Part of Holiday Classics and Music City Mondays.
Ease on down the road with schoolteacher Diana Ross, Richard Pryor in the title role, the Good Witch Lena Horne and all the rest in this adaptation of the all-Black Broadway version of The Wizard of Oz. Produced by Berry Gordy, its original songs by Charlie Smalls and Luther Vandross were adapted and arranged by Quincy Jones with an assist from Ashford and Simpson. The release of THE WIZ wasn’t considered a success at the time, but has since become a cult classic.
“Lumet and his inspired collaborators have succeeded in fabricating and navigating one majestic, rabble-rousing Mother Ship of a musical, a sublimely happy moviegoing experience.” —Gary Arnold, Washington Post “Director Sidney Lumet has created what amounts to a love letter to the city of New York, which he equates with Oz.” —Variety
