The Wiz was born in 1972, when black DJ Ken Harper decided to pitch the TV networks on a series of specials adapting classic musicals for television. He picked The Wizard of Oz as the first special, and decided doing an all-black version would lower resistance to remaking MGM's beloved 1939 film.
The networks weren’t interested, so Harper turned to Broadway. 20th Century Fox put up $650,000 in return for the rights to adapt the show for the movies if it became a hit.
The Story of The Wiz
Dorothy, a young black farm girl, is carried to Oz when a cyclone picks up her farmhouse and drops it down on Evramene, the Wicked Witch of the East. Addaperle, the Good Witch of the North, tells Dorothy that only the all-powerful Wiz of the Emerald City has the knowledge to send her home, and sends the girl off to the Wiz wearing Evramene’s silver slippers.
Dorothy, of course, befriends the Scarecrow, Tin Man and Cowardly Lion along the way; destroys Evillene, the Wicked Witch of the West; and learns the Wiz is nothing but a smalltime Omaha hustler. After the Wiz convinces Dorothy’s friends they have brains, heart and courage, Dorothy says that proves he has the talent to make it back in the USA. The Wiz goes home by balloon (Dorothy misses the launch, of course) but Dorothy learns she can use the power of the slippers to get back to Kansas herself.
The story is faithful to the plot of The Wizard of Oz—using Baum’s silver slippers for instance, rather than MGM’s ruby shoes—but throws in a heaping helping of gospel and R&B musical stylings, snappy dialog and sharp humor.
The Wiz hits Broadway
The show was a hit in its 1974 out of town tryout, and opened on Broadway to mixed reviews in 1975. The lack of big stars probably discouraged regular theatergoers, but the African-American press generated heavy word of mouth that turned the musical into a success. The Wiz won seven Tonys, including Best musical.
From 20th Century Fox to Universal.
Fox decided not to exercise its movie options, which may be because the executive who bought the rights had left the company, or because several movie musicals had flopped in the preceding few years. Motown and Universal, however, worked out a deal to bring The Wiz to the big screen.
Diana Ross changes Everything
Plans to find a talented young girl to play Dorothy went out the window when Motown star Diana Ross said she wanted to play Dorothy. The advantage of having a major star in the lead (Ross had proven she could act when she played blues singer Billie Holliday in Lady Sings the Blues) convinced Motown’s Rob Cohen to sign her up, even though that meant Dorothy's character would have to be a grown woman.
Sidney Lumet
After director John Badham decided a grown-up Dorothy would never work, he was replaced by Sidney Lumet. Lumet dropped Kansas from the story, turning Dorothy into a New York teacher so shy she’s never left her neighborhood.
The Wiz Movie
Released in 1978 the film of The Wiz cost $24 million to make— second only to Superman that year—and it bombed. The big budget visuals were heavy-handed; Ross was frantic and unconvincing as Dorothy; and the role Wiz was rewritten as a sniveling coward, wasting Richard Pryor’s talents.
You’re much better off waiting for a chance to see the wonderful stage show.
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