Shovels broke ground Monday at the vacant lot on Brewerton Road that was once the location of author L. Frank Baum’s childhood home.
“Our understanding is this is where his childhood home was located. We have been working with the L. Frank Baum Foundation and a potential partnership into the community center,” said Salina Town Supervisor Nick Paro.
Plans for the community center include a museum dedicated to Baum, known for writing “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.”
“Not only is it going to be, you know, a beautiful giant, community center for the community to have all different kinds of activities, from the seniors to teens But also, it’s going to be a chance for history to be throughout the entire building,” said Daniel Ciciarelli, Salina’s Third Ward Councilor.
In addition to the museum, the center will be the new home of the Salina Parks Department, a teen center and an indoor/outdoor stage.
If You Only Know the Movie Version, This Is the Original Story – Just don’t expect to see Toto or Munchkins on stage. Or those creepy subway puppets from the movie.
One of the Movie Songs Is Now in the Musical -The original first song for the Scarecrow, “I Was Born on the Day Before Yesterday,” was replaced in the movie by “You Can’t Win,” performed by Michael Jackson. This new staging, which began with last year’s tour, includes the latter song performed buoyantly by Avery Wilson.
Some of the Musical Elements Have Been Modernized -Notably in the first act, the Tin Man’s number “Slide Some Oil to Me” has a more hip-hop flavor, while another scene features a New Orleans dance line. The opening medley at the top of the second act, “Meet the Wizard,” includes a trap-dance sequence after the Wiz insists on seeing his citizens do something new.
The Show Has a Lot of Razzle-Dazzle to It – Some media have criticized the new production for going full-on with very colorful visuals and a big sound. But the audience that American Songwriter watched it with appreciated the spectacle, which included some impressive video environments from Daniel Brodie, dynamic choreography courtesy of JaQuel Knight, and striking set pieces from Hannah Beachler.
One Can Never Tire of “Ease on Down the Road” – The peppy signature song of The Wiz is fun to see performed onstage. Even though it emerges three times in Act I and at least one more time in Act II, it always clicks. In the first act there is a New Orleans version of “Ease on Down,” and the second act features a slower variant. It’s funny how a song about easing along is so insistently danceable.
This episode of “If This Hall Could Talk” takes a close look at a Carnegie Hall icon: Judy Garland. With her magnificent and complex character, a public persona that often differed from her private reality, and incredible vivacity in the face of personal adversity, Garland is a figure who has long inspired and fascinated fans. The album from her landmark 1961 concerts at Carnegie Hall captured these dualities, winning five Grammy Awards (including Album of the Year) and spending weeks at the top of the charts. It has also inspired numerous tribute performances, including a concert celebration led by host Jessica Vosk in 2022. Among the featured voices in this episode is John Fricke, author of “Judy Garland: World’s Greatest Entertainer” and two-time Emmy Award–winning producer for the PBS series “American Masters” and A&E biographical documentaries about Judy Garland.
Kendrick Lamar’s 6-minute diss track, “Euphoria” aimed at Drake had the internet in shambles on Tuesday. Not long after the song arrived, fans uncovered what K.Dot says at the very beginning, which sounds like a bunch of jumbled words. X user @DonaldDarko13 reversed the first few seconds of the record to reveal that Lamar says, “Everything they say about me’s true.” Another X user, @AndreasHale shared that the reversed audio is what Richard Pryor says in 1978’s The Wiz—a remake of 1939’s The Wizard of Oz—when he “gets exposed as a fraud.” The full line from The Wiz is longer: “Everything they say about me is true. I’m a phony.”
