The Wiz

Plot

A crowded Thanksgiving dinner brings a host of family together in a Harlem apartment, where 24-year-old elementary schoolteacher Dorothy Gale lives with her Aunt Em and Uncle Henry. She is teased by Aunt Em for having delayed moving out to start her life as an adult. While Dorothy cleans up after the meal, her dog Toto runs out the open kitchen door into a snowstorm. She retrieves him but finds herself trapped in the storm. A magical whirlwind made of snow materializes and transports them to the land of Oz.

As Dorothy descends from the atmosphere, she smashes through an electric "Oz" sign which falls upon and kills Evermean, the Wicked Witch of the East who rules Munchkinland. As a result, she frees the Munchkins who populate the playground into which she lands. The Munchkins' main benefactress, Miss One, is the Good Witch of the North, a magical "numbers runner" who gives Dorothy Evermean's charmed silver shoes. Since Dorothy is far from home, Miss One urges her to follow the yellow brick road to the Emerald City and seek the help of the powerful "Wiz". After telling her never to take the shoes off, Miss One and the Munchkins disappear and Dorothy is left to search for the road on her own.

The next morning, Dorothy happens upon a scarecrow made of garbage and saves him from being teased by humanoid crows. The Scarecrow hopes that the Wiz will give him the one thing he feels that he lacks: a brain. They discover the yellow brick road and begin their journey to the Emerald City. They eventually meet a man made out of tin in an abandoned amusement park and a cowardly lion who was banished from the jungle. The Tin Man and Lion join them on their quest to find the Wiz, hoping to gain a heart and courage, respectively. En route, the foursome escape from a haunted subway station and a group of prostitutes known as the "Poppy Girls", who seduce the Lion. The Lion feels ashamed of leading Dorothy into a trap, but she and the rest of the gang cheer him up.

Finally reaching the Emerald City, the quartet are granted an audience with the Wiz, who appears as a giant fire-breathing metallic head. He proclaims that he will only grant their wishes on the condition that they kill Evermean's sister, Evillene, the Wicked Witch of the West, who runs a sweatshop in Oz's underground sewers. Before they can reach her domain, Evillene learns of their quest to kill her and sends out her army of Flying Monkeys to capture them. As revenge on Dorothy for killing her sister, she dismembers the Scarecrow, flattens the Tin Man, and hangs the Lion up by his tail to make Dorothy give her the shoes. When she threatens to throw Toto into a fiery cauldron, Dorothy nearly gives in until the Scarecrow hints to her to activate a fire sprinkler switch. The sprinklers put out the fire and melt Evillene. With Evillene dead, her spells lose their power, resulting in the freedom of all her sweatshop workers and prisoners.

Soundtrack

All songs are written by Charlie Smalls, unless otherwise noted.

Production

Pre-production and development

The Wiz is the eighth feature film produced by Motown Productions, the film and television division of Berry Gordy's Motown Records label. Gordy originally wanted the teenaged R&B singer Stephanie Mills, who had originated the role on Broadway, to be cast as Dorothy Gale. When Motown star Diana Ross asked Gordy if she could be cast as Dorothy, he declined, saying that Ross—then 33 years old—was too old for the role. Ross went around Gordy and convinced executive producer Rob Cohen at Universal Pictures to arrange a deal in which he would produce the film if Ross was cast as Dorothy. Gordy and Cohen agreed to the deal. Additionally, the casting of Diana Ross as Dorothy was due to the fact that she was a well-known star, which guaranteed more funds. Pauline Kael, a film critic, described Ross's efforts to get the film into production as "perhaps the strongest example of sheer will in film history".

After filmmaker John Badham learned that Ross was cast as Dorothy, he decided not to direct, and Cohen replaced him with Sidney Lumet. Of his decision not to direct The Wiz, Badham recalled telling Cohen that he thought that Ross was "a wonderful singer. She's a terrific actress and a great dancer, but she's not this character. She's not the little six-year-old girl Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz." Lumet's hiring was met with skepticism, for he was known as a dramatic filmmaker with no previous musical directing experience.

