Review: New Revival of THE WIZ Lands at OC's Segerstrom Center

 If we've learned anything in these past two years — especially with the fervor behind the hit two-part big-screen adaptation of the hit Broadway musical WICKED — the magical stories surrounding the merry ol' land of OZ continue to fascinate the world more than a century later.

Perhaps partially motivated to precede that highly-anticipated hybrid wave of new-ness and nostalgia in cinemas, a brand-new, tweaked stage revival of the celebrated Tony Award-winning 1975 hit Broadway musical The Wiz was brought back to life in the fall of 2023 as, at first, an out-of-town touring production that even made a stop at Hollywood's Pantages Theatre in early 2024 before finally making its Broadway bow later that year. 

That resulting production — directed by Schele Williams and featuring new added material by comedy writer Amber Ruffin to "modernize" William F. Brown's original book — was met with mostly mixed reactions, but with one unanimous verdict stating that the show's music — and the impressive vocal performances elicited from its cast — is its biggest strength, and the main reason for audiences to revisit this beloved, soul-infused reimagining of L. Frank Baum's 1900 classic The Wonderful Wizard of Oz as seen through the lens of modern African-American culture.

That seems to still be the case for the revival's OC arrival in 2026, which recently opened this week and continues performances at Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa through January 25.

Like its classic source material, The Wiz — featuring music mostly from composer Charlie Smalls — follows the magical adventure of young Dorothy Gale as she's (literally) swept up from the dusty, sepia-toned plains of Kansas to the wildly audacious Technicolor world of Oz. 

Disillusioned with her seemingly bland life and often made to feel like an outsider in her own surroundings, this iteration of young Dorothy (played at this performance by the bubbly Lyn Webber) soon becomes a stranger in an even stranger land when a tornado picks up her home and crashes it onto the land of Oz, fortuitously killing the evil witch Evamene that had been holding an entire Munchkin village hostage. Dorothy's accidental heroic deed impresses Addapearle, the Good Witch of the North (played by Kaiyla Gross at this performance) and her sis Glinda, the Good Witch of the South (the awesome Sheherazade). Naturally, getting back home becomes her new wish, and so Addapearle and Glinda advise her to seek counsel with the all-powerful Wizard who lives at the Emerald City whom they feel might be able to help her. 

And thus begins her quest, where she is thrust into a wonder-filled journey that promises answers to her deepest yearnings for belonging, which are amplified by run-ins with a colorful cast of characters that include a not-so-scary Scarecrow (the adorkably superb Elijah Ahmad Lewis) who longs for a missing brain, a Tinman (played by Robert Crenshaw at this performance) who seeks a heart, and a "cowardly" Lion (the excellent Cal Mitchell) who yearns for courage. 

Together, the foursome strut down the yellow brick road to seek out the Wiz (the playfully cheeky Alan Mingo, Jr.) all believing that this mysterious, powerful man alone holds the key to fulfilling their individual dreams. Along the way, they encounter glittering splendor, raucous celebration, frightful dangers, and the sinister force of Evamene's extremely angry sis Evillene, the Wicked Witch of the West (played by the incredible Kyla Jade) who, more than anything, wants her dead sister's silver shoes back from Dorothy.

A mixed bag of implied earnestness and forced eccentricity, this musically entertaining but oddly put-together production has some of the best, most expressive singing voices you'll hear on this stage — which proves to be the show's go-to, wonderfully welcome, front-and-center attention grabber that dutifully tries to distract us from some of the production's stagecraft shortcomings. 

I cannot stress enough how impressive this show is music-wise. The remarkable vocal work of this ensemble cast is just uniformly, jaw-droppingly outstanding, and by the time we get hit with Jade's showstopping "Don't Nobody Bring Me No Bad News," you feel like you definitely got your money's worth. And, of course, Webber's wholesome finalé of "Home" is so beautifully done that it feels like a warm, comforting hug after a conveyor belt of non-stop sass.

For the most part, this new revival does exude palpable joy and mirth — mostly during the musical performances — and does so despite a plethora of awkward staging choices that make the show feel slightly choppy, disjointed, and at times just a tad peculiar from what you would expect. 

From bright but lazy background projections to transitional pacing problems, to sometimes too-quippy barbs that feel like nothing more than throwaway soundbites from reality show confessional booths, the show resembles ecstatic but jumbled vignettes pieced together with fragile straw.

In its core foundation, this revival of The Wiz sometimes comes off being, perhaps, too enamored with its own updates. 

Here, Ruffin — whose revisions to the superb revival of Some Like It Hot feel much more in harmony to that particular show's revisionist needs — updates Brown's original book with a barrage of snarky, often histrionic-delivered punchlines that sound like it needed a bit more workshopping from a writers' room. Many of the jokes do land fine, eliciting chuckles and even sustained periods of communal laughter; others, though, teeter on cringe-y and/or are clearly trying too hard to pander to the TikTok crowd. 

