A musical revival is not usually the victim of divorce, but when New York-based Dodger Productions “divorced” Joop Van den Ende's Amsterdam-based Stage Entertainment in 2005, an anticipated revival of The Wiz was left hanging in the balance. In the end, the Dodgers retained US rights, and Stage Entertainment got the European rights — resulting in two major productions of The Wiz at virtually the same time.

The Wiz premiered on Broadway in 1975, overcoming lackluster reviews to run more than 1,600 performances and win seven Tony Awards, including Best Musical and Best Director nod for Geoffrey Holder. It was a daring breakthrough at the time: a large-scale, all-black musical based on The Wizard of Oz, playing up the theme of personal empowerment. Both of the recent revivals look back at it from the perch of the 21st century, updating the look and bringing The Wiz into the digital age in terms of design.

Hoofing It In Holland

Stage Entertainment's full-scale, Broadway-caliber production of The Wiz, directed by Glen Castle, opened on September 9, 2006, at the Beatrix Theatre in Utrecht, Holland. The design team included David Gallo, sets; Thomas Hase, lighting; Zachary Borovay, projections; Miguel Humidor, costumes; and Jeroen ten Brinke, sound. “It's a little odd to hear ‘Ease on Down the Road’ in Dutch,” admits Hase, who points out that, rather than present a literal translation, the creators worked a lot of local references into the book. “The audience really appreciates that,” he says.

For Hase, The Wiz represented a shift in direction. “I haven't done big musicals in a long time,” he explains, having moved almost completely into designing opera. “David Gallo and I were working on the Broadway revival of Company at the time, and he said he wanted me to work on The Wiz, but I wasn't sure. The production is very hip, based on the idea of the Apple iPod societal takeover. I riffed on that.” This high-tech concept is reflected in a computer circuit board pattern on the floor of Gallo's all-white set that was inspired by the clean white lines of the iPod itself and the flagship Apple store in New York City.

The original concept for the set called for an LED floor and LED screens for digital projection. “The idea was to use a media server for the images on the floor, with the lighting to reinforce those images,” says Hase, who notes that the entire LED floor was eventually reduced to a series of forced-perspective lines made of Lagotronics LED panels. “I found that I was faced with a huge white set — from the floor to the portals — that needed light and color,” he adds. “I really ramped up, still using a High End Systems Catalyst media server to control color patterns on the floor and portals.”