Although 20th Century Fox had financially backed the stage musical, it exercised its first refusal rights to the film production, which gave Universal an opening to finance the film. Initially, Universal was so excited about the film's prospects that it did not set a budget for production.

Writing

Joel Schumacher's script is influenced by Werner Erhard's teachings and his Erhard Seminars Training ("est") movement because both Schumacher and Ross were "very enamored of Werner Erhard". "Before I knew it," said Rob Cohen, "the movie was becoming an est-ian fable full of est buzzwords about knowing who you are and sharing and all that. I hated the script a lot. But it was hard to argue with [Ross] because she was recognizing in this script all of this stuff that she had worked out in est seminars." Schumacher spoke positively of the results of the est training, stating that he was "eternally grateful for learning that I was responsible for my life". However, he also complained that "everybody stayed exactly the way they were and went around spouting all this bullshit". Regarding est and Erhard references in the film, The Grove Book of Hollywood notes that the speech delivered by Glinda the Good Witch (Lena Horne) at the end of the film was "a litany of est-like platitudes", and the book makes est comparisons to the song "Believe in Yourself". Although Schumacher had seen the Broadway play before writing the script, none of the play's writing was incorporated into the film, a fact that was noted and heavily criticized after release.

During production, Lumet felt that the finished film would be "an absolutely unique experience that nobody has ever witnessed before". When asked about any possible influence from MGM's popular 1939 film adaptation titled The Wizard of Oz, Lumet stated that "there was nothing to be gained from [the 1939 film] other than to make certain we didn't use anything from it. They made a brilliant movie, and even though our concept is different – they're Kansas, we're New York; they're white, we're black, and the score and the books are totally different – we wanted to make sure that we never overlapped in any area."

Casting

Michael Jackson, a former Motown star and close friend of Ross, was cast as the Scarecrow. At the start of development, he and his brothers The Jacksons (with the exception of Jermaine Jackson) had departed Motown for Epic Records in 1975, after the release of their tenth album Moving Violation (although Michael had not released a solo album since Forever, Michael). Cohen, head of Motown Productions, thought that Jackson would be perfect for the role of the Scarecrow, and approached Gordy with the idea. Gordy agreed, although Lumet was harder to convince. Lumet wanted Jimmie Walker, star of CBS-TV's Good Times, telling Cohen, "Michael Jackson's a Vegas act. The Jackson 5's a Vegas act."

Quincy Jones was also skeptical of Jackson, but after Cohen arranged a meeting, flying 18-year-old Jackson to New York, Lumet and Jones saw the qualities that Cohen saw. Jackson's father Joseph was wary of the project and saw it as a threat to the Jacksons group cohesion. Cohen moved Michael (and his sister La Toya) into a Manhattan apartment, allowing him to be on his own for the first time. During production, Jackson became a frequent visitor to New York's famous Studio 54. Jackson was dedicated to the Scarecrow role and watched videotapes of gazelles, cheetahs and panthers to learn graceful movements for his part.

The long hours of uncomfortable prosthetic makeup by Stan Winston did not bother him. During production, Jackson asked Quincy Jones who he would recommend as a producer on his yet unrecorded solo album project. Jones, impressed by Jackson's professionalism, talent and work ethic, offered to be the producer of what became Off the Wall (1979), Thriller (1982) and Bad (1987).

Ted Ross and Mabel King were brought in to reprise their respective roles of the Cowardly Lion and Evillene from the stage musical, while Nipsey Russell was cast as the Tin Man. Lena Horne, Lumet's mother-in-law at the time of production, was cast as Glinda the Good Witch, and Richard Pryor portrayed The Wiz. The film's choreographer was Louis Johnson.