The intro is clearly a dig at Drizzy. Genius points out that the reverse audio is particularly interesting because Michael Jackson plays the scarecrow in The Wiz—and that could be another connection to “Like That.” On the song, Kendrick compares himself to Prince and Drake to Michael Jackson
The Oz Land Festival is going into its fourth annual year! The festival will take place from 1-7pm on Saturday, August 17th, 2024, on South Street in downtown Peekskill, NY. The festival itself honors diversity, community, and finding your true “home” as a place within yourself where you can make all your dreams come true. Artisan vendors and food will be a part of the festival of course, but the Oz Land Festival is much more than that. There will be interactive dancing on the street. Eventgoers are encouraged to attend the festival dressed in costume as their favorite “Oz” character and feel a spirit of camaraderie with one another. There will be a costume contest as well as a full day of live entertainment, curated by Antonia, including a DJ, a storyteller, dance routines and theatrical acts, including vignettes from “The Wizard of Oz.”
viviON, inc. (Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan /Representative Manager: Kousaku Akashi) officially released their new Wizard of Oz-inspired mobile puzzle adventure game, “Sin of OZ”, which is available to the first 100,000 users who download it via the App Store or Google Play.
“Sin of OZ” is a simple-to-play mobile puzzle game with a dark fairytale-like story. Set in a world inspired by The Wizard of Oz, players take on the role of the Wonderful Wizard himself, who travels with his plush toy and doll friends through a land made dull and colorless by the witches’ power. Many adventures await along the way, and the story advances as you progress through the puzzles. New stages and stories will be added over time. –Dive into this world and try to solve its mysteries!
On July 12, the 2024 Broadway cast recording of the latest version of THE WIZ will come out on Immersive/Interscope Recordings, Billboard can reveal.
The 1975 cast album to The Wiz reached No. 43 on the Billboard 200 and won a Grammy for best cast show album. The award went to composer Charlie Smalls and album producer Jerry Wexler. The 1978 film soundtrack climbed a bit higher on the chart — No. 40. The Wiz Live! TV soundtrack reached No. 155.
You might not know his name. But, he was a Hollywood pioneer whose half-century career spanned silent films to talkies.
The longtime Central Coast resident directed one of the most iconic movie scenes in history.
King Vidor directed the black and white sequences in the Wizard of Oz, including Judy Garland’s performance of Somewhere Over The Rainbow.
He signed with MGM, and made their biggest early hit, The Big Parade, which was a look at World War I through the eyes of an American soldier. It was the studio’s top film at the box office until The Wizard of Oz and Gone With the Wind were released.
The San Luis Obispo Film International Film Festival is now keeping his name alive, with an award presented every year for excellence in filmmaking.
Skye McLennan is Executive Director of the San Luis Obispo festival. “We named it after King because because he was a local resident…it seemed like the perfect fit,” said McLennan.
Some of the past honorees include Josh Brolin, Jeff Bridges, Morgan Freeman, and Ann-Margaret.
Everybody rejoice! After a whirlwind national tour, the revival of The Wiz, the all-Black retelling of L. Frank Baum’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, celebrated its opening night at the Marquis Theatre on April 17.
The show stars Nichelle Lewis as Dorothy, Deborah Cox as Glinda, Melody A. Betts as Aunt Em/Evillene, Kyle Ramar Freeman as the Lion, Phillip Johnson Richardson as the Tinman, Avery Wilson as the Scarecrow and Wayne Brady as The Wiz. Schele Williams directs, with choreography by JaQuel Knight and additional material by Tony Award nominee Amber Ruffin. Music supervision, orchestrations and arrangements are by Tony nominee Joseph Joubert.
Members of the cast, the creative team and some very special guests—including cast members from the original Broadway production—eased on down the road to Broadway.com’s glittering Emerald City-themed portrait booth. Check out the highlight below and head to the gallery for more.
One of the more notable public parks in the Chicago area is Oz Park. Oz Park is named for Lyman Frank Baum, a children’s author and creator of “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” who was a Chicago resident in the 1890s.
As the 13-acre park has evolved over the years it has taken on a Wizard of Oz theme to honor Baum and thrill generations of Wizard of Oz fans. It all started with fans celebrating the book, movie, and its famous author by holding an Oz Festival in the park every year. Eventually, the park was named Oz Park by the Chicago Park District, and the park’s advisory council raised money to put sculptures of the Tin Man, Cowardly Lion, Scarecrow, Dorothy, and Toto in the park.
As the park updates this spring, they will add a life-size face wall. It’s renderings of Dorothy, Scarecrow, Tin Man, and the Cowardly Lion with cutouts so visitors can take photos of themselves as the movie characters.
