Of particular insult to critics was the 33-year-old Diana Ross playing the role of a 24-year-old Dorothy Gale, which probably related more to America's fascination with white women's innocence and purity than it did to Ross or her Dorothy being too seasoned.
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.
However, a Motown singer and personal friend of Michael Jackson, Diana Ross, also wanted the role of Dorothy. Despite her manager Berry Gordy's discouragement, she managed to convince the film's exec producer, Rob Cohen, to arrange a deal where he would produce the film if she was cast as Dorothy.
At the very least, the same is true with “The Wiz.” The original Broadway cast starred R&B legend Stephanie Mills as Dorothy. In the movie. produced by Motown Records, Mills was replaced by Miss Diana Ross.
Baum's classic book-turned-film The Wizard of Oz. The 1939 movie adaptation starred Judy Garland as Dorothy. At the time she made her Broadway debut in 1974, Mills was 17. (For her part, Bailey is not much older, at 23.)
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.
Dorothy discovers just how beautiful and rich a gift it is to be black. In the 1970s this had not been seen in quite this way before. Forty years later, it remains a rarity. Everything about The Wiz is about the power, breadth and depth of extraordinary African-American and Afro-Caribbean creativity.
Diana Ross left the group in 1970 because she and Berry Gordy felt she had outgrown them and was ready to start a solo career. Her solo career had already started before that. The mega hits Lovechild (1968), and Someday We'll Be Together (1969) were Diana Ross records. The other Supremes did not do the back up vocals.
He wanted to take L. Frank Baum's classic The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, which was written at the turn of the century and later became irrevocably associated with sweet Judy Garland and the wonderful white Bert Lahr, and turn it into a Top 40s-style Black musical comedy.
Jackson first met Diana Ross at the age of 9. He wrote in his autobiography that she was his "mother, sister and lover all combined in one". When Ross married Arne Næss Jr. in the mid-80s, he was jealous, because he "loved her and always will".
Theodore Ross Roberts (June 30, 1934 – September 3, 2002) was an American actor best known for his role as the Lion in The Wiz, an all-African American reinterpretation of The Wizard of Oz.
Alas, Ross and Wilson are not friends today. Says Wilson, “We're related, we're sisters 'til the day we die but sometimes sisters don't talk for awhile. It doesn't mean you don't love each other. I love her, and she loves me as well but life is different than the movies.”
THE WIZ was filmed at Astoria Studios and on location throughout New York City, including the base of the World Trade Center, where the Emerald City sequences were performed, and the Astor Place subway station. Other scenes took place at Shea Stadium, Yankee Stadium and Coney Island.
The big numbers are catchy, and though some of the villains seem a bit more creepy and threatening than the original film, it's still good, family fun.
Despite its marvelous personnel and terrific premise, THE WIZ is a bungled mess. Sidney Lumet's overblown direction strips the story of its magic, Ross is too old for the part and never quite captures Dorothy's innocence, and Pryor is wasted in a film ill-suited to his talents.
Take a look below at the information offered from CARA. G: General Audiences, All Ages Admitted. Contains nothing in theme, language, nudity, sex, violence or other matters that the in-view of the Rating Board would offend parents whose younger children view the motion picture.
