Line #33 Trivia/TheWiz


1	!!The musical
2	* ActingForTwo: A 2006 multi-ethnic La Jolla Playhouse staging used the same actress for both Aunt Em and Glinda, Valarie Pettiford.
3	* AllStarCast: The movie and TV versions feature several of their respective decades' most-renowned African-American entertainers, although the latter also has a then-newcomer, Shanice Williams, as Dorothy.
4	* CutSong:
5	** [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/You_Can%27t_Win_(song) "You Can't Win"]] was dropped from the stage version, but appeared in the movie and TV versions as a replacement for "I Was Born on the Day Before Yesterday".
6	** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHAm4Fe3Evw "Wonder, Wonder Why"]] is a song where Dorothy contemplates the task to kill Evilene given to her by the Wiz. It would've taken place after Dorothy is captured by the monkeys and put to work, but it was cut from the original stage version because it slowed the story down. However, it was reinstated for the 1984 Broadway revival.
7	** At one point, the Lion had a song "Don't Cry," to comfort Dorothy in the Witch's castle.
8	* DawsonCasting: Some actresses in their twenties or thirties have played Dorothy either on stage, or in the movie.
9	* RoleReprise:
10	** Broadway's original Dorothy, Creator/StephanieMills, played Dorothy again in a 1984 Broadway revival and a 1993 tour. The latter also brought back Creator/AndreDeShields as The Wiz.
11	** A 2009 Off-Broadway production at New York City Center starred Music/{{Ashanti}} as Dorothy Gale, a role she played a different interpretation of in ''Film/TheMuppetsWizardOfOz''.
12	** The actress who originated Dorothy in the Dutch version of the show, Nurlaia Karim, previously played Dorothy in a parody called "Rocky Over The Rainbow," in which Dorothy joins up with horror characters.
13	* StarMakingRole: Creator/StephanieMills struggled to sell any of her music until she became Dorothy and earned praise from audiences and critics alike. By the end of TheEighties, Mills also turned "Home" into a hit R&B single.
14	* WhatCouldHaveBeen: Broadway producer Creator/KenHarper had previously considered adapting ''The Wonderful Wizard of Oz'' as a one-hour TV special, [[http://archives.chicagotribune.com/1975/10/26/page/390/article/the-wiz#text starring]] Creator/MelbaMoore as Dorothy, Creator/FlipWilson as the Scarecrow, and Creator/BillCosby as the Cowardly Lion.
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17	!!The film
18	* BoxOfficeBomb: The film made only $13.6 million worldwide against a production budget of $24 million.
19	* BreakawayPopHit: "Ease On Down the Road" was released as a single by MCA Records in September, 1978. The single just missed the Top 40 radio pop charts, stalling at #41. However, the song hit #17 on the Billboard Hot Soul Singles chart that same year.
20	* CreativeDifferences: Original director John Badham left the production after Music/DianaRoss was cast as 14-year-old Dorothy. The character was changed to a 24-year-old kindergarten teacher.
21	* CreatorBacklash: Music/QuincyJones hated the film and he only did it as a favour to Creator/SidneyLumet.
22	* CutSong: Four songs and four dance numbers were either dropped or replaced for the film, some due to plot changes: "Tornado Ballet", "I Was Born On The Day Before Yesterday", "Kalidah Battle", "Lion's Dream", "Emerald City Ballet (Psst)", "Who Do You Think You Are?", "Y'all Got It!", and "A Rested Body Is a Rested Mind". "So You Wanted to Meet the Wizard?" became trimmed to just the intro and the first line. Among the new songs written for the movie, "Is This What Feeling Gets?" was dropped (it's on the soundtrack album), though it's the underscore's big instrumental motif.
23	* DawsonCasting: Music/DianaRoss played a 24-year old Dorothy at age 34.
24	* ExecutiveMeddling: Berry Gordy wanted Stephanie Mills to reprise her role of Dorothy, but Diana Ross wanted the role badly enough she convinced producer Creator/RobCohen to cast her.
25	* GenreKiller: According to the Medved Brothers' ''Hollywood Hall of Shame'' book, the movie's box-office performance directly led to the cancellation of several major-studio projects that would have had predominantly black casts. Well into the 1980s, Creator/RichardPryor and Creator/EddieMurphy would be the only black leads that were reliable box-office performers, and that was largely via UncleTomfoolery and OddCouple pairings. It wasn't until ''[[Film/BlackPanther2018 Black Panther]]'' forty years later that Hollywood attempted an all-black tentpole, and it ended up becoming a billion-dollar blockbuster.
