Based on a fantastically successful, Tony-winning 1975 Broadway hit, with a cast that includes Richard Pryor, Michael Jackson, Lena Horne, and Diana Ross, and behind-the-scenes talent including Berry Gordy, Quincy Jones, and Sidney Lumet… what could go wrong?
Well, we wouldn’t say things “went wrong,” exactly. Let’s just say they “went weird.” An eccentric, dazzling, befuddling, and often astonishing oddity, The Wiz may be a bit of a mess, but it’s a really fun mess, with moments of absolute movie magic, loads of star-power, and a handful of knock-out production numbers. A real cinematic singularity… there’s nothing else like The Wiz.
The story is basically an African-American inversion of The Wizard of Oz, telling the tale of young Dorothy Gale (Diana Ross), who is magically transported from Harlem to the Land of Oz, where she meets a scarecrow (Michael Jackson), a tin man (Nipsey Russell), and a cowardly lion (Ted Ross, reprising his Tony-winning Broadway role), then heads down the yellow brick road to meet The Wiz himself (Richard Pryor).
Ross did some back-door dealing to get the part, despite the general consensus that she’s too old for it. The script reflects Ross and screenwriter Joel Schumacher’s infatuation with Werner Erhard and the est movement, which was big at the time, though the results did not impress producer Rob Cohen (“I hated the script a lot,” he said). Sidney Lumet was brought in to direct, despite being a dramatic director; of the 43 films to his credit, this is the only musical.
For all that, the movie is a ton of fun, thanks to the exuberance of the supporting cast—no surprise, both Pryor and Jackson are fantastic—and the big-budget, no-holds-barred production numbers that graft a Broadway sensibility onto a heavy late-’70s disco/dance-club vibe. The Emerald City sequence and “Everybody Rejoice” are visually explosive, high-energy extravaganzas that leap off the screen.
(Sidenote: It was on the set of The Wiz that music supervisor Quincy Jones first met Michael Jackson, and agreed to produce his next album, Off the Wall, which led to Thriller, which changed music history. But back to The Wiz…)
A major box office disappointment at the time of its release, The Wiz has carved out a deserved reputation as a cult favorite. It was a little too different and a tad too strange for a mass audience that just wasn’t ready for The Wiz in 1978; but we’re ready for it now.