So you wanted to see The WIZard
Originally published at Walking on Christopher's Street. You can comment here or there.
So the U of MN put on The Wiz as their musical for the spring, and interesting adaptation of the original (which is also an adaptation of the Wizard of Oz). In this they change Oz into a university and add some university oriented situations, but overall it was a pretty weak interpretation. I describe it to my companion WD that it was half-assed so much so it was gratuitous. Musically the characters were passable mostly, with notable standouts of the Tinone, Dorothy, Aunt Em and Glinda. I also thought the guy playing the Lion was really good, however WD disagreed with me. The casting was color and gender blind. This was a cool way to do it, however again was half-assed. The Tinman was a female and renamed Tinone, The Wizard was also female. Both good choices but they script was not adjusted; the gender pronouns were not altered to reflect the female status. Secondly Eveamean the wicked witch of the east was a male in Drag, a predictable gender decision, however the person playing the role had a really untrained voice and did not even seem like he was trying to play up the part.
Overall it was a passable evening of college theater.