Originally published in The Baum Bugle, vol. 63, no. 2 (Autumn 2019), pg. 41
Citations
Chicago 17th ed.:
Crotzer, Sarah K. Review of The Wiz, by Center for the Arts, Baum Bugle 63, no. 2 (2019): 41.
MLA 9th ed.:
Crotzer, Sarah K. Review of The Wiz, by Center for the Arts, The Baum Bugle, vol. 63, no. 2, 2019, p. 41.
(Note: typographical errors have been left in place to accurately reflect the printed version.)
THE WIZ
July 5–21, 2019
Center for the Arts,
Murfreesboro, Tennessee
Although I enjoyed the telecast on its own merits, perhaps my favorite aspect of 2015’s The Wiz Live!—and its popular and critical success—is the wave of Wiz productions to have succeeded it at the local level all around the country. Suddenly, I’m seeing just as much of The Wiz as of MGM-flavored Wizard, and to me, that’s only a positive: little tiny theater groups are more likely to take chances on The Wiz, and as an audience member, you’re less likely to feel like you’ve seen it all before.
So it was with the Center for the Arts’ production of The Wiz, located in the exact same theater where I saw an MGM adaptation more than a decade ago. Of course, none of the cast or crew worked both shows, but the culture and community of Murfreesboro, TN., hasn’t changed much in the intervening years: it’s a college town, not far from a big thriving city. All the weird, arty kids go to Nashville to have fun, while everyone else seems fine with fast food, cheap beer, and Uncle Dave Macon Days. (Look it up.) They like their white-bread theater, too: lots of Disney musicals, Neil Simon comedies, and Annie. They are not the obvious audience for The Wiz.
This summer, though, I sat in a sold-out show in the middle of sold-out run. Tickets for The Wiz were so hot they opened up two more matinee shows. All I could do was think to myself, “What happened here?”
I saw a more diverse audience in that theater than I had ever seen before. Not just racially diverse, either: there were upscale patrons in sport coats and skirts and downscale folks in baseball caps and jeans. More than one little girl had on a fluffy princess dress; another looked like she was dressed up in something formal for the very first time. Some were as casual as going to a movie, while for others, it was church. I had none of the sense I sometimes get at Oz shows of an audience looking for nostalgia: instead, it was a realistic cross-section of the actual community, and they were all there to see a show.
The Center for the Arts is a tiny little space where the front row of seats is nearly crammed into the actors’ faces. There is not a lot of room on and very little depth to the stage. That didn’t stop director Patriq James from making the most of his limitations. Minimal set design forced him to call on simple but effective costumes and colorful lighting for sequences like “Funky Monkeys” and “Emerald City Ballet.” Several of the major characters’ costumes were simplified takes on standard iconography, but there were a few exceptions: the Scarecrow’s torn modern-day clothes were covered in “caution” tape, Evillene’s red headgear and boots evoked memories of the 1978 Wiz film, and Glinda and the Wiz both took basic stylistic cues from The Wiz Live!. (Yes, the Wiz was a woman this time, too.)
What really made the show sing was the enthusiasm of the performers. They were there to sell it: some had more range than others, but not one actor failed to infuse their role with personality, charm, and boundless energy. Our close proximity to the stage made us invest all the more in their performances, too. I have rarely experienced theater that felt not like a success, but an outright win—and when I saw the actors in the hallway afterward, grinning and gleaming and bouncing with pride, all I could say was, “That was a great show.”
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