Filming

Principal photography began on July 13, 1977, and concluded on December 29, 1977. It took place at Astoria Studios in Queens, New York. The decaying New York State Pavilion from the 1964 New York World's Fair was used as the set for Munchkinland, Meadow Lake Bridge was the first Yellow Brick Road scene after the Scarecrow was helped from his pole. Astroland at Coney Island was used for the Tin Man scene, with The Cyclone as a backdrop, while the World Trade Center served as the Emerald City. The Emerald City scenes were elaborate, using 650 dancers, 385 crew members and 1,200 costumes. Costume designer Tony Walton enlisted the help of high fashion designers in New York City for the Emerald City sequence, and obtained exotic costumes and fabric from designers such as Oscar de la Renta and Norma Kamali. Albert Whitlock created the film's visual special effects, while Stan Winston served as the head makeup artist.

Songs and score

Quincy Jones served as musical supervisor and music producer. He later wrote that he initially did not want to work on the film, but did it as a favor to Lumet. The film marked Jones's first time working with Jackson, and would eventually produce three hit albums for Jackson: Off the Wall (1979), Thriller (1982) and Bad (1987). Jones recalled working with Jackson as one of his favorite experiences from The Wiz, and spoke of Jackson's dedication to his role, comparing his acting style to Sammy Davis Jr. Jones had a brief cameo appearance during the "Gold" segment of the Emerald City sequence, playing what looks like a fifty-foot grand piano.

Of the 28 numbers originally composed by Charlie Smalls and company, 17 were retained in full or in part for the film. "Tornado Ballet", "I Was Born on the Day Before Yesterday", "Kalidah Battle", "Lion's Dream", "Emerald City Ballet (Psst)", "So You Wanted to Meet the Wizard", the Act 2 Entr'acte, "Funky Monkeys", "Who Do You Think You Are?", "Y'all Got It", and "A Rested Body" were cut.

Four new numbers were added: "Can I Go On?", the instrumental "Poppy Girls Theme", "Emerald City Sequence" and "Is This What Feeling Gets? (Dorothy's Theme)" (the latter of which was cut from the film but featured on the soundtrack). "You Can't Win", a song originally written for the musical's Baltimore run that was cut after it was transferred to Broadway, was reincorporated.

Release

The Wiz premiered at Loew's Astor Plaza in New York City on October 24, 1978, and also opened in five other theaters in the New York area. It opened on October 26 at the Cinerama Dome in Los Angeles and on October 27 in 29 other theaters, including in Chicago, Washington D.C., Philadelphia and Detroit. On November 3, it expanded to 67 theaters, and was due to open nationwide in 400 to 500 theaters on December 22.

To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the stage version's opening on Broadway, the film returned to theaters for a limited theatrical engagement on May 18 and 21, 2025.

Box office

The Wiz eventually proved to be a commercial failure, for the $24 million production earned only $13.6 million at the box office. The film did well in its opening week, grossing $942,814 from 36 theaters in 8 markets, finishing third at the US box office behind Midnight Express and Animal House. In its second week, grosses from the 36 theaters reduced by 12.6%, and, with additional theaters added, the film grossed $2.5 million after 10 days of release.

Although pre-release television broadcast rights had been sold to CBS for more than $10 million, the film ultimately produced a net loss of $10.4 million for Motown and Universal. At the time, it was the most expensive film musical ever made. For several years, the film's failure steered Hollywood studios away from producing the all-black film projects that had become popular during the blaxploitation era of the early-to-mid-1970s.

Home media

The Wiz was first released on VHS home video in 1981 by MCA/Universal Home Video (with a reissue in 1992) and was first broadcast on television on CBS on October 11, 1980, then on May 5, 1984 (edited to 100 minutes), to capitalize on Jackson's massive popularity at the time. It continues to be broadcast periodically on Black-focused networks, such as BET, TVOne and BET Her, and was the inaugural broadcast on the Bounce TV network. The Wiz is often broadcast on Thanksgiving (attributed to the opening scene of Dorothy's family gathered for a Thanksgiving dinner).

