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The strength of this production was a nicely updated book, with a few contemporary references, and the really great performers. All of them were great, IMO, but I especially enjoyed Ne-Yo (Tin Man), Elijah Kelley (Scarecrow), and Queen Latifah (The Wizard). But everyone was all very, very good. Sort of wished they'd given Common more to do, though.
But there were two main weaknesses for me:
--The orchestration was terrible!
I felt like I was trapped in a 70s sitcom, and halfway expected the cast of Good Times and The Jeffersons to make guest appearance in Oz. In most musical theater revivals the producers keep the score, but update the orchestrations to make them sound less dated. You go see a revival of a Rogers & Hammerstein musical and it will have the same songs, but it won't sound like it did in the 1950s because the producers know that contemporary audiences want a contemporary sound, even if the songs are still the same. I wish they'd done that here. They updated the script, but not the music.
--The show was just TOO DAMN LONG! It didn't feel like a Broadway show OR a movie with all those commercials. It just felt long.
--And on a minor note, hpow come they left Toto in Kansas?
I'm not sure how anyone can criticize this production. It was really good. The singing was great and the acting was great. There were only a few problems and that was Common's acting, Queen Latifah's singing, and Mary J Blige acting. For a 3 hour production I'd say if those were the only problems than I'd call this a major success. I can't wait to see Grease in January and looking forward to what NBC does next year.
The WIz deserves so much more respect than this thread and these people commenting are giving. This movie was more than Diana Ross and Richard Pryor's overacting. This movie was set in a time where Jim Crow South and pretty much all of Hollywood were still very racist. The original movie The Wizard of Oz cast not a single brown, yellow, or black person. The Wiz is not only a movie but a small symbol in a movement. In 1978 this movie was hope to many black thespians. Our music, our faces, and our art immortalized in this iconic story made our own way to remind the people of this cruel world, that just because we aren't always seen doesn't mean we don't exist. And if we have to remake every iconic movie we have been excluded from in the past or has been demeaning to the character image of the black person, we will remake them. Check out Birth of a Nation when you get the opportunity. *POWER TO THE PEOPLE*
The WIz deserves so much more respect than this thread and these people commenting are giving. This movie was more than Diana Ross and Richard Pryor's overacting. This movie was set in a time where Jim Crow South and pretty much all of Hollywood were still very racist. The original movie The Wizard of Oz cast not a single brown, yellow, or black person. The Wiz is not only a movie but a small symbol in a movement. In 1978 this movie was hope to many black thespians. Our music, our faces, and our art immortalized in this iconic story made our own way to remind the people of this cruel world, that just because we aren't always seen doesn't mean we don't exist. And if we have to remake every iconic movie we have been excluded from in the past or has been demeaning to the character image of the black person, we will remake them. Check out Birth of a Nation when you get the opportunity. *POWER TO THE PEOPLE*
Isn't this thread about the live action production that aired last year, not the 1978 movie?
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