The Super Soul Musical "Wonderful Wizard of Oz"Stephanie Mills (pictured in 2017) played Dorothy in the original 1975 Broadway musical The Wiz. The 1975 Broadway production won seven Tony Awards, including Best Musical. It was an early example of Broadway's mainstream acceptance of works with an all-Black cast.
1970s - 1980s. Mills's career took a rise when she portrayed Dorothy in the seven-time Tony Award winning Broadway musical The Wiz, an African-American adaptation of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.
Who was originally supposed to play Dorothy in The Wiz?
Gordy originally wanted the teenaged future R&B singer Stephanie Mills, who had originated the role on Broadway, to be cast as Dorothy. When Motown star Diana Ross asked Gordy if she could be cast as Dorothy, he declined, saying that Ross—then 33 years old—was too old for the role.
Stephanie Mills *was* in serious consideration to reprise her Broadway role. This was when it was a lower budgeted production that was being produced by Motown Productions. Miss Ross got wind of it and she contacted Berry Gordy, who told her she was too old for the part.
How old was Stephanie Mills when she played Dorothy?
Original Dorothy, Stephanie Mills, was just 17 when she opened The Wiz on Broadway. Stephanie Mills rose to prominence when she created the role of Dorothy in The Wiz; the character's finale ballad "Home" remains her signature tune. Surprisingly, she was just 17 when the show opened in January 1975.
Stephanie Mills On Auditioning For ‘The Wiz’ | Flashback | NBC News
How many times was Dorothy Malone married?
Dorothy Malone married three times. She met her first husband, French actor Jacques Bergerac, at a Hollywood party. They wed at St. Theresa's Church in Hong Kong on June 28, 1959, during her filming of The Last Voyage (1960).
How old was Dorothy when she filmed The Wizard of Oz?
In the 1939 movie The Wizard of Oz, Dorothy was played by Judy Garland, who received an Academy Juvenile Award for her performance. Since she was sixteen years old at the time of filming, Garland's maturing figure was bound into a figure-hiding corset.
BET shared a previous interview with V103 where Mills confessed that she and Jackson dated. “I loved Michael,” she said. “I thought that I was going to be Mrs. Michael Jackson, but I was ready at 20 and 21 to get married and he was not even close to getting married or having a girlfriend at the time, but yes we dated.
Roger Edens, MGM composer and Garland's mentor, dubiously made an appointment to hear Shirley Temple sing on the Twentieth Century-Fox lot. He returned to Metro to report that Temple lacked the robust vocal chops required for the extravaganza being prepared, and the part of Dorothy remained Judy Garland's, as intended.
Original director John Badham stepped down when he objected to 33-year-old Diana Ross being cast as a teenage Dorothy. The character was changed to a 24-year-old kindergarten teacher, but by then Sidney Lumet had already replaced Badham.
quicklist:title: The Startext: Garland was not MGM's first choice for Dorothy. Shirley Temple, then a big star, was. But she was under contract for a competing studio, which refused to loan her out.
In 1938, when Garland was sixteen, she was cast as the young Dorothy Gale in The Wizard of Oz (1939), a film based on the 1900 children's book by L. Frank Baum. In the film, she sang the song with which she would be constantly identified afterward, "Over the Rainbow".
W. C. Fields was originally chosen for the title role of the Wizard (after Ed Wynn turned it down, considering the part "too small"), but the studio couldn't meet Fields' fee. Wallace Beery lobbied for the role, but the studio refused to spare him during the long shooting schedule.
The Wicked Witch of the East was featured in the film The Wizard of Oz (1939), in which she is the sister of the Wicked Witch of the West. As in the book, she is killed when Dorothy's house falls on her. The Wicked Witch of the West was not pleased with Dorothy for the death of her sister.
In the 1939 movie The Wizard of Oz, Toto was played by a female brindle Cairn Terrier named Terry. She was paid a $125 salary each week, which was more than some of the human actors (the Singer Midgets who played the Munchkins reportedly received $50 to $100 a week).
Who almost got the role of Dorothy in Wizard of Oz?
At the time, Shirley Temple seemed like a shoe in for the role. of Dorothy in a film adaptation of The Wizard of Oz, but in 1937, Shirley Temple was under contract at 20th Century Fox. Legend has it that a deal was almost made between MGM.
Did Shirley Temple want to play Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz?
Temple wrote in her 1988 biography Child Star that she had believed so much in the world of Oz that when her mother said she could play Dorothy, the young Temple replied that she wanted to go to Kansas and meet her. Rumors about Temple playing Dorothy in a series of movies began to swirl around 1935.
Mills claimed that although “his family really liked them being together,” the late entertainer had bigger goals. “Michael wanted so much more is probably why we went our separate ways.”
Stephanie Mills Net Worth ($1.5 Million): American singer Stephanie Mills has a net worth of $1.5 million at present. From her career as an actress as well as a singer-songwriter, she has accumulated a large sum of earnings over the years. To date, she has released 15 studio albums.
What happened to the cast of The Wizard of Oz during filming?
During the Munchkinland sequence, a faulty trap door was responsible for inflicting serious burns upon Margaret Hamilton, who played the Wicked Witch of the West. She missed six weeks of filming and subsequently insisted her stand-in handle any scenes involving fire.
The Wizard of Oz was filmed entirely on stages at MGM's Culver City studio at 10202 Washington Boulevard. The studio still stands today and offers visitors a look behind the curtains to see where the magic happened, as part of the Sony Pictures Studio Tour.
