My apologies to Evilene, the wicked witch in “The Wiz,” who famously calls for in music that her henchmen provide her “no lousy news.”
Theater evaluate
THE WIZ
Two hrs and 30 minutes, with a person intermission. At the Marquis Theatre, 210 W. 46th Avenue.
Simply because I have to however report that the new revival of that musical, which opened Wednesday evening at the Marquis Theatre, is not the dazzler that supporters have waited so extensive for. Quite the opposite.
And that is undesirable information, certainly.
Despite the cozy sensation of becoming reunited with beloved material 40 yrs after it was last on Broadway, director Schele Williams’ generation is deflatingly flimsy and lackluster. Clumsily staged, it’s a Wiz-sper of what it really should be.
Still, the Emerald City provides occasional shimmers of hope.
The all-black riff on L. Frank Baum’s “The Wizard of Oz,” which was built into a 1978 film starring Michael Jackson and Diana Ross, is chockablock with infectious tunes, this kind of as “Ease On Down The Road” and “Home,” and is at times rescued in this article by the voices of its proficient solid.
Then — I’ll get you my fairly! — we spot the villain which is lurking behind them: unappealing CGI backdrops that search like Home windows XP screensavers. Undoubtedly, the inventive group can do improved than that.
If they only experienced additional than practicality on the brain! This “Wiz” comes in New York through a months-lengthy nationwide tour. It is clearly been crafted to very easily healthy into a wide array of venues all-around the country.
But Hannah Beachler’s sets are so low cost and unremarkable, and Daniel Brodie’s synthetic-intelligence-design and style projections so prominent, that the too much to handle vibe is that we and the tour are actually nevertheless trapped in Kansas. We’re undoubtedly not on Broadway.
This kind of minimize corners are tough to tummy in a tale of a lush, magical land around a rainbow, especially when a different acquire on “Oz” — “Wicked” — continues to be a visible wow, 20 many years later on and only four blocks absent.
Yes, “The Wiz” really should simplicity on down the highway — but with boundless creativity and awe.
For the two of you who do not know, it’s the outdated tale of Dorothy (Nichelle Lewis), a Kansas farmgirl who’s whisked by a twister to the Land of Oz, with a new — or, somewhat, 49-calendar year-aged — twist.
In the 1970s, composer Charlie Smalls brought Motown-design and style songs — the sort you don’t just hear, but feel from head to toe — to Munchkinland.
En route to get support from the Wizard (Wayne Brady), Dorothy fulfills the Scarecrow (Avery Wilson), Tinman (Phillip Johnson Richardson) and Lion (Kyle Ramar Freeman), who all have unique struggles of their individual.
Their music are wonderful. The quartet does not follow the Yellow Brick Road, they “Ease On Down” it. The Tinman’s “If I Only Had A Heart” results in being “Slide Some Oil To Me.” And “Somewhere Around The Rainbow” gets an completely differently poignant counterpart in “Home.”
Richardson, as that inadequate rusty bucket of bolts, does very best with writer Amber Ruffin’s newly extra, amusing jokes. And his quantity is the most energizing of the three supportive Ozians, likable while the other folks are.
They are tormented by the highly effective Evilene, sung with vigor by Melody A. Betts, who receives this “Wiz”’s closest detail to a showstopper in “Don’t No person Convey Me No Undesirable Information.”
Brady, cameo-type, plays the Wizard with a Center Square personality. And Deborah Cox croons a pretty, maternal rendition of “Believe in Yourself” as Glinda.
Then, in a wildly rushed ending that offers zero closure, Lewis nicely sings “Home.”
It’s far too terrible that somewhere else in the musical, her Dorothy tends to allow the wackier, flashier roles choose about, any time she’s not belting downstage center. This staging’s major flaw, in fact, is forgetting that the exhibit is extra than just a bopping playlist — it’s the story of a scared girl who’s missing and finding what issues most in her lifestyle.
But a large amount has fallen to the wayside here. Not substantially is exclusive about this “Wiz” aside from a memorable start off of Act 2, through an prolonged dance termed “Emerald Town.”
It is a fashionable nightclub sequence that’s a energetic breath of fresh air. Eventually, the present has been given a contemporary context over and above 3D photographs ripped from our scariest nightmares.
Before and just after that, even though, Jaquel Knight’s choreography is underwhelming and lacks theatricality and crispness. It doesn’t fill the phase, so a great deal as litter it.
For illustration, Ozian guards flank the 4 pals for the duration of “Ease On Down The Street,” marching and awkwardly relocating their staffs not pretty in unison. Their cumbersome decoration will make the spirited vacation down the highway bumpier than have to have be.
Like so considerably of this strike-and-overlook production.
“The Wiz” ideally should really have audiences proclaiming, “There’s no area like Broadway!” at the stop.
Alas, again on W. 46th St. at 10:30 p.m., I headed to the practice pondering, “There’s no put like house.”
