Actors (L-R) Andre De Shields, Tiger Haynes, Hinton Battle, Stephanie Mills Ted Ross in a scene from the Broadway musical “The Wiz” 1974 Photo by Martha Swope courtesy of THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY DIGITAL COLLECTIONS
Everyone thinks of The Wiz as an iconic production; the music, casting, and conceptualizing of The Wizard of Oz from a classic movie to an urban tale has been so successful that it’s storyline is practically woven into our collective consciousness. However, the Broadway production of The Wiz was nearly a disaster when it first opened.
A bit of background; in 1972 Ken Harper came up with the idea to modify the classic movie “The Wizard of Oz” to a black musical. Twentieth Century Fox became interested in the idea, and after Harper presented the idea, Fox signed on. In exchange for first option for film rights, publishing rights and album rights, they agreed to put up an ante of $650,000 with a 20 percent overcall. Shortly afterward, Harper brought on Geoffrey Holder as costume designer (who eventually became the director), 16 year old Stephanie Mills as Doroth
y, and 18 year old Hinton Battle as the Scarecrow.
Once The Wiz opened in New York, the show only grossed $46,000 in previews (and the weekly production cost was $67,000); things were so bleak that on opening night a closing notice was posted backstage. The reviews after opening night were mostly negative, but Fox allowed the production to continue for another month, provided that ticket sales increased on weekends.
A radio and television booking blitz followed, and word of mouth started to build. The result? A week later, The Wiz sold out the Saturday matinee, and Fox decided to add $120,000 in advertising money. The decision was made to do a television commercial, which was a novelty at the time. The $30,000 commercial featured the song, “Ease On Down the Road,” and within another two weeks after the commercial aired, every performance sold out.
As we now know, The Wiz won seven Tony Awards, has been seen all over the world, and turned into a movie; later this year, there will be a live presentation on NBC, with Stephanie Mills playing the role of Aunt Em, and will be presented as a Broadway revival for the 2016-2017 season.
Ease On Down The Road and watch this video from the original Broadway musical below.
