Diana

To get ready for this weekend's concert by Miss Ross, I overcame a bit of nausea and rewatched The Wiz for the first time in 13 years last weekend. I hadn't realized the first time around that it was written by Joel Schumacher. It obviously would have been after Sparkle, so apparently Sparkle was pure luck and he really doesn't have much talent for writing musical screenplays, or maybe he can do original musicals, he just can't handle adaptations (see Batman & Robin for further proof of his inability to carry out someone else's original idea). It definitely helped explain the mess that was Phantom. However, The Wiz was much better the second time around. I don't know if it's because I've now been to New York several times and can appreciate all the locations (when I saw it the first time when I was in high school, travelling to New York, while a fervent dream of mine, seemed like something that was never going to happen), the fact that the 70's have since come back and the music is now cool (again, when I was in HS, it was painful to listen to), or that since I've gotten older, I can really appreciate more of the jokes (the cabs going off service as Diana & Co. approach them, the line about the service entrance to the Emerald City being around the corner, etc.). Whatever the reason, it was a much more enjoyable experience this time around. I think it also helped that I watched it alone, whereas in HS I watched it with my musical theatre hating family around and their incessant comments didn't help any. Don't get me wrong, it's still not a good movie. The locations are too haphazard (the Emerald City is the World Trade Center Plaza, yet Evelline's lair is Shea Stadium in Brooklyn even though she's supposed to be the Wicked Witch of the West; her lair should have been in New Jersey), a lot of the visual effects are cheap (the tornado blowing down 125th street and Dorothy's subsequent travel to Oz, the subway monsters, and the sun turning into an apple as it rises above Manhattan in something out of a '30's Loony Toons cartoon), and too many of the dance sequences are done in wide angle, so it's more like watching something on a stage instead of a movie. Speaking of dance sequences, what was with all the workers taking off their clothes and dancing around in their underwear for the Brand New Day number? Oddly, I had no problem with the biggest complaint I've heard about the show: Diana Ross. Granted, she was nowhere near 24 (and really, all they had to do was cut that line and it would silence all the critics, what delusional editor left it in?), but if you could accept that, there was no problem. Unfortunately, coming on the heels of Mahoganny, this put the nail in the coffin of her film career. Given her inability to find suitable music projects, I highly doubt we're going to see another movie from her anytime soon, but The Wiz stands as kind of a fun time capsule. It's not good, but it's certainly enjoyable.