October 24, 2023
National Theatre, Washington, DC
Week: 362
This week’s thing: Big theatre week here at ATAW HQ! Going to focus on The Wiz for this post, but more on the others at the end. I’ve always been a fan of the Wizard of Oz and Wizard-of-Oz-adjacent media, not least Wicked which I’ve seen a few times on stage and which maybe embarrassingly I know pretty much every word to. I saw the movie version of The Wiz as a kid and was not impressed, but I couldn’t pass up the chance to see a live production, especially a pre-Broadway tour that was making a stop here in DC. And I’m so glad I went. I loved this one.
Story/writing: 5/5: I don’t need to tell you much about the premise of the show; it’s a take on the Wizard of Oz which is just a classic American story. The updates made to the book were really, really good. The jokes were not just funny, they were genuinely hilarious. I was laughing and smiling like an idiot the whole damn show.
Performances: 5/5: Absolute POWERHOUSE performances all around. From the first song, “The Feeling We Once Had,” which I’ve been listening to on repeat for days at a time since seeing the show, I think we knew we were in for a treat. The singing was spectacular from that song through to the end. The acting was on point. Razor-sharp comedic timing. Excellent, excellent.
Songs: 5/5: So many iconic songs from this show, all of which could pass for Motown/classic R&B hits (and I think at least “Ease on Down the Road,” “You Can’t Win,” and “Brand New Day” did) if they weren’t about wizards and scarecrows.
Production (set/lighting/costumes): 5/5: Exactly the kind of elaborate sets and costumes you need for a show set in the WOZCATU (Wizard of Oz Cinematic and Theatrical Universe).
Final: 20/20, a truly perfect show
What else I saw this week:
Here Lies Love, a Broadway musical about Imelda Marcos with music by David Byrne and Fatboy Slim. The show was okay and the songs were average, BUT the whole point of this show was the staging: the venue ripped the seats out of the orchestra in favor of a general admission floor where you felt like you were at a concert, and where theater employees guided the audience to new positions between songs to accommodate a moving stage. Very cool production, but only worth seeing for the staging.
Here We Are, Stephen Sondheim’s final musical. The cast included Bobby Cannavale, Micaela Diamon, Denis O’Hare, and David Hyde Pierce. The jokes were funny, the songs were Sondheim-y, the set was mostly simple and very elaborate in the second act. All things I love, but the show was unfinished when Sondheim died and though I can’t really point to exactly why, it did feel a little bit unfinished.