Many white folks didn't understand the cultural nuances, the Black language, or the stylistic choices, and many didn't try. Mainstream critics—most of them white men—were eager to dismiss The Wiz as an inferior movie product, a bad Hollywood investment, and an intrusion on the original film.
Critical reception. Critics panned The Wiz upon its October 1978 release. Many reviewers directed their criticism at Diana Ross, whom they believed was too old to play Dorothy. Most agreed that what had worked so successfully on stage simply did not translate well to the screen.
Prior to its debut and certainly much after, The Wiz was criticized for having an all black cast. It was deemed racists by majority of the white audience.
The film was not well-received by critics. Many critics found the film to be too different from the original Wizard of Oz, and criticized the casting of Diana Ross as Dorothy. The film was expensive to make. The Wiz had a budget of $24 million, which was a lot of money for a film at the time.
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.
They both basically have the same story, except the most glaring difference, the age difference between the two Dorothy's. As stated, Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz is a kid while Dorothy in The Wiz is an adult.
It was, and remains, a powerful critique of anti-Blackness and racism within America. Dorothy, played by Diana Ross, gets transported from her home to an abandoned park in a fantasy version of New York City by a snowstorm.
And the movie was rated G. Evillene, the Wicked Witch of the West, is depicted in this film as The Grotesque, with Uncanny Valley Makeup that makes her look like some sort of hideous human-sized porcelain doll. Another creepy factor comes in the moment when she tries to take Dorothy's slippers.
Iconically, Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz is from a farm in rural Kansas. In The Wiz, Dorothy is instead from Harlem, New York City, what could be considered a polar opposite of the character's original home. This change was done to represent urban Black communities that audiences could better relate to.
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.
The Wiz debuted on Broadway in 1975 and was as much a part of the “Black is beautiful” social movement as it was a part of the Afrofuturism art movement. According to Womack, The Wiz presents many Afrofuturist themes: Mysticism. Liberation.
Both the film and stage productions of The Wiz have one common theme – they highlight the perseverance of Black people in adversity and they're a rallying call for racial liberation. Aside from the contextual underpinnings of the plot, The Wiz stands out for its take and celebration of African dressing and hairstyles.
The Tin Woodman states unequivocally that he has neither heart nor brain, but cares nothing for the loss of his brain. Near the end of the novel, Glinda the Good Witch praises his brain as not quite that of the Scarecrow's.
Within Black film and media studies, The Wiz (Sidney Lumet, 1978) is understood in direct relationship to its US box office failure. Harry Benshoff and Sean Griffin write only that the film "was a box office disappointment," and Christopher Sieving asserts that "the enormous budget …
Even with some new cast and songs, mixed to negative critical response following the Broadway opening had many thinking the show wouldn't make it past its opening weekend. Nevertheless, the show made it past mediocre notices and became a hit with audiences, lasting four years and 1,672 performances.
The Tin Man represents the factories and the factory workers during the time period of the 1890s, when the depression took place. Factories were shut down, and when the Tin Man is first found, he is so rusted that he cannot move.
What do the poppies represent in The Wizard of Oz?
An article by Hugh Rockoff discovered a surprising number of new analogies. The Deadly Poppy Field, where the Cowardly Lion fell asleep and could not move forward, was the anti-imperialism that threatened to make Bryan forget the main issue of silver (note the Oriental connotation of poppies and opium).
The Wizard of Oz made utilising Technicolor's 3-strip color process. The 3-strip color process wasn't a type of color film; instead, it was a process in which a specially modified motion picture camera recorded the same scene through colored filters on three different strips of film.
Stephanie Mills played Dorothy when “The Wiz” had its world premiere in Baltimore in 1974. Diana Ross had the role in the 1978 movie. Now the producers of the new Broadway-bound touring production of “The Wiz” have found their Dorothy too.
The Cowardly Lion is a major character in The Wiz. The late Ted Ross portrayed him in both the play and movie. He was banished from the jungle for being a coward and joins Dorothy and her friends to get courage from The Wiz.
Instead The Wiz became a legendary box-office bomb. With a then-extraordinary budget of $24 million — a LIFE magazine headline called it the “Most Expensive Musical Ever” — it grossed $21 million at theatres in the U.S. and Canada.
How did they make the yellow brick road in The Wiz?
Enhance a Colour was brought in to help PRG with the production of “The Wiz“. PRG required a yellow brick road that was durable and easy to setup yet move between scenes during the live show. EaC's ability to print 40-50 ft. sections of vinyl marley flooring sped up the process within their short timeframe.
Evillene, also known as the Wicked Witch of the West, is the main antagonist of the 1975 Broadway musical The Wiz and the 1978 film version of the same name. Her enemies are Dorothy, the Scarecrow, Tin Man and the Lion. She wants to avenge the death of her sister Evermean and to retrieve her silver slippers.
