Yahoo Movies The Wiz to Return to Broadway 'Entirely Reimagined' in All-New Production
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The Wiz is coming back!
On Thursday, Ambassador Theatre Group and producers Kristin Caskey, Mike Isaacson and Brian Anthony Moreland announced that a brand-new production of The Wiz will launch a national tour in fall 2023 and undertake a limited engagement on Broadway in the spring of 2024.
The "entirely reimagined revival," which features a book written by William F. Brown and score from Tony Award winner Charlie Smalls, will be directed by Schele Williams in her directorial debut on Broadway and choreographed by another Broadway newcomer, Jaquel Knight.
"I wouldn't be on Broadway if it wasn't for The Wiz…the music, the costumes, the choreography and Stephanie Mills!" director Williams, who previously worked on Rent, Aida and Motown: The Musical, said in a statement obtained by PEOPLE Thursday. "Seeing that show changed my life."
"It is, in every way, a celebration of Black excellence," Williams added. "I am honored to helm this production and I can't think of a better time to tell this story."
Knight, who rose to prominence by choreographing Beyoncé's "Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It)," said in a statement that he considers The Wiz as "the epitome of Black excellence."
"There's not one piece of art that has had influence on popular culture like The Wiz," Knight said, continuing on to say that he is "humbled" to "continue the storytelling and legacy building on the beauty of blackness through dance, movement, & attitude."
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"I'm honored to stand on the backs of those greats who've opened this door, such as the Louis Johnson and George Faison," the choreographer added. "And I am thrilled to be given the opportunity to help show kids who look like me that the Theater is a world where they can see themselves."
The Wiz's national tour will start in Baltimore, where the original musical hosted its world premiere in 1974, and travel throughout the country before it settles into its limited engagement on Broadway.
Michael Smalls, son of the musical's composer Charlie Smalls, who died in September 1987 at 43, said in a statement Thursday that he is "thrilled" that the musical will return to Broadway.
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"I am so happy to know a new generation will be discovering these wonderful songs and learn of my father's extraordinary talent," he said.
The Wiz, based on L. Frank Baum's 1900 children's novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, "takes one of the world's most enduring (and enduringly white) American fantasies, and transforms it into an all-Black musical extravaganza for the ages," a synopsis for the show reads.
The musical originally premiered on Broadway in 1975 and won seven Tonys, paving the way for a run that lasted four years and 1,672 performances, according to a release.
A feature film adaptation starring Diana Ross and Richard Pryor released in 1978, while NBC produced a version of the musical as a live television special in December 2015.