26	* RealLifeRelative: Creator/LenaHorne, who played Glinda, was Creator/SidneyLumet's mother-in-law, at least until he divorced her daughter, Gail, the same year the film was released.
27	* RoleReprise: Tony winner Creator/TedRoss & Creator/MabelKing [[note]] Perhaps best known as Raj's mom on ''Series/WhatsHappening'' [[/note]] reprised their roles from the original run of the musical as the Lion & Evillene respectively.
28	* TheShelfOfMovieLanguishment: To tie-in with the movie, Music/DianaRoss recorded an album titled, ''Diana Ross Sings Songs From The Wiz''. Creator/{{Motown}} originally intended to release it about a year after the movie's premiere, but decided against it after the film flopped. It finally saw a digital release in November 2015, exactly one week before the NBC debut of ''The Wiz Live!''
29	* StarDerailingRole: Music/DianaRoss landed the starring role despite several early refusals from the film's crew due to her age at the time of production, forcing several changes to the script to accommodate Ross' older version of Dorothy. All of this, combined with the negative critical reaction of her overall performance ultimately put an unceremonious end to Ross' short-lived film career. Her later acting stints were in two MadeForTV films.
30	* TroubledProduction: The direction and casting led to a lot of the changes that made the film such a drastic departure from the musical; Berry Gordy had Stephanie Mills in mind to play Dorothy, but was ultimately convinced to cast Music/DianaRoss who fought to get the part, which prompted director Creator/JohnBadham to quit out of dissatisfaction, and so Creator/SidneyLumet stepped in to fill the chair. Rounding out the production was Creator/JoelSchumacher, and to accommodate Ross' age rewrote the script to focus on a much older Dorothy living in New York City instead of Kansas. Lumet's inexperience with musicals, combined with these casting and scriptural decisions led to a lot of internal skepticism of the project that was ultimately vindicated when the film failed at the box office.
31	* UncreditedRole: The Sweet Inspirations singer Cissy Houston had an uncredited appearance as one of the film's singers.
32	* WhatCouldHaveBeen:
33	** Stephanie Mills, who played Dorothy in the original Broadway production would've reprised the role for the movie, had Music/DianaRoss not appealed directly to Creator/RobCohen to get the part. The movie also had Creator/JohnBadham, the director of ''Film/SaturdayNightFever'', signed on to direct, until he quit out of disappointment with having to direct such an old Dorothy.
34	** Creator/EarthaKitt was first choice for the role of Evillene.
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37	!!The TV special
38	* AbilityOverAppearance: Creator/KennyLeon [[http://www.today.com/popculture/behind-scenes-wiz-live-cast-jitters-rehearsal-rituals-t57556 explained]] that he cast Music/QueenLatifah as the usually-male Wiz because he believed anyone could play the Wiz, and Queen Latifah happened to become the first Wiz that came to his mind.
39	* ActingForTwo: Some of the ensemble members played more than one role. This special also follows the lead of MGM's ''Film/TheWizardOfOz'' by having the actors of the Scarecrow (Creator/ElijahKelley), the Tin Man (Music/NeYo) and the Cowardly Lion (Creator/DavidAlanGrier) also portray Aunt Em's farmhands.
40	* {{Blooper}}: A live televised performance seems bound to include a few slip-ups, although the DVD and some of the digital copies correct some of them.
41	** At one point during the number "The Feeling We Once Had", the camera accidentally shows another camera pointing itself at Dorothy. The DVD cuts back to Aunt Em before this camera appears.
42	** The smoke and sparks that were supposed to cause Addapearle to disappear didn't shoot up in time. She stood there awkwardly for a few seconds, before the camera switched to show the Munchkins and Dorothy. The DVD hides Addaperle by covering the screen in smoke until this switch occurs.
43	** Creator/DavidAlanGrier apparently botched a line about wanting to see a movie in the Emerald City, instead asking his friends if they want to "catch a ''({{beat}})'' split before [they] split". This also made the Cowardly Lion's next lines ("I hope they don't put butter on their popcorn. I'm watchin' my cholesterol.") sound like a NonSequitur. The DVD didn't correct this, but the digital captions try to cover up Grier's botching by saying that he asks his friends if they want to "catch a flick".
