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The Wiz review: Run, don’t ease, on down the road to this spectacular revival of the classic musical

A review of The Wiz by Lester Fabian Brathwaite | April 17, 2024

The new revival of the 1975 musical by Charlie Smalls (et al) and William F. Brown updates some references (with the help of Amber Ruffin, fresh off her success with Some Like It Hot) and takes what worked from the 1978 movie (namely the Michael Jackson-as-Scarecrow solo “You Can’t Win”) and the popular TV musical (the swag, my god, the swag) to produce what may be the best version of The Wiz to date.

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One of them paved a path of his own ascending to artistic godhood by glorifying the mundane; the other painted SAMO (meaning the Same Old Sh*t) criticizing the very idea of repetition. One of them broke down the wall between art and business; for the other, walls didn’t mean a thing. One saw beauty, immortality, […]

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