MovieChat Forums > The Wiz Live! (2015) Discussion > So, white folks who already knew "The Wi...

So, white folks who already knew "The Wiz..."

posted 8 years ago by jad1986
21 replies | jump to latest

Did any of us Caucasian people who knew about "The Wiz" before the live version really expect or want a mixed cast or dominantly white cast?

I mean, there's been all-white or mostly-white productions of "The Wiz" before, for schools and community theaters (a few have been recorded and posted on YouTube), which is likely more about people liking the material rather than them trying to claim it for white people.

I've been a fan of the original "The Wiz" play for some time and wanted the live version to cast as many of the roles with people of color as possible because the play was created as the black culture re-interpretation of "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" with its own unique voice and casting white people in those roles just wouldn't suit the property for a major production.

What we see and what we seem are but a dream. A dream within a dream.

[–] 8 years ago

[deleted]

[–] jamespetenbrink 8 years ago

I bet you had no problem with Annie being cast as a black girl instead of a red head with freckles white girl. I love double standards

[–] EmilyTheDramaQueen 8 years ago

In their defense, they did say all white cast and not half white or some white actors. While Annie herself was black the movie was still pretty mixed casting wise, not saying this should have been but just making the point about what the PP said.

"I'd rather lose for what I am than win for what I ain't"

Kacey Musgraves "Pageant Material"

[–] denbeez 8 years ago

I wonder if anyone who sincerely believes that The Wiz Live needed White performers in principal roles similarly believes that a production of Dreamgirls Live should star, say, Miley Cyrus or Justin Timberlake?

I am White. I saw the original Broadway production of The Wiz a total of four times in both NYC and Los Angeles on tour between 1976 and 1978. It was magnificent! The recent live TV version was very well done, but it didn't surpass the original stage incarnation. Maybe in my mind no other version ever will, which is why I won't go see community theater and school productions of this particular show.

I sincerely believe that casting it White or mixed-race defeats the show's purpose for existence on a basic aesthetic level. Just do the 1939/MGM/Judy Garland version if an All-Black cast is out of the question.

"If voting made any difference they wouldn't let us do it." - Mark Twain

[–] kirx 8 years ago

I agree. Likewise why the hell did anyone deem it necessary to have a black Annie?

[–] denbeez 8 years ago

Easy. They thought they would make a lot of money with an updated Annie, and Quvenzhané Wallis was hot at the time having just been anointed the youngest-ever Best Actress Oscar nominee. Had it been a little White girl nominated for some other film, they (an agent, producer, studio head...somebody) still would have come up with the wholly non-creative concept of Annie set in modern times.

They didn't really make much dough, if any. The budget was $65 million and it took in $83 million in the U.S. Not a big profit margin. And since marketing and publicity aren't factored into production costs they may have lost. I don't know how well it did overseas.

They didn't really stick to the original concept with the new Annie at all, otherwise it would have been set during the 1930s. Not doing so changed the tone of the piece entirely, so it wouldn't have mattered much if Annie had been played by a White child actress. The remake bore vitrually no resemblance to the stage show, perhaps to its peril.

"If voting made any difference they wouldn't let us do it." - Mark Twain

[–] kirx 8 years ago

Fair enough, but it's still ridiculous. And now there's a black Thomas Jefferson in a current Broadway musical?! A REAL former US president who obviously was not black?! No, just no!

[–] denbeez 8 years ago

You're talking about Broadway's current hot ticket, Hamilton.

The point that they're making with the mixed-race cast representing figures from American history is that we are a nation of immigrants, as was Alexander Hamilton himself. To make that fact resonate in the 21st Century they're utilizing actors of other ethnicities to represent the way the world (and immigrants) have looked throughout the nation's history as well as today.

It's a theatrical device, to be sure, that is clearly working well as the show is an unqualified success. I'm not sure it would translate to a traditional narrative film as it stands, but it's working fine on stage.

They're not doing a documentary, after all.

"If voting made any difference they wouldn't let us do it." - Mark Twain

[–] jad1986 8 years ago

Also, Hamilton is just really, really good!