44	** In "So You Wanted To Meet the Wizard", the Wiz enters the scene after a blast of smoke. NBC accidentally showed Music/QueenLatifah onstage before this blast goes off, but the DVD uses a slightly longer shot of Dorothy and her friends to delay the Wiz's reveal.
45	** After Dorothy finished singing "Home", the camera didn't cut to the Silver Shoes until after Shanice Williams already started clicking her heels, resulting in the viewers seeing her click them two times instead of three. The DVD manages to show all three clicks.
46	** The original broadcast had some instances where someone delivered a line from offscreen, some of which the DVD re-edited to actually show that person talking.
47	* CutSong: NBC's version had four songs from the play either skipped or replaced: "I Was Born On The Day Before Yesterday", "Who Do You Think You Are?", "Believe in Yourself" (though Glinda still sings the reprise), and "A Rested Body Is a Rested Mind" (reduced to some score accompanying Glinda's BigEntrance). Two songs added especially for the movie, "Can I Go On?" and "Emerald City Sequence", also didn't make it into this version, with the latter replaced by a re-written edition of the play's "Emerald City Ballet (Psst)".
48	* FilmedStageProduction: This adaptation was filmed live for NBC in 2015.
49	* MilestoneCelebration: The TV version aired during the 40th Anniversary of the musical's Broadway premiere.
50	* ProductionPosse:
51	** Creator/CraigZadan and Creator/NeilMeron, producers of the NBC version, also produced Creator/KennyLeon-directed TV adaptations of ''Theatre/ARaisinInTheSun'' and ''Film/SteelMagnolias''. The latter also featured Music/QueenLatifah in the leading role.
52	** Eight years before the NBC production of ''The Wiz'', Creator/CraigZadan and Creator/NeilMeron collaborated with both Music/QueenLatifah and Creator/ElijahKelley for the 2007 version of ''Film/{{Hairspray\|2007}}''. Queen Latifah also worked with Zadan and Meron on ''Film/{{Chicago}}''.
53	** Music/QueenLatifah and Creator/DavidAllenGrier (who play The Wiz and The Cowardly Lion in the NBC production) both portrayed Aunt Em and Uncle Henry in ''Film/TheMuppetsWizardOfOz''.
54	* PromotedFanboy: Several cast members, including Music/QueenLatifah and Music/MaryJBlige, already loved watching ''The Wiz'' on stage and/or as the movie before landing their roles.
55	* SavedFromDevelopmentHell: Storyline Entertainment planned a TV version of ''The Wiz'' as far back as [[http://deadline.com/2015/11/craig-zadan-neil-meron-the-wiz-live-nbc-1201646727/ 1998]], after producing ''Film/Cinderella1997'' for ''[[Series/WaltDisneyPresents The Wonderful World of Disney]]''. However, rights issues with Universal prevented Storyline from progressing very far with the project.
56	* ShoutOut:
57	** Several lines sound like updated versions of dialogue from MGM's ''The Wizard of Oz''.
58	** Evillene's minions are very similar to the "fireys" from ''Film/{{Labyrinth}}'' (lots of jumping around and flame-colored fur).
59	* WhatCouldHaveBeen:
60	** NBC offered Music/{{Beyonce}} the chance to play Glinda, but she turned it down.
61	** Promo pictures and videos show that Glinda originally had blonde curly hair. When the special actually aired, she sported brunette braid instead. [[http://thegrio.com/2015/12/18/shanice-williams-dorothy-natural-hair/ According]] to Shanice Williams, the crew decided that letting Creator/UzoAduba show off her natural hair color would provide a stronger expression of African-American beauty.
62	* WrittenByCastMember: Two of the lead males of the TV version, Creator/ElijahKelley and Ne-Yo, helped write a new song, "We Got It".
63	* In addition to Creator/StephanieMills, cast members confirmed to have previously appeared in stage versions of ''The Wiz'' include Creator/DavidAlanGrier (The Wiz in the 2006 La Jolla Playhouse production), Music/QueenLatifah (Dorothy in a high school production), and Shanice Williams (Addaperle in a junior high production).

Context Trivia / TheWiz