The Wiz at Music Circus - Time for a Broadway Revival?? — Page 2

I think the score is shockingly wonderful, nearly every song.

To challenge with the show was the central idea, of taking an iconic American story and not just casting black actors and setting it in black America, but telling it through the music, the history, the joy of the black community.

So, a) you can't quite recreate that shock again today, since it's definitely been done since, and b) if you were to follow that prompt, it wouldn't sound like these genres of music.

It makes sense why people want to update the orchestrations, but these styles (funk, soul, disco) are hard to update. In the case of hip hop, we've learned a million times in 40 years, you can't turn another genre into hip hop without just writing a proper hip hop song, with perhaps just sampling the original. Anything else just sound cheesy.

I'd argue a revival should be set in the 70s and the sound fully embraced. Take us back and amplify the spirit of that time, the joy in the 70s black community it was trying to tap into. And let that just resonate with now however it does.

GoldenOboe24 said: "What's sad is that aside from the 30-second TV commercial, there doesn't seem to be any footage of the original production- professionally (before B-roll, and just as the Theatre on Film and Tape Archive was barely just getting started) or amateur (portable video cameras in 1975? No.) The only material, other than what might be in the hands of the remaining members of the creative team- seems to be that opening night bootleg- a shame for a show that ran nearly 1,700 performances, moved theaters and ended up bouncing back from nearly closing to taking home seven Tony Awards that year.

Even the Tony Awards ceremony that year didn't perform any selections or medleys from the nominated shows that year-The Wiz, Mack & Mabel, Shenandoah, The Lieutentant,and Angela Lansbury inGypsy."


Interestingly enough, there are video recordings of the original broadway production... they just haven’t made their way to the public yet.

I have been told that Geoffrey Holder had footage of the original production. It was allegedly used for promotional purposes and as press reels although Holder refused to share them up until his death. They most likely are in his wife’s possession.

Most bittersweet, in November 2015 before the NBC live musical was televised there was a one-hour “making-of” documentary that detailed the adaptation of the stage show to the live telecast format. In the version that aired on TV there were a handful of video clips from the Broadway production amounting to maybe 30 seconds in total. However in the version of the documentary that came on the DVD for the NBC musical all instances where there had been clips of the show had been replaced with still images. I managed to screen-record the original documentary so those 30 seconds of clips were preserved although the video lags slightly. I sent emails to any name I could find that had been attached to the documentary but no one was able to tell me where the clips of the Broadway show had come from or where I could access them.

Lastly, I have been told by a handful of people that the Lincoln Center Library does have a copy of the original Broadway production but that it isn’t in their online catalogue yet. I haven’t been able to confirm this.

Updated On: 3/21/20 at 03:52 AM

GoldenOboe24 said: "Just out of curiosity, how did the 1984 Broadway revival at the Lunt-Fontanne differ from the original production? They were both directed by Geoffrey Holder, and it's hard to tell the difference between the two productions in Martha Swope's photos, with much of the same costumes...was it stripped down scenically, orchestrally, etc.? Were there changes made to the show then?"

Since no one ever answered this, I understand that some of the production values (design-wise) were indeed stripped down, this being a stop of a new tour of the show basically, and that they added a new song in Act II for Dorothy called "Wonder Wonder Why."

(Well, not new new, just one of many songs written for the show over the years that was re-purposed into an appropriate moment for it... it had been floating around so long that Diana Ross even recorded a version of it for her studio album of numbers from The Wiz that was supposed to be released at the same time as the movie but instead languished in a vault until recently.)

g.d.e.l.g.i. said: "GoldenOboe24 said: "Just out of curiosity, how did the 1984 Broadway revival at the Lunt-Fontanne differ from the original production? They were both directed by Geoffrey Holder, and it's hard to tell the difference between the two productions in Martha Swope's photos, with much of the same costumes...was it stripped down scenically, orchestrally, etc.? Were there changes made to the show then?"

Since no one ever answered this, I understand that some of the production values (design-wise) were indeed stripped down, this being a stop of a new tour of the show basically, and that they added a new song in Act II for Dorothy called "Wonder Wonder Why."

(Well, notnewnew, just one of many songs written for the show over the years that was re-purposed into an appropriate moment for it... it had been floating around so long that Diana Ross even recorded a version of it for her studio album of numbers fromThe Wizthat was supposed to be released at the same time as the movie but instead languished in a vault until recently.)"

Never knew about this song or this album and appreciate the link!

joevitus said: "Interesting news about the original having been videotaped by Holder, but are you sure the clips on NBC aren't from the revival--from which, there are many videos available on YouTube?"

The clips are definitely not from the revival. It’s evident by what’s visible of the sets (which were very different in the original production) and the costumes- take for example, in the original Addaperle had a corkscrew wig and in the revival it was an afro. I’ll see if I can post them online somewhere although when I tried to upload them in 2015 YouTube flagged them saying they belonged to NBC.

joevitus said: "I was actually going to add "You can tell which production it is by the costumes" but you knew that! Wish I'd seen the footage."

I’ve put what I have up on YouTube! It may get flagged so download it quick haha

https://youtu.be/Pahi07QnfIE

joevitus said: "Thank you so much! Short but wonderful."

My pleasure! I really wish there was more out there. Hopefully in the following years as we approach the 50th anniversary more will surface.