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<\/p>\nBy Peter Thomas Ricci<\/p>\n
In a short essay accompanying the show\u2019s playbill, Lili-Anne Brown \u2013 the director of Kokandy Production\u2019s staging of \u2018The Wiz\u2019 at Theater Wit \u2013 writes of how as a child, she saw a touring production of the original broadway show at Arie Crown Theatre, and that although she \u201cloved the songs, the costumes, the dancing, and seeing a little girl who looked a lot like me at the center of it all,\u201d the musical did not quite click for her. The 1978 movie, though \u2013 which starred Diana Ross and Michael Jackson, and replaced the fantastical sets of the Broadway show with a grimy, overcast urban landscape \u2013 was a different story. \u201cThe key to the story that the movie unlocked for me was that they\u2019d simply set it in A CITY,\u201d Brown writes. \u201cAs a girl from the South Side of Chicago, this was something I could relate to \u2013 scary train tunnels, weird street vendors and all.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Brown later writes of how Kokandy\u2019s production attempts to make \u2018The Wiz\u2019 relevant to a modern Chicago audience, but it\u2019s precisely the show\u2019s attempts at social commentary that ultimately hampers its success as a musical, though it retains many admirable and recommended qualities.<\/p>\n
Set in the fictional Kansas Homes housing project in Chicago, \u2018The Wiz\u2019 does not stray much from its source material: Dorothy (Sydney Charles) is swept away by a storm to the land of Oz, where she inadvertently flattens the Wicked Witch of the East. After being informed by Addaperle, the Good Witch of the North (Angela Alise) of an all-powerful wizard who can transport her back to her beloved Chicago, Dorothy sets off on the yellow brick road, meeting a scarecrow, a tin man, and a lion along the way.<\/p>\n
There are some problems with \u2018The Wiz\u2019 as a musical \u2013 William F. Brown\u2019s book is weak, and the pacing is a tad inconsistent \u2013 but Kokandy\u2019s terrific ensemble more than overcomes those minor shortcomings. As Dorothy, Charles is plucky and likable, with a big, powerful voice that soars through Charlie Smalls\u2019 songs. Alise is utterly delightful as Addaperle. And Gilbert Domally, Chuckie Benson, Frederick Harris, and Nicole Michelle Haskins are very entertaining as the Scarecrow, Lion, Wiz, and Evillene (the Wicked Witch of the West). Additionally, Virginia Varland\u2019s costume design is first rate, and Breon Arzell\u2019s choreography (especially during \u201cEverybody Rejoice\u201d) is engaging.<\/p>\n
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But in the end, Brown\u2019s stabs at social commentary do not quite hit their mark, and for one simple reason \u2013 Smalls\u2019 songs do not reinforce them. Although it\u2019s interesting costuming the Scarecrow as a corner boy and the Lion as a fledgling pimp, to say nothing of Arnel Sanciano\u2019s ambitious set (which recreates a graffiti strewn housing project), the generalized positivity of the show\u2019s songs do not meet the production halfway, and the result is a somewhat awkward fit.<\/p>\n
Still, there are many positive elements of \u2018The Wiz,\u2019 and I recommend it heartily.<\/p>\n
Recommended<\/b><\/p>\n
Playing through April 16 at Theater Wit, 1229 W Belmont<\/b><\/p>\n
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