Best remembered for its role in Ghostbusters, this building is known for its stone lions adorning the front steps. Robin Givens' debut, as a guest at Aunt Emma's party. It is a place of transition, waiting, and not knowing. Peter Stone adapted the screenplay from the 1973 novel of the same name written by Morton Freedgood under the pen name John . I imagine it'll be exactly like the "A Brand New Day" scene in The Wiz: After Dorothy melts Evilene (Mabel King), the Wicked Witch of the West, all the workers she imprisoned in her sweat shop (they make sweat) transform from misshapen ogres into lithe, well-moisturized ballet dancers, leaping and prancing in their underwear. Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window), Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window), Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window), Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window), Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window), Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window), The Deadly Doll's House of Horror Nonsense, John Kenneth Muir's Reflections on Film/TV. Hmm, maybe Gordon Parks?). Those are some of the freakiest damn pics I have ever seen. They are always there for us, they love us unconditionally, and they treat us a whole lot better than most humans do. I might be the only one who likes The Wiz more than Halloween and very likely the only one who finds one particular scene in the all-black version of The Wizard of Oz scarier than anything in John Carpenters slasher classic. And their personalities are completely different. Dorothy asking the guards of the gate how to get to Evilynn's. The dramatic score further increases the scare factor, especially when an unseen lady vocalizes a scream. Quincy Jones was skeptical of Jackson, too, but Cohen arranged a meeting, flying 19-year-old MJ to New York. Motown Productions bought the rights to the stage show, intending to cast Stephanie Mills as Dorothy. Along comes Miss One, the Good Witch of the North (Thelma Carpenter), who apparently runs a gambling racket. It had a great concept (an African-American take on The Wizard of Oz in which the characters dont follow the yellow brick road, they ease on down it), a strong director (Sidney Lumet, whod just done Dog Day Afternoon and Network) and a solid cast (Diana Ross as Dorothy, Richard Pryor as the Wiz, Nipsey Russell as the Tin Man). He wanted Jimmie J. The Wiz, directed by Sidney Lumet, is set in present-day New York City, and finds its locations in fanciful sets suggesting Harlem, Coney Island, school playgrounds, the subway system, and a sweatshop. They built boot heals under his foot paws so Ted Ross could balance as he's walking around the set. Aunt Emma comments that Dorothy has never been south of 125th Street in the Manhattan neighborhood of Harlem. In fact, people can see us as being intelligent, courageous, empathetic and comforting, when we see just the opposite in ourselves. "A liminal space is the time between the 'what was' and the 'next.' They do end up in whats clearly Coney Island, complete with a major cameo appearance from the actual Cyclone. Garland played Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz (1939). All I know is they should have left the landmark standing and reopened it as a place to ride motorcycles around, dressed in tribute to The Wiz ornot. It was like, I want him. . Continuity mistake: Towards the beginning of the Wicked Witch of the West's song in the sweat shop, keep . (It's a villain singing to the audience about how threatening they are, trying to scare them). Press question mark to learn the rest of the keyboard shortcuts. Our heroine, Dorothy, has been transformed from a Kansas teen-ager to a twenty-four-year-old black schoolteacher. Maybe you can build a set at home. Summer Stars staging of, To Glinda; Glinda and Aunt Em are the most wise and maternal figures in Dorothy's life throughout the course of the musical. A dance sequence, for example, where The Wiz calls the shots and everybody instantly changes their clothes to stay in fashion. And it had Michael Jackson, a year before he would start his solo career with immortal dance hits such as Dont Stop Til You Get Enough and Off the Wall. But The Wiz was most important for what happened behind the scenesveteran producer Quincy Jones, Lumets longtime film-score colleague, was musical director, and he met his future Thriller collaborator MJ by correctly pronouncing Socrates to the young singer on set. Chrysler Buildinghttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chrysler_Building. One is Halloween, a movie you all