The famous 1974 all-black musical version of Frank L. Baum’s original story “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” is back in town through Sunday at San Diego Civic Theatre.
This version is no tame kid story, though of course Dorothy is still the star, a little girl fascinated by all things magical who wants to visit the Emerald City in order to meet the famous Wizard.
Nichelle Lewis plays Dorothy excellently in this In this tour version, at first frightened by the death of her mother and the almost dictatorial substitute mothering she gets from her aunt.
But as she gradually comes out of her self-imposed shell and begins to look at the world around her, she meets some pretty intriguing folks and gets them to come along with her. My favorites are the fearsome foursome that ends up traveling together: the cowardly but adorable lion (Kyle Ramar Freeman), the tinman in need of some oil (Phillip Johnson Richardson) and the scarecrow (Avery Wilson) who looks pretty sad until Dorothy figures out how to get him down off the metal thing he’s stuck to.
The show is full of goofy stuff, but contributes some good life lessons as well. The quartet of Wizard-seekers runs into all sorts of problems and obstacles, but also meets people like the good witch Glinda (Deborah Cox), who help her.
The great thing about these touring musical shows is that they spare no expense to give the audience eye-popping visual stimulation with backdrops and costumes. And where there’s music, there’s dance, especially in this show and with this excellent cast, which seems to dance at the drop of a musical note.
Kudos to everyone involved in this show, which runs through Sunday.
“The Wiz” plays through Sunday, Jan. 14 at San Diego Civic Theatre, 1100 Third Avenue, downtown.
Remaining shows are Thursday at 7:30 p.m.; Friday at 8 p.m.; Saturday at 2 and 8 p.m.; Sunday at 1 and 6:30 p.m.
Prices: $34-535
Tickets: broadwaysd.com or (619) 564-3000
No comments:
Post a Comment