What we see and what we seem are but a dream. A dream within a dream.

[–] violinvictory-858-780905 8 years ago

I thought it was going to be an all-black cast of Annie (basically tell the same story, minus references to Annie's red hair), but not an auntotuned atrocity.

[–] jad1986 8 years ago

One friend of mine thought maybe the girl playing Annie should be Dorothy in The Wiz Live! and I had to disagree. If you need autotune to get through "Tomorrow," there is no way you're going to hold the final note of "Home" in a live production.

What we see and what we seem are but a dream. A dream within a dream.

[–] kirx 8 years ago

True that!

[–] SallahTours 8 years ago

No, I was not expecting a mixed cast at all. Amateur productions will usually end up having Caucasian actors simply because they may not have enough people of color auditioning. With a nationwide casting process, and being able to pick an choose actors for roles, there was no excuse to have a Caucasian actor in a principal or even secondary role.

[–] Blue_Eyes_James 8 years ago

Same here, on TV or on Broadway I'd expect an all-black cast for "The Wiz". Sticking to the original vision. Local or school theater would be different, they have more leeway. I posted a story awhile back about an all-white "Hairspray" in Texas! Interesting read.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/31/all-white-production-of-h_n_1244955.html

[–] ThatFilmGuy92 8 years ago

I'm very aware of the 1975 musical and have seen the 1978 film many a time over the years and actually just watched it again prior to watching this new version.

Good night, Danny Trejo.

[–] !!!deleted!!! (25863049) 8 years ago

I never thought they'd do it with anything other than an all-black cast. And, only knowing about the 78 version, I was ready to hate it. About 30 seconds in, I looked at my wife and said, "Uh, this doesn't look so bad..." Then we let the kids stay up for the whole thing. We're watching it again on Saturday.

Now, that Grease LIVE! thing...looks utterly embarrassing.

[–] thejaynester 8 years ago

Nope. It's not a "white" show, so why would anyone have expected anything different? And I have to say, Annie was awful because of the lack of singing skills and the over presence of auto tuning, but people being upset with her being black is ridiculous. It's a generic role, it can be played by anyone. (That can sing.) But wanting The Wiz to have a white cast is like wanting Fiddler to have an all Indian cast but still set in a shtetl (sorry, spelling?) in czarist Russia. Ridiculous.

[–] kirx 8 years ago

If Annie is a generic role then so is every role in DREAMGIRLS. You can't have it both ways.

[–] jad1986 8 years ago

There are certain stories and certain ways of telling those stories that work and those that don't. "Annie" could easily have worked with a black lead, because she's an orphan girl who hopes for the return of her parents. Her ethnicity is not an issue. The movie we did get that tried that, however, was just not good.

"Dreamgirls," however, does have the theme that these are black women becoming celebrities, and it's important to the story. Example: they record a good song, and it's covered by a white, male artist and the cover becomes a hit. If you have white people suddenly taking a song from other white people... you basically have the music industry in general.

And with "The Wiz," if you had white people saying the dialogue the way it's written, it just wouldn't sound right. It was written for black voices.

What we see and what we seem are but a dream. A dream within a dream.

[–] solex10 8 years ago

Excuse me, but there have been all-Japanese and all-other color production of Fiddler On The Roof, as well as a Korean-language version of Man Of LaMancha with a Korean cast; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ds5sbXJHN9c

[–] GeneticSugarKane 8 years ago

I was a fan of the film and the Broadway soundtrack growing up, and my knowledge of the production came from them. The only time I had seen a mixed cast perform the work was when a younger cousin did a community theater production, and the cast was filled with a variety of ethnicities and people of different colors. Even then, I think the majority of the leads were black, though. So, no, when this production was first announced, I didn't expect a predominantly white cast. I did suspect that a couple of the leads or chorus parts might be filled out with some white, Latino, Asian, etc. performers, but wasn't counting on it.

My IMDb lists: http://www.imdb.com/user/ur5570856/lists?ref_=nv_usr_lst_3