Follow the yellow brick road to a musical still relevant today

L Frank Baum’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is one of those stories that seems to have been with us forever and means as much to the previous generation as it does to the next.

So when the story was translated wholesale in 1974 to a different setting to reflect the experience of black America, it seemed to be unecessary. Would it gain anything by being shifted culturally? The story belongs to all of us anyway, surely?

Black America disagreed and The Wiz, a retelling of the story set in then contemporary African-American society, struck a chord with audiences.

It was a watershed moment, the first time a mainstream, large scale musical featured an all black cast and the show went on to run on Broadway for four years, winning seven Tony Awards in 1975.

The story of a girl who discovers that what she wanted was inside her all the time, resonated in a time of the civil rights movement and a time when African-Americans were beginning to find their place in society.

The Wiz was a major hit, winning the support of African-American audiences, then mainstream audiences and then achieving critical acclaim.

It went on to be made into a movie, which was not a great success, but that it could attract a cast including Michael Jackson, Diana Ross and Richard Pryor shows that it didn’t matter if the movie failed to live up to the acclaim of the stage show, it was a story that people wanted to make. Even so, is it not a surprise to see it being re-imagined by director Josette Bushell-Mingo, in contemporary Leeds?

The director thinks it remains relevant.

“Do we not still have issues concerning diversity and tolerance?

“If anything, I would say that those issues have become even more relevant and complex. Not only that, we live in a time where there is a vast overload of visual and digital information and the story that what we need is inside of us is as important as ever.

“We need to hear those messages again. I think it is the central function of art to remind ourselves that questions like this are never static and theatre is an auditorium where we can come together and take part in a conversation together about those questions.”

Bushell-Mingo, an engaging, enthusiastic presence – so much so that she convinces me to go and watch some of the afternoon rehearsals with her at the end of the interview – is also clearly an intellectual director who has taken on The Wiz as something much more than a piece of musical theatre. She had first hand experience previously of the powerful effect of musical theatre when she played the part of Rafiki in the original West End version of The Lion King, which saw her nominated for an Olivier Award.

“It was one of those life- changing experiences. A genuinely extraordinary piece of work to be involved with. To see people react to it in the way they did, to see people amazed at what (director) Julie Taymor had done was very special,” she says.

She is attempting to pass on the same sense of the possibilities of musical theatre to both her cast and the audience.

“This is a piece of work with a lot to say and I think audiences are going to get a lot from it,” she says.

“They are also going to have a great night at the theatre.”

Somewhere over the rainbow...

The Wiz opened at the Majestic Theatre on Broadway on January 5, 1975, running for four years and playing 1,672 performances.

The story, although set in an African-American cultural context, sticks closely, in terms of plot, to the original book by L Frank Baum.

Heavy on song, the musical’s biggest hit is Ease on Down the Road.

In 1978, the film version, with a script by Joel Schumacher and directed by Sidney Lumet, was a critical and commercial flop.

The Wiz, West Yorkshire Playhouse, to July 16. 0113 2137700.