The Wiz is a musical with music and lyrics by Charlie Smalls and book by William F. Brown. It is an urbanized retelling of L. Frank Baum's classic 1900 children's novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz in the context of modern African-American culture. It opened on October 21, 1974, at the Morris A. Mechanic Theatre in Baltimore, Maryland, and moved to the Majestic Theatre with a new cast on January 5, 1975.
The 1975 Broadway production won seven Tony Awards, including "Best Musical" and is an early example of Broadway's mainstream acceptance of works with casts that are all or majority people of color. A big-budget film adaptation of the same name was released in 1978 and has since become a cult classic. A live television production of the stage show, The Wiz Live!, was broadcast on NBC on December 3, 2015, with an encore presentation on December 19th of the same year.
Circle Players' stages this production in modern times with a touch of tradition. So come on and "Ease on Down the Road" to Tennessee State University Performing Arts Center and enjoy the music, dance, and classic story of a girl that dreams of far off places and wonderful characters only to find out there is no place like home!