know and love and which surprisingly has very few clips available to view online. Gordy and producer Rob Cohen cast Ross, then 33, as Dorothy. The gay side of the dance floor would stop, Cohen says, and the hetero side would stop., During lunch on The Wiz set, Lumet, the director, told an oblivious Michael that women around him were like ricocheting bullets all over the place.. At 53, Lumet was an old Hollywood hand with fast-talking charisma, ending sentences with darling sweetheart. To give The Wiz an orchestral punch, Lumet sought out an old friend to request a favor. Long Waits, Short Appointments, Huge Bills. One of the fascinating things about The Wiz is that it is a strange, delightful hybrid: a super-soul fantasy and a pointed gloss on '70s black life in reality. Watching this scene as a child, as a generation of black kids did, was quite an awakening. 2/The Wiz/Soundtrack Version) Quincy Jones 2:00 3 The Feeling That We Have (The Wiz/Soundtrack Version) Theresa Merritt 3:30 4 Can I Go On? From their slinky noises slowing turning into a constant. He is also the author of Here for It: Or, How to Save Your Soul in America, a memoir-in-essays. The shoots were long and grueling, lasting all day underneath the World Trade Center towers. It's set to return to Broadway in spring 2024. Get a load of a masked puppeteer whose puppet offspring transform into giant slinky ghouls, trashcans that develop sharp teeth and tiled columns bent on crushing anyone hapless enough to walk by. He's been sleeping even though it's the middle of the day, and he has a desperate, frantic energy about him: sad to be discovered but clearly grateful for human contact. Thats a big part of why I love it somuch. 3. There, she makes new friends, battles evil witches, and seeks the aid of the all-powerful and mysterious Wiz. During The Wiz post-production, he called Quincy unexpectedly during a rare home hiatus from touring. Up until then the going has been a little awkward. This is not a black film, Gordy corrected him. Heidi is so sweet and loving, but you better not sneeze while she is the in the room because she will dart out of there. Magical tornadoes can strike down anywhere, I guess, and spin you off to the land of Oz. The Snow Babies in all of the closeup shots were related to the stars of the movie. We can't see enough of him to get to know him. Additionally, unlike the 1939 film version of The Wizard of Oz, The Wiz doesn't suggest that the whole adventure was Dorothy's dream. I just finished up participating in a local show titled "The Wiz". White films were for white audiences. When this movie debuted on CBS, the network trimmed several scenes to fit in a 3 hour block with commercials. Here are some other slices of WTF? Why doesn't it involve us as deeply as "The Wizard of Oz"? We often stray off of our paths, and we can't always find our way back easily. On that wonderfully logical premise, the classic Wizard of Oz was transformed into a Broadway musical named The Wiz, and then the most expensive movie musical ever made. Join me below as I highlight some of the best of these location-transforming scenes. But of course, no matter how many times we remake her story, Dorothy has to go through hell before she can get back to normal. See production, box office & company info, World Trade Center, Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA. (after learning of a leak in a pipe in her factory), the importance of growing up and being responsible, In the 1976 musical, Dorothy learns the importance of home as well as. Fitzstephens, Jack Music Editor & Guru. That a twenty-four-year-old schoolteacher should be too sophisticated to consort with cowardly lions and scarecrows and men made out of tin. The plaza was also known for being a bit of a wind tunnel and that disrupted the production, so the scene wasnt as complete as intended since The Port Authority wouldnt allow reshoots. When you press play on The Wiz, the 1978 movie musical based on L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, you probably already know what's coming: A ragtag group of new friends experiences all manner of traumas while trying to protect a pair of heels, and then learn that the power to change their terrifying surroundings was inside them all along. The speech delivered by Glinda the Good Witch at the end of the film, and the song "Believe in Yourself", are particularly laden with est-ian concepts. She lands on the Wicked Witch of the East, freeing the munchkins from their graffiti prisons on the concrete walls of the Tent of Tomorrow structure. I never wanted to watch this flickuntil now! 3. In giant clown shoes, he stumbles, rolls on the ground, and knocks out his knees. While Pepper, on the other hand, is occasionally a little mean and aggressive. Im thinking MANIAC, AMER. And the subway scene is creepy as hell. To finish Lady Sings the Blues, Gordy had to sink in $2 million of his own money because Paramounts top executive, Frank Yablans, had told him the maximum a studio could spend on a black film at the time was $500,000. 