Amber Ruffin is reviving "The Wiz." The updated version of the classic is expected to ease on down Broadway in the spring of 2024. The tour will kick off in the fall of 2023 in Baltimore, home of the 1974 world premiere of The Wiz.
The revival was announced by producers Kristin Caskey, Mike Isaacson, Brian Anthony Moreland, and Ambassador Theatre Group.
Scheme Williams will direct. Williams said in a statement, “I wouldn’t be on Broadway if it wasn’t for The Wiz…the music, the costumes, the choreography and Stephanie Mills! Seeing that show changed my life. It is, in every way, a celebration of Black excellence. I am honored to helm this production and I can’t think of a better time to tell this story." Casting is not done yet.
If The Slice News was casting we would pick Ruffin or Anika Noni Rose to play Dorothy, Ne-Yo as the Tin Man, David Allen Grier as the Cowardly Lion, and James Tyler Willams as the Scarecrow. Stephanie Mills would make a great god mother and it would pull the original star into the mix. The wicked witch would be played by Kim Fields.