00:00I really want people to realize, for one, with the script that Amber Ruffin wrote, I mean, I want them to see the laughter, the joy.
00:08Overall, the story of Elder the Wiz is just really everything you needed to succeed was already within you from the start, right?
00:14That's the overall story.
00:16But to see these vocals, to see our culture at its finest, you know what I mean?
00:22I felt like when you say represent for the culture, I think we did that.
00:25I think we're showing people that you can bring a magnificent cast, magnificent, you know, team behind it of people of color and bring it together on stage and it can be a success.
00:45This Wiz is celebrating 49 years.
00:50Next year will be the 50th year.
00:52But I think it's important because it's a family show, you know, it's about love, it's about courage, it's about having brains.
00:59It's a family show, everyone loves it.
01:02Why is the Wiz so important to you?
01:04The Wiz, oh, you girl, you gonna make me cry.
01:06Since I was a little girl, Stephanie Mills, I wanted to ease on down the road.
01:10It felt, I felt like I was the lion getting my courage and I have seen it three times.
01:14I went to Atlanta to see it, I flew to Chicago and then I jumped on the plane and came to New York.
01:19And I was living in L.A. but doing a play so I couldn't make it.
01:22But I am obsessed with The Wiz.
01:24I remember seeing The Wiz when I was very, very young and Stephanie Mills just inspired me to become an actress.
01:30And it just always stuck in my heart.
01:31I love it because I've never seen so many brown people in a production.
01:35And then it became a movie and I loved it then.
01:38And so I'm excited to see what they bring to Broadway.
01:41Listen, all the memories I have growing up with The Wiz, you know, I manage Missy Elliott and Missy is probably the biggest Wiz fan.
01:49She constantly references it.
01:51We actually were inspired by The Wiz when we did the tweet video.
01:55Remember when she had the women walking?
01:57The colors, the staging, the production, and really the flight of fancy, right?
02:04The suspension of belief and the going to a place where you just let your mind go.
02:10That's everything that The Wiz represents.
02:12And it's so important for us to hang on to that.
02:14I'm a producer on this, so that means a lot.
02:16Like, I never would have known that when I watched The Wiz when I was a little kid that I would be a producer on the play.
02:24That was the furthest thing, you know, when you're a kid, you're just watching in awe of everything that you see.
02:30Michael Jackson, Diana Ross, Richard Pryor.
02:32But, hey, I'm here and I'm just grateful.
02:35I'm looking forward to this cast.
02:36It's like amazing and it's like a new thing, but it's got the traditional aspects of it.
02:42And, man, it's a blessing to be here.
02:44I love that this show just completely shows all different styles of black music, about culture.
02:50You know, you've got a little bit of R&B, you've got gospel, you've got, like, an incredible cast that really delivers the music.
02:57And these are all classic songs, you know what I mean?
03:00And they can resonate to any generation.
03:02So I'm thrilled to be able to be a part of that, a part of this moment where we can do that for a whole new generation.
03:09I was just saying, I don't know what they was on in the original, but, baby, we singing over here.
03:13Everybody is singing.
03:16You meet an M, she sings.
03:18You meet Dorothy, she sings.
03:19There's Scarecrow, singing, Tin Man, Lion.
03:22We are all giving throat, as we like to say, in this production.
03:28And usually it's always like, you know, Dorothy's the singer, Glenda, maybe you maybe have.
03:32But this production, because of the arrangements by Alan Renee Lewis, these vocals are top tier and they are the best vocals on Broadway.
03:41Hate it to my own whore, but to two, that's just what it is.
03:44This production of The Wiz is the best production of The Wiz, second to the first, because it is timeless, right?
03:54The first one was tied to 1974.
03:56Previous ones have had, you know, nods to whatever year they were written in, but this one is timeless.
04:04It has zero time.
04:06You could do it 30 years ago.
04:07You could do this production 30 years from now, and it'll still be relevant.
04:10This legacy is crazy, first and foremost.
04:12This legacy is nuts.
04:13I don't know a world without The Wiz, so I think just every time I go on stage, I bow my head and I say, thank you guys for this opportunity.
04:22And then I kind of do my thing, but I've added a lot of, we've all added a lot of new elements to the show.
04:27Like I, like I say, I have a whole hip hop thing where I'm like dancing, I'm doing all this.
04:31It's crazy, but like, I think that knowing that that's just part of black culture, you know what I'm saying,
04:34that we get to really authentically represent that on a Broadway stage is nuts.
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