The Wiz
January 15-17, 2010
A Barn Junior Production

The Father of Oz: L. Frank Baum

Lyman Frank Baum was born in Chittenango, New York, on May 15, 1856. When he was four years old his father closed the Baum Brothers Barrel Factory and moved the family to Syracuse, New York, to pursue a career in the oil business. Baum spent most of his childhood there indulged by his family, due partially because he had been born with a weak heart.

Baum's early adulthood was characterized by the sampling of a variety of professions. Besides an actor he was also a playwright, theater manager, newspaper reporter, salesman, and chicken breeder.

In 1882, after the artistic success of one of his plays, Baum married Maud Gage, the daughter of leading American suffragist Matilda Joslyn Gage. In the next six years two sons were born and Baum, delighted by fatherhood, exercised his fertile imagination by recounting to the boys countless stories. At this time, Baum was working in the family oil business but after the death of his father in 1887 it was discovered that a clerk had embezzled most of the capital of the company.

Putting this disaster behind him, Baum moved to Aberdeen, South Dakota, and walked straight into two others. Baum's Bazaar Variety Store and The Aberdeen Saturday Pioneer Newspaper both failed as start up businesses. The Baum family, now with two further sons, moved to Chicago in 1891 where Baum was successively a reporter, a department store window dresser, and a traveling chinaware salesman. In 1896 he applied for copyright on his first two children's books, Adventures in Phunniland and Tales from Mother Goose. The Mother Goose book was published in 1897 with illustrations by Maxfield Parrish. This collection of short stories, with an appearance of a little farm girl named Dorothy.

Now in his early forties, Baum decided to earn his living as a writer. Together with artist W. W. Denslow he produced Father Goose: His Book in 1899 and in so doing sold nearly 60,000 copies. Father Goose was soon to be forgotten, however, with the release of Baum and Denslow's next work. Written in 1899 and published in 1900, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz was a huge success with the public and critics alike. Many of the reviewers compared it with Alice in Wonderland.

Baum did not initially recognize the importance of the book and continued to publish other works until The Marvelous Land of Oz appeared in 1904. Launched on a tide of Oz projects, the book was a great success. From 1907 on Baum, at the request of his publishers, produced one Oz book a year. This said, Baum was increasingly keen to work on fantasy books which did not feature Oz and so, in 1910, came the announcement that the adventures of Oz were coming to an end.

In the two years before Baum's financial affairs had become increasingly entangled, and by 1910 the situation was so serious that he assigned all rights to his books to a group of creditors. in 1913, because of the bankruptcy and because of the overwhelming number of letters from children asking for 'more about Dorothy', Baum published The Patchwork Girl of Oz and became, until his death, the Royal Historian of Oz.

Baum continued to publish an Oz book once a year, with a generation of American children growing up with the tradition of an Oz adventure every Christmas. In February 1918 Baum entered the hospital, but spent his last year bedridden, dying nine days before his 63rd birthday in 1919.

Oz on stage: 1902

L. Frank Baum adapted his Wonderful Wizard of Oz as a musical extravaganza in 1902. It premiered in Chicago and later moved to Broadway in 1903, where it ran for 293 performances. It starred Anna Laughlin as Dorothy Gale, Fred Stone as The Scarecrow, David C. Montgomery as the Tin Woodman and Arthur Hill played the Cowardly Lion, though the role was reduced to a bit part. Montgomery and Stone would be forever identified as the Tin Man and the Scarecrow thanks to the show.

The show book was written by L. Frank Baum himself, though after producer Fred R. Hamlin and director Julian Mitchell rejected his 1901 spec script, which held close to the novel, he wrote a completely new script based on their desires. Most of Baum's songs related to the story in some way, as in operetta, but as performed, the play was more like vaudeville, and new songs by other songwriters were frequently substituted.

The witches are largely absent in this version; The Good Witch of the North appears, named Glinda, and The Wicked Witch of the East is a special effect. The Wicked Witch of the West does not appear, and Dorothy's dog Toto, has been replaced, by a cow named Imogene. The Wizard was presented as various ethnic stock character stereotypes (German / Irish), depending upon who played him.