As a longtime fan of Ruffin's biting humor — clever, playful, and occasionally sharply funny especially when she delivers them herself on Late Night with Seth Myers or even on CNN's Have I Got News For You — here can also feel gratuitous, diluting dramatic stakes in pursuit of those low-hanging LOL punchlines. While the original show balanced exuberance with a genuinely emotional arc for its naive ingenue, this production occasionally sacrifices her emotional quest in favor of immediate, cheap laughs.

But for the most part, though, this revival does genuinely manage to reintroduce audiences new and old to The Wiz's undeniable, imbedded joy… the sense that this improbable (though, after a century, universally familiar) odyssey — propelled by community and song—can yield real transformation. It took a lot to get there, but Dorothy's "Home" is delivered beautifully and with such palpable ferocity by Webber, carrying heavy connotations she hammers home with every gorgeous riff and deeply-felt lyric delivery, even amidst a production that sometimes feels a little too erratic for its own good. 

In this iteration, there are plenty of moments when even spectacle overwhelms storytelling. Where the original 1975 production (and its 1978 film adaptation) felt like exuberant revelations — works that both honored Baum's source material and spun it wildly on its head — this revival can feel like a circus act trapped in goofy hyperdrive. Animated projections and broad visual choices are often asked to do the heavy lifting of world-building, and, at times, that choice leaves Oz feeling oddly cartoonish rather than magical. 

But what is also frustrating is when that much-needed over-the-top staging goes missing from sequences that, actually, desperately needed it the most. 

As one of the show's most important characters in the entire show, it was so disappointing that the iconic Evillene doesn't get the proper extravagant introduction that such a bad-ass deserves. Merely walking on from the wings during both of her big appearances with nary a set up or fanfare, the Wicked Witch of the West deserves better. This is especially needed right before she sings, arguably, the show's most powerful number "Don't Nobody Bring Me No Bad News" — which, of course, Jade still kills despite her denial of a grander entrance.

And while I appreciate the show's out-of-the-box treatment of using dancers to personify both the tornado sequence and the yellow brick road, these interpretive dances are just a little off-putting — considering how visually iconic both that tornado and the road are to the original Wizard of Oz mythology. These important cornerstones are staged in ways that confuse more than clarify, robbing both of their narrative punch. Frankly, I would have actually preferred a "hybrid" approach that provided both a visual and a dance-interpretive showcase to wow the audience even more, upholding the possibilities of theatrical magic.

Clearly, The Wiz revival is a musical caught in a tug-of-war between eras: revering its past and eager to entertain today's audiences, but not always sure how to let the two speak to one another in a coherent, sensical theatrical language. Yet despite this unevenness, the show has no shortage of electrifying moments: powerhouse performances from Webber and Jade, vocal and movement fireworks from the ensemble, rousing sounds from the orchestra under the baton of musical director Victor Simonson, and the unmistakable thrill of a live stage musical that still knows how to get its audience grooving. 

Interlaced with iconic songs such as "Ease On Down the Road," "Don't Nobody Bring Me No Bad News," and "Everybody Rejoice" (a wonderful stand-alone tune contributed by none other than R&B Legend Luther Vandross), and, later, the spiritual balm of "Believe in Yourself" and "Home," this new Wiz definitely feels sonically refreshed. It bears repeating: this cast will give you some of the best-sounding vocals you'll hear or on a stage.

If the longevity of and continuous affection for a Broadway classic is judged by its ability to reflect both its historical significance and its present existence in popular culture, this new revival of The Wiz is somehow caught somewhere between reverence and reinvention. 

There is no question that the show's longstanding and long-heralded legacy as a cultural landmark — a groundbreaking Broadway musical that elevated African-American artistry and reshaped musical theatre canon — still looms large. And, yes, its signature sounds — bathed in glorious R&B, gospel, soul, and Motown-inflected rhythms — remain a worthy-enough reason to celebrate the property. 

But as it stands, this revival production is, in the end, at once beguilingly buoyant and bewilderingly bemusing. And luckily, for many, the show's peculiar attributes are forgivable-enough flaws that shouldn't dissuade anyone from enjoying such a musically-rich show. In that, there is intrinsic value: The Wiz still feels like a communal invitation… to sing, to laugh, and, yes, to believe that somewhere over the rainbow, something marvelous still awaits, even if you trip and stub your toe a little on the road there.

* Follow this reviewer on Bluesky  / Instagram / Threads / X: @cre8iveMLQ *

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Photos from the National Tour of THE WIZ by © Jeremy Daniel, courtesy of Segerstrom Center for the Arts.

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