The Wiz on Broadway Isn't Black Enough for Me
It gave Alvin Ailey-adjacent… Martha’s Vineyard-appropriate… with a dash of ‘show auntie that lil dance.’
I am a lifelong lover of The Wiz (the 1978 Motown adaptation). It’s one of the first movies I ever watched. My Uncle Derrick (not by blood, just one of my daddy’s homeboys) played one of the crows in it. My obsession with the Poison Poppies was an early sign of my allegiance to Hoochie culture. So you better believe I carried my ass down to the Marquis theater to see the Broadway revival this year, not once, but twice. My first show was during opening weekend, with Wayne Brady playing the titular role. I left the mega hotel excited that I could cross ‘THE WIZ ON BROADWAY’ off my bucket list, but disappointed by the production. The costumes looked cheap, straight from Amazon. The show had none of the spark or spunk that made the movie so special. The set design was rudimentary, like I was watching an end-of-year play at a well-funded private school, not a performance in the epicenter of stage performance. I wasn’t wowed or dazzled. The whole thing just felt flat and stiff, like a really bad silk press. And I wasn’t the only one who felt that way. Reviews of the show have been generally negative, and after giving The Wiz a second chance earlier this month with my 14-year-old niece, I think I know why. It’s something theater critics missed (because most of them are white) and probably wouldn’t have been allowed to publish even if they caught it. The Wiz revival flops because it’s not Black enough.
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