The animals, including the Cowardly Lion, did not speak, based on pantomime tradition. His main purpose was a bit of comic relief. His quest for courage is completely omitted, much as the other characters' quests are deemphasized in favor of various comic routines.

Oz On Screen: 1910 & 1925

L. Frank Baum was somewhat involved in the first attempt to bring the Oz stories to the motion picture screen, as by the end of 1908 he was again in dire financial straits. His situation left him with little chance of dictating terms when Hollywood’s Selig Polyscope Company announced its intention of adapting Baum’s stories for the screen. Left with no choice, Baum agreed to the arrangement but played little role in their production. Over a 3-month period in 1910, Selig made and released The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Dorothy And The Scarecrow In Oz and The Land of Oz. The latter three are lost; the former is the oldest surviving film adaptation of the Oz stories. The 1910 film runs 13-minutes is brisk to the point of incoherence. It covers most of the story’s major plot points with dizzying speed. There is exuberant action from the Tin Man who jigs and the Scarecrow who tumbles.

The 1925 silent film adaptation was the first feature length film of L. Frank Baum's novel, and features a young Oliver Hardy (of Laurel & Hardy) as the Tin Man. The film departs radically from the novel upon which it is based, introducing new characters and exploits. Along with a completely different plot (but with a heroine named Dorothy), the film is all set in a world that is only barely recognizable as the Land of Oz from the books. The major departure from the book and film is that the Scarecrow, Tin Man, and Lion are not actually characters, but are in fact disguises donned by 3 Kansas farm hands who find themselves swept into Oz by a tornado. Some of these plot elements have their roots in earlier stage adaptations. The film was a critical, public and financial failure. Shortly thereafter, Oliver Hardy would meet Stan Laurel at the Hal Roach Studios, and make history.

Oz: The 1939 MGM Classic

Groundbreaking in its use of special effects for its time, use of Technicolor, fantasy storytelling and quirky characters, the 1939 MGM film adaptation of The Wizard of Oz has become one of the most memorable, influential films of all time. It features Judy Garland, Ray Bolger, Jack Haley, and Bert Lahr.

For the most part, the movie follows the novel only in a very general way, though several phrases ("I am Dorothy, the small and meek"; and "Oh no, my dear, I'm a very good man; I'm just a very bad Wizard") are taken directly from the book. Many details are omitted or altered, while many of the perils that Dorothy encountered in the novel are not even mentioned. The Good Witch of the North and Glinda, the Good Witch of the South, are merged into one character. To take advantage of the new Technicolor process, Dorothy's silver shoes were changed to ruby slippers. The novel also never depicts Dorothy as a damsel in distress to be rescued by her friends, but rather the reverse, with Dorothy rescuing her friends.

Nevertheless, the film was far more faithful to Baum's original book than many earlier scripts or film versions. The 1939 movie interprets the Oz experience as a dream, in which many of the characters that Dorothy meets represent the people from her home life, none of which appear in the book.

Most of the film's stars lived long enough to enjoy the 1939 film's legendary status. The day after Ray Bolger’s death in 1987, an editorial cartoon referenced the cultural impact of this film, portraying the Scarecrow running along the Yellow Brick Road to catch up with the other characters as they danced off into the sunset.

Wicked: The Book & The Musical

Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, is a novel written by Gregory Maguire. Based upon the writings of L. Frank Baum, it is a revisionist look at the land and characters of Oz. A sequel, titled Son of a Witch, was published in fall of 2005. A third novel, A Lion Among Men was released in October 2008. Unlike the popular 1939 movie and Baum's writings, these novels are not directed at children and contain adult language and content including violent imagery and sexual situations.

The Tony Award-Winning musical adaptation of the book, Wicked has music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz and book by Winnie Holzman. It tells the story of Elphaba, the future Wicked Witch of the West and her relationship with Galinda, later Glinda, the Good Witch of the North. Their friendship struggles through their opposing personalities and viewpoints, rivalry over the same love-interest, their reactions to the Wizard's corrupt government, and, ultimately, Elphaba's public fall from grace. As with previous stage adaptations of Oz material, it takes major liberties with its original source material in bringing the story to the stage.

Wicked the musical opened at Broadway's Gershwin Theatre in October, 2003. The show was directed by Joe Mantello, with musical staging by Wayne Cilento. Its original stars were Idina Menzel as Elphaba, Kristin Chenoweth as Glinda, and Joel Grey as the Wizard.

