Review: Ease on Down the Road to THE WIZ at Citizens Opera House

If you see the stage musical “The Wiz,” don’t go looking for Toto. The little dog, a big part of the 1938 feature film “The Wizard of Oz,” is nowhere to be found in this musical retelling of L. Frank Baum’s 1900 children’s novel “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.”

But while Dorothy’s adventure may not involve running away from home to protect her beloved pup, even without Toto, “The Wiz” – being presented by Broadway in Boston at Citizens Bank Opera House through August 24 – has plenty going for it. Indeed, even 50 years after it first opened at Broadway’s Majestic Theatre, where it won seven Tony Awards including Best Musical and Best Score for a Musical and ran for four years, “The Wiz” is still a flashy, fun way to experience the Emerald City.

When the original production arrived on Broadway, the show – with book by William F. Brown and blues, jazz, and pop-inspired music and lyrics by Charlie Smalls with additional songs by the team of Nick Ashford and Valerie Simpson along with Luther Vandross – was one of the first to feature an all-black cast, which included Stephanie Mills as Dorothy and Andre De Shields as the title character, and told the familiar tale with references to what was then contemporary black culture. So popular was the original stage production that it spawned a 1978 feature film adaptation starring Diana Ross as Dorothy, Michael Jackson as Scarecrow, Richard Pryor as the Wiz, Nipsey Russell as Tinman, and Lena Horne as Glinda the Good Witch.

The film wasn’t a commercial success, but the all-star cast has since helped it become a kind of cult classic. And as it did with the Broadway version, its signature song, “Ease on Down the Road,” has helped – hitting the Billboard charts twice, going to number one on the Billboard Hot Dance/Music Club Play Chart in 1975 with a recording by the studio disco group Consumer Rapport, and reaching number 17 on the Billboard Hot Soul Singles chart in 1978 for a Quincy Jones-produced duet version featuring Jackson and Ross.

The current North American tour features a freshened book with new material – including making Scarecrow a climate scientist and having Lion detail his cowardice by explaining that he hid while his pride was taken against its will to a zoo – by Tony and Emmy Award-nominated writer Amber Ruffin. The revival began on tour in Baltimore in 2023, transferred to Broadway’s Marquis Theatre for a limited run in 2024, and is now back on the road.

Under the static direction of Schele Williams, the production is weighed down, however, by its frequent stand-and-sing approach. Fortunately, JaQuel Knight’s sweeping choreography, wonderfully well danced by the ensemble, literally lifts the story off the stage and richly enhances the proceedings.

Additional moments of pleasure are provided by a terrific cast, led by Dana Cimone, as teenager Dorothy Gale, with Elijah Ahmad Lewis as Scarecrow, D. Jerome as Tinman, and Cal Mitchell as Lion, her endearing companions who work together with abundant charm. And among those awaiting the foursome in the Emerald City is Alan Mingo, Jr., who shared this role with TV’s Wayne Brady (“The Price is Right”) on Broadway, perhaps the most wondrous “Wiz” this side of Kansas.

Cimone’s vocals give an appealing smoothness to Dorothy’s solos, including “Soon As I Get Home,” “Wonder, Wonder Why,” and “Home,” and depth to her duets with Kyla Jade’s warm-toned Aunty Em on “The Feeling We Once Had.” Unfortunately, Jade goes for volume – too much volume – when, as Evilene, the Wicked Witch of the West, she joins the Winkies for an unnuanced power-ballad take on the familiar “Don’t Nobody Bring Me No Bad News.”

As the story goes, however, Glinda is the Good Witch but as played here by Sheherazade, she is more than that, she is great. This is especially true on act two’s “Believe in Yourself,” where she infuses her superb voice with a religious-like fervor to all but steal the show.

With not a swatch of gingham anywhere in sight but sequins and lamé aplenty, Costume Designer Sharen Davis has garbed each character with a style that sometimes plays like an affectionate paean to Sylvester and other stars of the disco era. Hannah Beachler’s scenic design and Daniel Brodie’s video projection design are fine on their own, but distractingly bright under Ryan O’Gara’s insistent lighting design.