Review of The Wiz, directed by Sidney Lumit

The Wiz as a musical is something I always knew existed, but I never actually managed to sit down and watch it. I was quite sad when I realized that The Wiz was coming to the Hippodrome as a part of the Broadway tours series, but I was likely going to be in New York when it was coming to my hometown.

Oh well. I was bored one night when I was scrolling through Netflix, and, like fate, I saw The Wiz as an option to watch that I’d never seen before. So that night I pressed play intending it to just have it as background noise, but man I was captivated by this movie.

I had no idea about the film synopsis and barely knew what the show was about, despite wanting to see it. I just knew it was a Black spin on The Wizard of Oz and I was blown away by what I saw on the screen. I’m a dedicated fan now of The Wiz and I will probably end up dragging myself up to New York when it inevitably comes back up on the stage because wow, I loved this movie.

We’ll get into more why later.

After Dorothy chases out after Toto in a Harlem snowstorm, she finds herself in a New York City dystopia Oz.

For those who are familiar with the story of The Wizard of Oz, The Wiz follows it almost perfectly except it has its unique twists. This Dorothy lives in a Harlem apartment with her family members, and when they all gather for Thanksgiving, Dorothy’s family makes fun of her because she still lives in the same apartment as them.

She’s twenty-four at the movie’s start and is a teacher professionally, but her personality is quite meet. She doesn’t really seem like the social butterfly kind of person and kind of melts into the wallpaper—to me that’s alright, but others see it as a problem.

After everyone leaves and Dorothy is helping cleaning up the mess, that’s when the real fun of this movie begins. Toto runs out into the snowstorm happening outside, and that’s when the two of them get swept up by the storm and taken to the world of Oz. Dorothy crashes through a neon sign on her way down, clutching Toto, which kills Evermean.

Because Evermean is dead, the Munchkins are feed—but these Munchkins were turned into drawings on the wall, so when they first emerge onto the playground and approach Dorothy, she starts screaming her head off.

Miss One then gifts Dorothy the silver slippers and instructs her not to take them off, and she’s told to take the Yellow Brick Road to find the Wiz. She ends up finding the scarecrow tied to a pole, where she chases off the men dressed as crows and ends up teaching the scarecrow that he is indeed able to walk.

They continued down the Yellow Brick Road and meet the Tin Man and the Lion. They all decide to band together and defeat whatever comes their way, whether it’s creepy trash cans in the New York City subway, but when they finally meet with the The Wiz, they end up being sent on another journey.

This time they have to take down the Wicked Witch of the West, who lives in the sewers. She sends her flying monkeys after them, but nothing can stop this crew. They’ll dance their way through to victory, but when all hope is lost, the sprinklers end up being the magical solution that melts the Wicked Witch of the West.

After the sweatshop workers she employs dance in joy that she’s gone, they head back to the Wiz and Emerald City.

But as it turns out, the Wiz is just a failed Atlanta politician who’s ended up here somehow. Dorothy sings a song to her companions that they have got what they wanted: a brain, a heart, and courage.

Lena Horne then makes her beautiful cameo as Glinda the Good Witch and tells Dorothy what she really needs to get home: clicking her heels three times. She does so, and then everything is consumed by light.

Overall Thoughts

This movie is the definition of camp for me and I’m living for it. Whether it’s Michael Jackson making a weird flip dance move while dressed as a scarecrow or the weird simulation of the New York City subway and man eating trashcans, I’m here for all of this.

Watching this in 2023 I was quite sad to realize upon Googling the actors that almost everyone was dead, but that’s the beauty in film: it captures the moments that we all would have never seen without the medium. We wouldn’t know how these people spoke or acted when in a role. What a marvelous invention.

But overall the songs in this film were a bop and I loved them—it convinced me even more to go see the show on stage whenever I get the chance!

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