The film was released on DVD in 1999; a remastered version titled The Wiz: 30th Anniversary Edition was released in 2008. Extras on both DVD releases include a 1978 featurette about the film's production and the original theatrical trailer. A Blu-ray version was released in 2010. The film was released on June 10, 2025, on 4K Ultra HD Blu-Ray and regular Blu-ray by The Criterion Collection.

Reception

Critical reception

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 38% of 116 critics' reviews are positive. The website's consensus reads: "The Wiz is a workmanlike movie musical that lacks the electricity of the stage version and its cinematic inspiration, despite some committed performances from its all-star cast." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 53 out of 100, based on 11 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews.

Initial trade reviews for The Wiz from previews at Loew's State 2 in New York City were positive. Variety wrote that Universal had a "big, rousing, juicy hit on its hands that should enthrall the young in heart" and that the "cast is virtually flawless". It noted that the preview audience "roared, stomped, applauded" their approval of all the numbers. It also believed that it was the loudest film ever made. The overflowing crowd at the preview required a second showing.

Most professional critics published negative reviews for The Wiz upon its release.

Many reviewers directed their criticism at Diana Ross; who, at 33 years old at the time of filming, was considered to be too old to play Dorothy. The Grove Book of Hollywood noted that "the picture finished off Diana Ross's screen career", for the film is Ross's final theatrical feature and her subsequent films premiered on television.

Hischak's Through the Screen Door: What Happened to the Broadway Musical When It Went to Hollywood criticized "Joel Schumacher's cockamamy screenplay", and called "Believe in Yourself" the score's weakest song. He described Diana Ross's portrayal of Dorothy as "cold, neurotic and oddly unattractive".

Leonard Maltin observed how The Wiz has “good musical numbers” and a “fine supporting cast,” but the movie was undermined by a “dreary finale” and “drearier performance” by Ross.

In his work History of the American Cinema, Harpole characterized the film as "one of the decade's biggest failures" and "the year's biggest musical flop".

The Wiz and the black experience in America

Essence, a magazine written for African American women, describes The Wiz as a portrayal of the black experience in America. Sharon Stockard Martin describes the film as having undertones of slavery, and highlights this through various plot points. Martin states that "it is the story of innocence taken by an uncompromising force and deposited in the midst of a strange and beautiful but evil land. Sound familiar?" Martin describes how The Wiz is based on African enslavement and reflects the forced transplantation of individuals from their homes into a new and unfamiliar world. Additionally, Martin identifies the freeing of the Winkies to be a large plot point that contributes to the themes of slavery in The Wiz. The Wicked Witch is seen as an oppressive figure who enslaves the Winkies. This can be representative of the systems and individuals who upheld slavery and segregation.

Martin also analyzes the characters in a perspective that reflects the black experience in America. She describes Dorothy in the Judy Garland version as an "escapist", but contrasts her with Dorothy in The Wiz. For Dorothy in The Wiz, she equates her home with love and "... she never wished to leave it".

Martin views Dorothy's male co-stars as various behavior mechanisms displayed by black men as the result of slavery and racism. Martin describes the Scarecrow as "the result of complete undoing", and compares him to a "slave stripped of his past and made into the American Negro". In other words, he represents the idea that black individuals have been characterized to believe in their own intellectual inadequacy. Martin explains the Tin Man as an individual who "develops a hard exterior to protect soft feelings from the inevitable hurt of a hostile environment". In this perspective, the Tin Man is a man who has been forced to travel through the world with strength and intensity. The Tin Man embodies the idea that black men must be strong to survive, an idea that originated from slavery. Lastly, Martin views the Cowardly Lion as a self-defeating man who is paralyzed by fear and internalized narratives that discourage action.

The show and film were described as a "beloved cultural touchstone for many generations of black people."