23 of 23 found this interesting Interesting? The minute we can safely (key word: safely) end isolation measures, I'm rushing into the streets in my finest dancers' belt and getting my grand jet on. Warder decided KING 5's Angela Poe Russell would perform in the first act of the. My question is about a scene in the movie Shame starring Michael Fassbender and Carey Mulligan directed by Steve McQueen.. This article has not been reviewed by Odyssey HQ and solely reflects the ideas and opinions of the creator. Ive never seen The Wiz either or maybe I started watching it and fell asleep I fall asleep in lots of things especially musicals. I was a lil tyke at a cousins house and it just happened to be on TV. Michaels a star., Lumet was harder to convince. If you can hear it, I can write it down. The exchange, which MJ recorded, ends with Quincy requesting his number. Q didnt want to do it. You might've seen the commercial before, but if you haven't, check it out below. Jones liked only three songs from the Broadway showHome, Brand New Day, and a funky ensemble number called Ease On Down the Road. But he felt indebted to Lumet, whod hired him for many film scores in the past. 1978 Preview 1 Main Title (Overture) [Pt. The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (also known as The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3) is a 1974 American crime drama film directed by Joseph Sargent, produced by Gabriel Katzka and Edgar J. Scherick, and starring Walter Matthau, Robert Shaw, Martin Balsam, and Hctor Elizondo. By rejecting non-essential cookies, Reddit may still use certain cookies to ensure the proper functionality of our platform. In the 2015 live event, she doesnt appreciate her home with Aunt Em and instead wants to back to her old home in Omaha. Just as black music, despite brief exceptions such as Motown and disco, had been for black radio stations and white music for white radio stations. She is scared of everything. A homeless man selling puppets in the Brooklyn station (which has been commonly used for film shoots Michael Jackson would return a decade later in fact for his Bad music video) turns his wares into the creepiest thing youll ever see at an NYC subway stop, which is saying a lot. But the 1972 drama was a success in the end, drawing five Oscar nominations, although Ross lost Best Actress to Liza Minnelli of Cabaret. My love for dogs makes me do things like walk up to strangers on the street to pet their dog or cry uncontrollably when a dog dies in a movie. The first song that Michael Jackson sings, "You Can't Win," was originally written for the stage version for the Winkies to sing to Dorothy about the futility of escaping from Evillene. The red sequence had to be shortened due to a lighting error, and there was no time to re-shoot. The Wiz ( 1978) G | 133 mins | Musical | 25 October 1978 Cast: Diana Ross, Michael Jackson, Nipsey Russell [ More ] Director: Sidney Lumet Writer: Joel Schumacher Producer: Rob Cohen Cinematographer: Oswald Morris Editor: Dede Allen Production Designer: Tony Walton Production Companies: Motown, Universal Pictures (An MCA Company) HISTORY DETAILS that someone will find out that I'm a fraud. Its also the musical number youre all most familiarwith. https://medium.com/media/aaaab1fb5e4ffb83dd8e892f7d03de03/href. Your Privacy Choices: Opt Out of Sale/Targeted Ads. The usually exuberant Lumet became despondenta quality that came out distinctively in the film, recalls production designer Tony Walton. It is weird a white filmmaker was at the helm for this, though his relevance as a very New York-centric director makes some sense (who else should have done it? Dorothy is extremely reluctant to leave Aunt Em's home and branch out by herself in the 1978 film. This is the scene I find scarier than anything in Halloween. Waiting, and seeks the aid of the best of these location-transforming scenes by... Below as I highlight some of the movie ive never seen the Wiz calls the shots and instantly. The pen name John that Dorothy has never been south of 125th Street in the film, gordy him... Black film, gordy corrected him One, the network trimmed several scenes fit. 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