On This Day in Pop: January 5, 1975
On January 5, 1975, The Wiz opened at Broadway’s Majestic Theatre in New York, retelling L. Frank Baum’s Oz story through the music, humor, design, and performance traditions of Black America. The production featured music and lyrics by Charlie Smalls and a book by William F. Brown, with direction and costumes by Geoffrey Holder and choreography by George Faison. Fifteen-year-old Stephanie Mills played Dorothy, joined by Hinton Battle as the Scarecrow, Tiger Haynes as the Tinman, Ted Ross as the Lion, Dee Dee Bridgewater as Glinda, and André De Shields as the title character. Its arrival brought a large Black cast and creative team to one of Broadway’s most visible stages.
The opening followed a difficult road. Producer Ken Harper had developed the show for years, and an early engagement in Baltimore revealed problems that required substantial revisions. Holder replaced the original director and reshaped the production’s staging and visual identity. Faison’s choreography and Smalls’s gospel-, soul-, and rhythm-and-blues-inflected score gave the familiar journey a new theatrical vocabulary. The show initially struggled to sell tickets in New York, but a televised commercial featuring “Ease on Down the Road” helped introduce its energy to a national audience. Word of mouth and critical attention then turned the uncertain opening into a Broadway success.
The story remained recognizable: Dorothy travels through Oz with three companions seeking a brain, a heart, courage, and a way home. Yet The Wiz was not simply a costume change laid over an old plot. Its language, movement, musical styles, and exuberant design created a production grounded in contemporary Black cultural expression. At the 1975 Tony Awards, it won seven prizes, including Best Musical and awards for Smalls’s score, Holder’s direction and costume design, Faison’s choreography, and featured performances by Ross and Bridgewater. The honors confirmed the production’s artistic impact as well as its commercial recovery.
The original Broadway run lasted 1,672 performances and moved from the Majestic to the Broadway Theatre before closing in 1979. Its songs, especially “Ease on Down the Road” and “Home,” continued through recordings, school and regional productions, revivals, television, and a 1978 film adaptation. Later versions changed details, but the Broadway opening remains a landmark because it expanded who could occupy the center of a large American musical and how a familiar national story could be reinterpreted. On January 5, The Wiz began transforming a precarious production into an enduring work whose creative confidence opened doors for performers, designers, choreographers, and audiences.
Producer Ken Harper pursued a Black musical interpretation of Oz for years. The score by Charlie Smalls and book by William F. Brown combined a familiar quest with contemporary language and music.
A troubled Baltimore engagement led to major revisions. Geoffrey Holder took over direction and costume design, while George Faison’s choreography helped define the show’s movement and theatrical character.
The Majestic Theatre opening introduced Stephanie Mills’s Dorothy and a cast that included Hinton Battle, Ted Ross, Dee Dee Bridgewater, André De Shields, and Tiger Haynes.
Ticket sales were initially weak, and the production’s future was uncertain. A lively television advertisement and growing word of mouth helped the show find the audience that sustained its long run.
Seven Tony Awards, including Best Musical, recognized the production’s score, staging, costumes, choreography, and performances. The wins made its turnaround one of Broadway’s notable success stories.
Revivals, recordings, amateur productions, television, and film kept the material in circulation, while the original established a lasting example of Black creative leadership on Broadway.
Explore more of "On This Day ..."
Discover more events from the same date across news, politics, technology, sports, and other fields. Each link highlights significant moments that shaped history on different fronts.