--- title: 'The Wiz' Review: What Made the Original 'Wickedly Amusing' description: NBC's live telecast version of the show airs on Dec. 3 canonical: https://time.com/4125963/the-wiz-original-review/ author: Lily Rothman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-12-03T16:00:06.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T12:53:04.597Z article:section: History og:title: What Made the Original 'The Wiz' Wickedly Amusing og:description: NBC's live telecast version of the show airs on Dec. 3 og:url: https://time.com/4125963/the-wiz-original-review/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2f15f584d8a8a41f/69887295428a9eeb0fcd043b/wiz.jpeg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: The Wiz og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: What Made the Original 'The Wiz' Wickedly Amusing twitter:description: NBC's live telecast version of the show airs on Dec. 3 twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2f15f584d8a8a41f/69887295428a9eeb0fcd043b/wiz.jpeg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # What Made the Original _The Wiz_ 'Wickedly Amusing'  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Dec 3, 2015 4:00 PM UTC  The cast of the movie "The Wiz" (L-R Ted Ross, Diana Ross, Nipsey Russell, Michael Jackson and Richard Pryor) pose for a publicity shot in 1978 in New York, New York. The cast of the movie "The Wiz" (L-R Ted Ross, Diana Ross, Nipsey Russell, Michael Jackson and Richard Pryor) pose for a publicity shot in 1978 in New York, New York.Michael Ochs Archives / Getty Images  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Dec 3, 2015 4:00 PM UTC The live telecast of _The Wiz_ that’s set to air on Thursday night will hardly be the musical’s first trip down the yellow brick road. In 1975, when the theatrical version first opened on Broadway, it was an immediate hit. “Purists and adulators of Judy Garland may carp, and one can understand why, but this all-black musical version of _The Wizard of Oz_ is a carnival of fun,” TIME declared. “It grins from the soul, sizzles with vitality, and flaunts the gaudy hues of an exploding rainbow.” But what truly made it “wickedly amusing” was that its writers had transplanted the classic story of Dorothy from Kansas into a big city setting without losing “the sense of childlike innocence nor the wonder of revisiting a durable fable.” The Broadway smash, which made $10,000 a week in its first month, was part of a larger theatrical box-office [upswing](http://time.com/vault/issue/1975-04-28/page/74/) that year. At the [Tony Awards](http://time.com/vault/issue/1975-05-05/page/65/), it went home with seven prizes including best musical. But a few years later, when much-anticipated movie version of _The Wiz_ was released in 1978, critics were singing a different tune. The reason, TIME’s critic John Skow [declared](http://time.com/vault/issue/1978-10-30/page/114/), came down to Dorothy. --- > “” --- Whether the NBC version will be more Broadway or more bust remains to be seen. **_Read the full 1975 Broadway review, here in the TIME Vault:_** [Jumping Jivernacular](http://time.com/vault/issue/1975-01-20/page/92/) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4125963/the-wiz-original-review/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4125963/the-wiz-original-review/"},"headline":"What Made the Original The Wiz 'Wickedly Amusing'","datePublished":"2015-12-03T16:00:06.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T12:53:04.597Z","description":"NBC's live telecast version of the show airs on Thursday","url":"https://time.com/4125963/the-wiz-original-review/","keywords":["movies","Television","Theater"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2f15f584d8a8a41f/69887295428a9eeb0fcd043b/wiz.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Lily Rothman","jobTitle":"Rothman is managing editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/"}],"articleSection":"History","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2f15f584d8a8a41f/69887295428a9eeb0fcd043b/wiz.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"The Wiz","caption":"The Wiz","creditText":"Michael Ochs Archives / Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/history/","name":"History"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/movies/","name":"movies"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4125963/the-wiz-original-review/","name":"What Made the Original The Wiz 'Wickedly Amusing'"}}]}] ```