The Wiz Live: Movie Review: The Wizard Of Oz

The Wiz live was performed on NBC during December 3, 2015. The film was adapted from the original film in 1975 Broadway musical, The Wizard of Oz. The Wiz live played off the story of a young girl by the name of Dorothy, who is teased by her aunt Em at the age of 24. While eating lunch, Dorothy’s dog, Toto runs away and gets caught in a bad storm. Dorothy runs after Toto and successfully gets him, but finds herself trapped in a twister of snow. Dorothy is soon introduced to Glinda, the Good Witch of the South, who takes her into the realm of the oz. In being transported to the realm of oz, Dorothy smashes through a sky sign killing Evermean, the Wicked Witch of the East. Dorothy manages to free all the Munchkins who ruled the playground and

Starring in the film were big time nominee and winners in the world that included Elijah Kelley, Uzo Aduba, singer Common, writer/singer Mary J Blige and Ne-Yo, rapper Queen Latifah, and supporting actresses Amber Riley, Shanice Williams, Stephanie Mills, and Uzo Aduba. The main dancers were Amber Riley (Addaperle), Shanice Williams (Dorothy), Ne-Yo (Tin Man), and David Grier (Cowardly Lion). All the choreography and movements was created by the well known choreographer Fatima Robinson. Fatima Robinson’s choreography displayed many jazz turns and many of the movements consisted of the dancers did not give into gravity. The movements gave off a syncopated feeling and not a soft and flowy movement like other styles of dance. The costumes were very big and over the top that captured each and every transition that the dancers

In many different scenes, dances were created to capture how each character felt in the scene that they were in. For example, when the crow was being bullied while he was tied up on the cross, Fatima created a dance to show him finding his inner courage and no longer having fear of the birds. I loved when Dorothy and Scarecrow sang walking down the yellow brick road because the dance gave the sensibility of people uniquely living the spirit of expression. The dance looked fun and vibrant like many of the jazz dances we see today. One of the styles of jazz that were engaged in the film was bebop. Bebop is characterized during the 1940s as having a fast tempo and improvisation based on the structures of a situation that inspired the movement. I noticed that bebop was displayed well when Ne-Yo danced because of its complex technique, fast tempo, and improvisation while singing at the same time. This style of jazz was suitable for the presentation of the film because it kept me as an audience engaged in every dance that was choreographed. With the tempo being very fast, it allowed for the movement to be big and easily