‘The Wiz’: How The Black ‘Wizard Of Oz’ Revolutionised Theatre

As a child and as a young woman, Mills had learned a lot through the stage. She made her Broadway debut at age nine. And although she had a more traditional record deal – with Motown – her recording career was secondary. (Later on, in the disco era, Mills would find mainstream pop fame, crediting the theatre with “making me a better performer for my records”.) Dorothy was Mills’s first high-profile role (she landed it at 17 years old), and she set the standard for all other Dorothys to follow.

Mills was part of the cast from the beginning, when The Wiz originally debuted in Detroit, in 1974, before its Broadway run. So, too, were Tiger Haynes (Tin Man), Ted Ross (The Lion), Dee Dee Bridgewater (Glinda), Mabel King (Evillene) and Andre De Shields (The Wiz himself). Other cast members, notably Scarecrow – where Hinton Battle replaced Stu Gilliam – changed.

“Even doing it on Broadway, I still run into people today that say they came to see The Wiz and how it changed their lives,” Bridgewater said in 2015. “I think that the story, also, of Dorothy, and wanting to get back home and having to go through all of the fears that she did and all of the challenges, I think it’s a universal theme that touches everyone.”

The songs: “Always something to rejoice about!”

With such an incredibly talented cast – between them, the performers could sing virtually any style of music – the variety and quality of The Wiz’s songs had to match the performers’ abilities. This they certainly did. From the first song, The Feeling We Once Had (sung by Tasha Thomas as Aunt Em) through to the finale of Home, by Stephanie Mills, the songs deliver on every level.

Ease On Down The Road, as sung by Mills, Battle, Ross and Haynes, is one of The Wiz soundtrack’s best songs – and the first to garner attention from people who hadn’t seen the stage show. It’s the equivalent to Follow The Yellow Brick Road, from the 1939 film The Wizard Of Oz, and was also used in the TV commercial promoting The Wiz. The TV campaign proved so popular that it not only drove people to the theatre, but also inspired new versions of the song. Ease On Down The Road was recorded by the studio-based group Consumer Rapport in 1975, reaching No.1 on the disco chart in the US.

Everybody Rejoice/A Brand New Day is another of The Wiz’s famous songs. Written by Luther Vandross, its message resonated widely: themes of liberation and progress spoke beyond The Wiz’s storyline and embraced broader themes in the civil-rights fight. Vandross himself recorded it for Luther, the 1976 debut album by his band of the same name, released on Atlantic Records. More surprisingly, British easy-listening star Jackie Trent spotted the song, too, and put out her own very funky version in 1976.

John Eric Parker, the understudy for Andre De Shields in the original Wiz touring show (and who was also part of the 2019 revival), summed up the song’s appeal. “Singing Everybody Rejoice/Brand New Day nightly, just like I did all those years ago as an Equity newbie, was a thrill, because there was and is always something to rejoice about!”

The film: “It was a huge success in my life”

Such a successful musical – and one with obvious wide appeal – was naturally considered for a movie adaptation. In 1977, Motown Productions acquired the rights to The Wiz. Motown had found success with two Diana Ross films, Lady Sings The Blues and Mahogany, both of which were fine acting projects for Ross, and now sought another vehicle for the star. She was cast as Dorothy. This meant that Mills, who had made the role her own, was overlooked. “At the time, [Ross] was a huge star, and she wanted to play Dorothy,” Mills said in 2023. “It was that simple.”

Michael Jackson was cast as Scarecrow (in his first feature film), Nipsey Russell was Tin Man, and Ted Ross retained his Broadway role as The Lion. Lena Horne and Richard Pryor were also part of the cast. Sidney Lumet was chosen as director, which many found a surprising choice, since he had been previously known for drama: 12 Angry Men, Long Day’s Journey Into Night, Serpico. Lumet’s approach, with its emphasis on careful preparation, was something Diana Ross in particular found didn’t gel with the film’s mood. “I found it to be too much rehearsal,” she wrote in her memoir, Secrets Of A Sparrow. “Not that it was too much work, but rather that the material became overrehearsed… [it resulted] in a loss of spontaneity.”

Unlike the musical, the film of The Wiz wasn’t a commercial or critical success at the point of release. But time has been good to it; it has aged extremely well, and the freshness, the performances, the time-capsule nature of it and, of course, the songs all stand up. “Even though The Wiz was a disappointment at the box office,” Ross has remembered, “it was a huge success in my life and in the lives of many of the other people involved.”

The legacy: “‘The Wiz’ is the thing that gives you permission to be your artsiest, weirdest self”

The original Broadway run of The Wiz won seven Tony Awards. It also became a cultural phenomenon that reverberated down the years. The show became a favourite in North American schools, with many children and young people getting their first taste of performance through a school production of this classic. There have been several revivals over the years, including major ones in 1984 and 1992 (where Stephanie Mills reprised her role as Dorothy), and another in 2024. This new cast and crew has spoken of the cultural importance of The Wiz. Amber Ruffin, who wrote the book for the 2024 revival, said The Wiz was “a real introduction to Black weirdness not connected to Black pain… The Wiz is the thing that gives you permission to be your artsiest, weirdest self and just do what’s in your weird little heart.”

Even more than straight revivals are the new takes on The Wiz. The British dance company ZooNation created a heavily Wiz-influenced production in 2013, called Groove On Down The Road; ZooNation re-interpreted The Wiz as a critique of UK government cuts to art funding, making its message completely contemporary. Most famously, De La Soul – with a little help from rapper Rah Digga as Dorothy – based their 2000 video to Oooh on The Wiz.

The influence is also felt in the stage show and film Wicked. Another take on L Frank Baum’s original story, Wicked’s themes of prejudice, friendship and the fight for liberation chime with The Wiz. And, just like The Wiz, Wicked was a Tony Award-winning success on stage before its translation to the silver screen.

But it’s the original stage show of The Wiz that broke barriers and inspired devotion. “It’s wonderful to be remembered as a character who is so positive, and reflective of the Black community,” Stephanie Mills said in 2021. “The Black community in the 70s really embraced The Wiz and made it possible for us to stay on Broadway for five years. It’s wonderful. I love being known as the first Black Dorothy.”

Buy ‘The Wiz’ Broadway cast recording on vinyl .