Spotlight on "The Wizard of Oz": An American Classic

"The Wizard of Oz" is one of the most popular stories in our culture, beloved by children and adults around the world. It has been adapted many times to stage and screen; one of those adaptations, "The Wiz," opens this week at the Vam York Theater.

"The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" by L. Frank Baum was published in 1900 to critical acclaim, and the first Broadway musical adaptation was staged in 1902. Baum went on to write 12 more books about Oz, although none are so well-remembered as the first. It has been translated into more than 50 languages.

The 1939 MGM film starring Judy Garland and Ray Bolger has also become a classic, although the screenplay takes major liberties with Baum's story. In the movie, Dorothy's slippers are ruby red, not silver; much of the quartet's journeys to the different parts of Oz are abridged; and the ending hints that Dorothy dreamed the whole experience.

"The Wizard of Oz" was adapted for the stage in 1975 by Charlie Smalls in "The Wiz," a retelling of the story in the context of African-American culture, and was an early example of works with an all-black cast. The show, which follows Baum's original story more closely than the 1939 movie (although in a more urban context), won seven Tony Awards and ran for four years. The movie version in 1978, which starred Diana Ross, Michael Jackson, Richard Pryor and Lena Horne, never achieved the same acclaim as the stage musical.

Baum's characters found new life again on the Broadway stage in 2003 with Stephen Schwartz's adaptation of Gregory Maguire's "Wicked," a parallel novel that told the story from the perspective of the witches of Oz. "Wicked" received three Tony Awards and is still running, seven years later.

"The Wizard of Oz" has proved to be an enduring favorite in all its incarnations, and "The Wiz" is a welcome addition to this holiday season at the Vam York Theater. Make plans to see it with your families! Preview is this Thursday!

xo xo GCP Girl