They’re also re-doing Dorothy’s Playlot. Much of the original playlot contained wood structures, that at this point are starting to rot. Plans for the new playground have been in the works for three years, and the same company that designed the original playlot will build the new one, which will be similar to the original with modern upgrades such as bouncy bridges, twisty slides, a rock climbing wall, and other attractions, according to Block Club Chicago.
There’s another problem, one of the largest rat beds in Chicago is under Dorothy’s playlot. As construction commences on rebuilding Dorothy’s playlot construction crews first will be ridding the park of its rodents. I’m not sure anyone who enjoys hanging out at the park has a problem with that.
The Oz Park Advisory Council President told Block Club Chicago they expect Oz Park improvements to be complete by July.
If you’d like to visit Oz Park on your next trip to Chicago, the park is located in the Lincoln Park neighborhood on the north side of the City. Its address is 2021 North Burling Street, at the corner of Lincoln and Webster Avenues, just south of the Lincoln, Halsted, and Fullerton intersection. You can learn more about the park on the Chicago Park District website.
In the program, Amber Ruffin, who neatly revised last season’s Some Like It Hot with Matthew Lopez, is announced as having added material. How much? According to supplied info, she’s boldly, not to say brazenly, reworked 50 percent of it. In one interview, she has vouched of her contributions, “We made a choice to not modernize it, but to make it so it could always go up at any time—I honestly feel like this version could go up 30 years from now and you don’t have to change a word, and it is fine.”
Not so fast. What’s on view right now isn’t even “fine” for 2024. That includes just about the entire second act, which gets going at Emerald City with a green-tinged production number. In Ruffin’s revise the Wizard is seen even before the Wicked Witch does any menacing — a Wicked Witch called Evillene and played by Melody A. Betts, who’s also an adoring Aunt Em.
When this supposedly contemporized Wizard begins wizzing, he’s no longer exposed as a benevolent aging fellow but is depicted as a tough galoot supposedly protecting his Emerald City citizens from some curse or other that needs lifting. Evillene, when she finally makes an appearance, is menacing but hardly as throttling as spectators expect. More specifics will not be itemized because they’d only confirm that this new shuffle – intended to address racism in a politicized gaze at the classic? — packs nowhere near the delightfully timeless horror that audiences have long known and still love.
Addaperle (Allyson Kaye Daniel) makes jokes at her late sister’s expense: “She flat. Flat as she can be. I mean, this woman is so flat that instead of a coffin, we are gonna use a manila envelope.” Enter Glinda (Deborah Cox): “Wow, you look like an angel.” “Thanks, I moisturize.” Amber Ruffin is credited with “additional material for this production,” but after her sharp work on Some Like It Hot’s book I am loath to ascribe any of these groaners to her. Wanting to go home, Dorothy is pointed in the Wiz’s direction but must assume the corpse’s silver slippers to “Ease On Down the Road.” Yet it’s not a road at all, just a cadre of drum majors in yellow capes and big black hats. Couldn’t anyone come up with something yellow on the floor for the characters to walk on?
Dorothy encounters the usual suspects, but what do you know, the Wicked Witch was responsible for everyone’s woes: stealing the heart of the Scarecrow (Avery Wilson), rusting the Tinman (Phillip Johnson Richardson); and scaring the guts out of the Lion (Kyle Ramar Freeman). Turns out the Wiz (Wayne Brady, bland and underused) and the Emerald City generally have similarly been cursed, for no one may leave its gates. So Dorothy’s tracking down Evillene (Betts again) is actually pointedly motivated, and rendered pretty easy, too, what with the Witch telegraphing her Achilles heel (“What is a bucket of water doing up here? Guards, take it away!”).
Gray Side of the Moon (Poem)
This poem smashes together San Francisco with The Wizard of Oz, highlighting urban grit, meth, gangs, guns ,Oz-ian urban legends, and more.
The Way of Oz (Book)
The Way of Oz: A Guide to Wisdom, Heart, and Courage is centered on the original Wizard of Oz stories and the life of their creator, L. Frank Baum.
The Daily Ozmapolitan 