As we learned from last year’s release of the film version of Cats, not every stage musical makes a great film. Did you see A Chorus Line? While the Tony Award-wining musical The Wiz was still on Broadway, a film version was released in October of 1978. That film is being screened this weekend at the Cinemark Theater at Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza on Saturday at 10:30 AM.
The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art are presenting the screening as part of Black History Month.
The Wiz is an African-American version of The Wizard of Oz. The original Broadway production won seven Tony Awards (including Best Musical, Best Original Score and Best Director). The best known songs from the musical are “Home” and “Ease on Down the Road.”
The film version wasn’t quite so lauded. A much too-old Diana Ross was cast as Dorothy, the little girl who wanders far from home. Michael Jackson played Scarecrow. Nipsey Russell was Tinman and Ted Ross was Lion. Richard Pryor played The Wiz. Sidney Lumet (Network, Dog Day Afternoon) directed the film.
In 2015, The Wiz Live was NBC’s live Broadway musical. It garnered much better reviews than the film.
I frankly have no idea how this film holds up today. Will it be just as much a disaster as it was when it first opened in 1978? Or will we look at it more nostalgically since Jackson, Ross, Pryor, Russell and Lumet have all passed away?
Whether it holds up or not, this is an opportunity to see how Hollywood once tackled the film musical. Perhaps this is a prism through which we can understand why it took so long to recover and make new musicals.
The Wiz has a running time of 2 hours and 13 minutes.
For tickets go here.
Photo: Ted Ross, Michael Jackson, Diana Ross and Nipsey Russell in “The Wiz”
