The Wiz

For other uses, see The Wiz (disambiguation).
The Wiz
The Super Soul Musical "Wonderful Wizard of Oz"
Original Cast Recording
MusicCharlie Smalls
Timothy Graphenreed
Harold Wheeler
George Faison
Luther Vandross
LyricsCharlie Smalls
Zachary Walzer
Luther Vandross[1]
BookWilliam F. Brown
BasisThe Wonderful Wizard of Oz
by L. Frank Baum
Productions1974 Detroit tryout
1974 Philadelphia tryout
1975 Broadway
1976 US tour
1978 Film
1984 Broadway revival
2022 Mexico City
2023 US tour
2024 Broadway revival
AwardsTony Award for Best Musical
Tony Award for Best Original Score
Stephanie Mills (pictured in 2017) played Dorothy in the original 1975 Broadway musical The Wiz.

The Wiz: The Super Soul Musical "Wonderful Wizard of Oz" is a musical with music and lyrics by Charlie Smalls (and others) and book by William F. Brown. It is a retelling of L. Frank Baum's children's novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900) in the context of contemporary African-American culture. It opened on October 21, 1974, at the Morris A. Mechanic Theatre in Baltimore,[2] and moved to Broadway's Majestic Theatre[3] with a new cast on January 5, 1975.

The 1975 Broadway production won seven Tony Awards, including Best Musical. It was an early example of Broadway's mainstream acceptance of works with an all-Black cast. It has had revivals in New York, London, San Diego, and the Netherlands, and a limited-run revival was presented by Encores! at New York City Center in June 2009. A big-budget film adaptation of the same name was released in 1978, with Ted Ross and Mabel King reprising their roles. A live television production of the stage version, The Wiz Live!, was broadcast on NBC on December 3, 2015, with an encore presentation on December 19 of the same year.

  1. ^ "Las Vegas CityLife". Archived from the original on 2013-01-27. Retrieved 2011-10-21.
  2. ^ Gardner, R. H. (22 October 1974). "'Wiz' fun at times but doesn't whiz". The Sun (Baltimore). p. B-1. Retrieved 19 February 2024.
  3. ^ This was not the same Majestic Theatre that played The Wizard of Oz in 1903, which was on Columbus Circle, where Time Warner Center now stands.