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

[Jarethan]

Posted: 8/31/19 at 11:37pm

The Wiz is a musical that I think was 'of its time'.  I don't care who directs it or who is in it...I think it'd be a horrible failure if produced today.  IMO the score is mostly crummy, with 3 of 4 good to very good songs: Ease on Down the Road, If You Believe, Home and maybe (sic) Don't Nobody Give Me No Bad News.  The TV production a few years back serves, at least to me, to highlight that there is a lot of boring material at the beginning to the show.  I didn't stay too watch the entire thing, so I can't say that that it didn't improve, but the material itself was so forced 40 years post its original opening.

 

So I definitely dont think it is ready for a Broadway revival, unless the producers of King Kong or Honeymoon in Vegas are looking to lose more money.

[BJR]

Posted: 9/1/19 at 10:26am

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.

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 9/1/19 at 12:26pm

BJR said: "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."

I agree 100%.

[hwilki65]

Posted: 2/24/20 at 3:52am

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

[joevitus]

Posted: 2/24/20 at 9:30am

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? 

I thought the NBC version was awful and wish they'd done the show as it was done on Broadway, both in terms of Holder's stunning visuals and William F. Brown's book. 

Would love to get another cast album from the show, hopefully with the various numbers left off the first one. 

[g.d.e.l.g.i.]

Posted: 2/24/20 at 10:18am

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.)

[QueenAlice]

Posted: 2/24/20 at 10:22am

I suppose it is possible that Holder would have filmed pieces of the original production for staging purposes (similarly to the surviving original footage of FOLLIES that have turned up). It would be exciting if the Lincoln Center Library had a complete video of the original production, but they almost certainly did not initiate such a taping themselves. They have a recording of the tour from the early 90s (with Stephanie Mills) when it played the Beacon Theatre. As others have mentioned, bootlegs of the short lived 1980s revival are out there.

[joevitus]

Posted: 2/24/20 at 12:02pm

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!

[uncageg]

Posted: 2/24/20 at 12:37pm

There is a video of Mills Singing it live onstage. Pops up next to the Ross video. And she sings the hell out of it!

Updated On: 2/24/20 at 12:37 PM

[hwilki65]

Posted: 2/24/20 at 2:00pm

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]

Posted: 2/24/20 at 2:12pm

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. 

[hwilki65]

Posted: 2/26/20 at 2:11am

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]

Posted: 2/26/20 at 11:29am

Thank you so much! Short but wonderful. 

[hwilki65]

Posted: 2/26/20 at 8:13pm

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. 

[bk]

Posted: 2/26/20 at 9:50pm

joevitus said: "Well, the first revival (with Stephanie Mills) flopped. I thought there was a revival in the 90's that flopped, too. The movie was a flop. And the NBC Live version was a ratings disappointment. As I understand it, the original largely made itself a hit byselling tickets in bulk to church organizations and being one of the first shows to utilize a t.v. commercial to drum up business--early ticket sales were not strong.So I think a revival in the near future is unlikely.

Frustrating, as there's only the OBC recording to listen to, and it's missing a number of the songs, plus the Overture(there's the Wiz Live! and the soundtrack, if you want to count them as cast recordings, but the same holds true about a number ofbig songs from the show omitted)."

Many forget that the original production had posted a closing notice that was rescinded - the TV commercial did indeed turn the show's fortunes around.  I was there several days before it was to close, sitting a seat away from Angela Lansbury.  I thought the show was dreadful, both book-wise and, frankly, production-wise. But they turned it around and there you have it.   And yes, the movie was a flop, the NBC thing was not a success, and the Beacon was not a success.  I don't know what they did at the Muny, but everything that's had a revisal at the Muny or even was created at the Muny has always tub-thumped about how great it is and that whatever show will soon be on Broadway.