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Why THE WIZ? NBC's All-Star Creative Team Explains!
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Nov 7, 2022
BroadwayWorld was on set earlier this month as the company was readying for the big night and the whole creative team was on hand to tell us about the process so far. Find out how they all fell in love with THE WIZ, why the show speaks to them and more below!
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0:00
When I saw The Wizard of Oz, I remember thinking that it was unique and different from anything I had ever seen before then
0:07
Also, I was fortunate enough to grow up around Liza Minnelly and Lorna Lough
0:15
And they always told me that they were not really allowed to watch their mother's movie very early on when they were very young because they were scared
0:29
and Judy was afraid that they would be terrified. So it was only at a certain age that they were allowed to see it
0:37
And, you know, it was so funny because I thought, like, why were you so scared
0:40
I thought it was fun. But then seeing it again, I realized that it is a really amazing story of scariness and joy
0:54
And then I remember seeing The Wiz on Broadway, and it was a life-changing experience
0:59
I thought that I had never seen a musical on Broadway that had the kind of joy and exuberance
1:10
And I remember seeing Stephanie Mills and thinking nobody that age can sing like that It not possible And I remember having goosebumps and being emotional and being a wreck
1:28
And then I went back and saw it many, many, many other times on Broadway
1:33
So I had a love affair with The Wiz when I was a kid seeing it on Broadway
1:38
I was homosexual when I first saw it. And seeing it just reinforced it
1:46
No, I did see it when I was a kid on TV, and the Wiz just reinforces again how much I love that story and how classic it is and what it means to everybody, no matter who you are, you will be touched by any iteration of the Wizard of Oz, especially The Wiz
2:06
Yeah, I grew up a poor kid in Florida, and I was the oldest of four and living with my stepfather and my mother
2:16
We used to every year sit down and watch the Wizard of Oz
2:20
And I think to this day, that's probably the foundation for everything I've done since
2:26
I think every story is sort of centered around the Wizard of Oz, you know, love, courage
2:31
home, all that stuff, you know. So then when the Wiz came on the scene and then made it more specific for my culture then that broadened the scope and impact of the Wizard of Us So to get a chance to work with this team it is crazy
2:49
You know, you put Stephen Noremas with Harvey Mason Jr. I mean, if that's not America, then I don't know what it is
2:57
And when I sat there. But Harvey, Harvey is a really good example of what you chose to do with this show by
3:08
combining Stephen and Harvey the two different worlds combined to make something unique
3:14
From my point of view as a designer, I was always struck as a child by how beautiful and at the same time artificial the movie looked
3:25
And that was something I loved. I didn't quite understand it as a little kid when I saw it, but it was something I, you know
3:31
watching it over and over again over the years. It's something I grew to really admire. And I think for anybody
3:38
who does anything visual, it's such a significant part of our visual iconography
3:43
We loved the original Broadway show because we both saw it individually when it had first come out
3:49
in 1975, and it was described to us as unadulterated joy. And it was also that familiar
3:57
touchstone of being closer to the Wizard of Oz than the movie version which had Diana Ross who was an older person not having the innocence of a young girl going on this journey and basically a journey to adulthood
4:11
So we just wanted to bring it back and honor its roots, so to speak
4:16
I think that from day one, we were very clear that we wanted to do the show and not the movie
4:22
and because it started with the show, the purity of it was the show
4:30
The movie was a vision of other artists. We wanted to start with the original vision
4:37
I remember early on the question, who do you think the very first time
4:42
Who do you think for the WIZ? And I just said, Queen Latifah
4:48
I mean, the first thing out of my mouth, I wasn't thinking about gender, and I said
4:52
Queen Latifah. The WIS can be anything, can do anything. And they said, well, we love Queen Latifah
4:59
We went after her right away, but that was, it was no other name as a director
5:05
It was like they asked me, I said, Queen Latifah. And today when I looked at that image of her that they sent out and I said, that's it
5:13
That's the realization of the first time we spoke about her. And then you spoke to Harvey about how to integrate it into the script
5:19
And then, yes, of course, their lovely ideas are my problems
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