and Aunt Em by the end of that song, then why does she need to go to Oz? What lesson is she really learning from being there? I appreciated the way that Amber Ruffin tried to tie Evillene into the stories of how the Scarecrow, Tinman, and Lion became the way they are, but it didn’t quite work for me, especially at the end. The ending completely takes away the whole “You’ve had brains, heart, and courage all along” message that THE WIZARD OF OZ in almost every other iteration conveys. Also, I HATE how they make The Wiz himself such an unrepentant dick. Such a strange choice. And his “throne” was so poorly designed it made me laugh.
I could go on, but why continue to beat a dead horse. I’d been hoping for a revival of this show for so long. It’s such a shame that this is the production we got. Maybe in another 50 years someone will get it right. As a Black performer who wanted to love this production, I was completely let down. This WIZ is a low down dirty shame.
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