There are moments in Black culture when time folds inward. When the past, present, and future meet in rhythm, harmony, and truth-telling. Last night, watching The Wiz, performed at Philadelphia’s Academy of Music and presented by Ensemble Arts, became such a moment. Staged during Black Music Month, this production reminded us why The Wiz, first introduced to Broadway in the 1970’s, remains one of the most potent cultural reimaginings in American performance history.
Let’s start at the root.
L. Frank Baum, the author of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900), is a complicated figure. Before becoming known as the “Royal Historian of Oz,” he was a journalist who edited the Aberdeen Saturday Pioneer, where, in 1890 and 1891, he wrote editorials calling for the extermination of Indigenous people. “The best safety of the frontier settlements,” he wrote, “will be secured by the total annihilation of the few remaining Indians”. That darkness shadows the origins of a tale long celebrated in American culture. It made the emergence of The Wiz, conceived by producer Ken Harper as a joyful, Black reclamation of that same story, a revolutionary act.
The Wiz premiered in Baltimore on October 21, 1974, and by the time it hit Broadway in 1975, with a book by William F. Brown and music by Charlie Smalls, it was breathing new life into Baum’s narrative. Infused with gospel, soul, funk, and the vernacular of Black joy and resistance, it ran for four years and won seven Tony Awards, including Best Musical.
Now, 50 years later, the 2025 production at the Academy of Music offered both nostalgia and revelation.
Directed with fierce cultural fidelity, the musical exploded with energy and soul from the opening note. Dana Cimone as Dorothy was both wide-eyed and wise. Her performance was rooted in vocal clarity and emotional precision, grounding the show’s journey.
Elijah Ahmad Lewis as Scarecrow, D. Jerome as Tinman, and Kel Mitchell as Lion displayed a range of incredible talents from hip hop to comedy. Their characters offered a fresh take on the search for a brain, a heart, and courage felt like commentary on what losing one’s mind, trauma, societal neglect, and inherited pain can steal from a person, and what community can help reclaim.
But it was Kyla Jade who lifted the auditorium into the stratosphere. As Aunt Em and Evillene, she delivered vocal performances that felt less like theater and more like sacred invocation. Rooted in a gospel tradition honed in church choirs and shaped through years of singing with legends like Jennifer Hudson and Patti LaBelle, Jade’s voice was a masterclass in spiritual storytelling.
Under the baton of Music Director Victor Simonson, whose background in folk, sacred, and blues traditions brings rhythmic dynamism and spiritual grounding to his work, the musical score was reimagined with reverence and innovation. The creative team further deepened the show’s musical roots. Vocal arrangements by Allen René Louis (Broadway Inspirational Voices) and orchestrations by Joseph Joubert, both deeply connected to gospel and classical traditions, made sure every note carried cultural weight.
The arrangements leaned boldly into the Black church, with vocal ‘runs’ and ornamentations that testified as much as they entertained. As the tambourines accented the performance, it was clear: this was the Black South, the New Orleans front line, the Harlem Renaissance, the praise break, and maybe even… the protest?
But beyond the music and movement, The Wiz offered coded messages. It asked: How does intelligence become madness in a society that fears Black genius? How does a heart harden in a world where Black men are told not to feel? How does trauma rob a child of their voice, their courage, their sense of home? These aren’t just questions for characters. They’re questions for us.
In a time of cultural erasure and systemic unrest, The Wiz reminds us of the cultural wisdom that is usually passed on in African folk stories. It remembers and resists.
The Wiz is running now through June 15, 2025. This production is a Black Music Month offering of the highest order. For those seeking joy amidst chaos and looking for love beyond the yellow brick road, The Wiz is waiting.
Ease on down.
Jos Duncan Asé is the Founder, Executive Producer and Publisher with Love Now Media, an empathy-centered media company that uses storytelling to amplify acts of love at the intersection of social justice, wellness, and equity. She uses her voice and her platforms to empower diverse communities to create and tell their own stories. She holds a Masters of Fine Art (MFA) from the City College of New York and a Bachelors of Business Administration (BBA), with a concentration in Information Technology, from the Fox School of Business at Temple University.
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