Although the production received mixed reviews and was panned by The New York Times, it has proved to be a favorite among patrons, particularly teen girls. The show was nominated for ten 2004 Tony Awards winning those for Best Actress (Idina Menzel), Scenic Design and Costume Design. It also won six Drama Desk Awards.

The Wiz: Production History

The Wiz is a musical with music and lyrics by Charlie Smalls, and is a retelling of L. Frank Baum's classic in the context of modern African American culture. The original 1975 Broadway production won 7-Tony Awards, including Best Musical.

The idea for the musical originated with New York City disc jockey and producer Ken Harper in 1971. Many scoffed at his idea of reinterpreting the story for a hip, urban audience. Twentieth Century Fox Studios finally provided $650,000 to finance the show for the movie, record, and publishing rights. Harper’s real coup was hiring director / designer / choreographer Geoffrey Holder during out-of-town tryouts. He brought a cohesive vision and style to the show that had been lacking. Although somewhat critically drubbed upon opening (Harper considered closing the show), a publicity campaign and favorable audience reaction led to a four-year Broadway run and two tours.

The musical opened at the Majestic Theatre on Broadway on January 5, 1975, with Stephanie Mills as Dorothy, Hinton Battle as Scarecrow, Tiger Haynes as the Tin Woodman, Ted Ross as Lion. It closed on January 28, 1979, after 4-years and 1,672 performances. An ill-conceived film version with Diana Ross, Michael Jackson, and Richard Pryor followed in 1978.

The Wiz was a breakthrough for Broadway, offering an original largescale big-budget musical featuring an all-black cast. It laid the foundation for later African-American hits like Bubbling Brown Sugar, Dreamgirls and Duke Ellington's Sophisticated Ladies.

A recent production ran at City Center's Encores Summer Stars series production ran in July 2009. It starred R&B recording artist Ashanti as Dorothy, actor Orlando Jones as The Wiz, and LaChanze as Glinda.

Original Wiz Creative

Charlie Smalls (October 25, 1943 in Queens, New York / August 27, 1987 in Belgium) was an African-American composer and songwriter, best known for writing the music for the 1975 Broadway musical The Wiz.

A musical prodigy, Smalls attended Juilliard at age eleven in 1954, staying until 1961. After Graduating from the High School of the Performing Arts in New York City, Smalls joined the Armed Services. He later toured as a member of the New York Jazz Repertory Company, and worked with Harry Belafonte, Sammy Davis, Jr., and even The Monkees. Smalls won the 1975 Tony Award for Best Score for his work on The Wiz. He died at age forty-three in Belgium, during emergency surgery to repair a burst appendix.

William F. Brown's career in theater includes four shows on Broadway: The Wiz, the play The Girl With the Freudian Slip, the musical A Broadway Musical and the revue New Faces of 1968. His Off-Broadway and regional credits include the books to How to Steal an Election, Damon's Song, Twist, and The Nutley Papers. He has also provided special material for Joan Rivers, Lesley Gore, and Joel Grey, among others. As a syndicated cartoonist, he created the comic strip Boomer for United Feature Syndicate.

Geoffrey Holder (August 1,1930) is a Trinidadian - American actor, choreographer, dancer, painter, costume designer, singer and voice-over artist. Holder is known for his towering 6'6" height, accented deep basso voice and hearty laugh. With that and his appearance in the 1970s 7-UP "Un-Cola" Ad Campaign, Holder's image quickly became recognizable. He was also in the 1967 movie Dr. Dolittle and also gained fame as a memorable James Bond villain, "Baron Samudi" in Live and Let Die with Roger Moore.

At roughly the same time as his Bond villainy, Holder took over the creative reigns of the Broadway way bound musical, The Wiz. He is chiefly credited with reimagining the troubled production, and as the architect of its future success. Holder is married to dancer Carmen De Lavallade, whom he met when both were in the Broadway cast of Rogers and Hammerstein’s Flower Drum Song in 1959.

Barn Players The Wiz Dramaturgy © 2010
Edited by Ross Harmon

The Barn Players Community Theatre

Promote Your Page Too