At this point, \u201cThe Wizard of Oz,\u201d L. Frank Baum\u2019s fantastical morality tale with witches, wizards, and Kansas tornados, is as canonical as the Brothers Grimm\u2019s fairy tales or \u201cJack and the Beanstalk.\u201d Mention ruby slippers and (almost) everyone catches the reference.<\/p>\n
Naturally, it\u2019s a story that\u2019s had its fair share of renditions, retellings, and prequels, be it on film, stage, spoofs, or the Muppets (the 1939 Judy Garland film, \u201cWicked,\u201d etc., etc.). And one of the most prominent of these was the 1974 musical, \u201cThe Wiz,\u201d a reimagining of the story through a contemporary Black American lens and soundtracked with Motown and soul music.<\/p>\n
The musical went on to become a critically panned but culturally iconic movie starring Diana Ross and the late Michael Jackson in 1978, and Broadway revivals came in 1984 and 2024. This latest version, which is currently performing at Bass Performance Hall<\/a> through Sunday, includes more contemporary \u2014 and even timeless \u2014 cultural references and new interpretations of \u201cEase on Down the Road,\u201d \u201cHome,\u201d and \u201cBrand New Day.\u201d<\/p>\n The new snappy \u2014 and quite hilarious \u2014 dialogue is courtesy of Amber Ruffin, a self-described late-night talk show writer by trade whose impressive resume includes writing for Comedy Central\u2019s \u201cDetroiters,\u201d \u201cLate Night with Seth Meyers,\u201d HBO\u2019s \u201cA Black Lady Sketch Show,\u201d an Emmy Awards ceremony, two Golden Globe ceremonies, and the 2021 Broadway revival of \u201cSome Like It Hot.\u201d She even had her own talk show, \u201cThe Amber Ruffin Show,\u201d which streamed Peacock from 2020 to 2022.<\/p>\n With the musical coming to town, we got to have a phone chat with Ruffin about her intro the \u201cThe Wiz,\u201d upbringing in Omaha, and why you won\u2019t find any \u201cpolice mice\u201d in this brilliant revival.<\/p>\n Fort Worth Magazine:<\/strong> Can\u2019t help but notice what an incredibly successful and diverse career in writing you\u2019ve had thus far. You’ve written for talk shows, award shows, sketch shows \u2014 just about everything across the board. And now you\u2019re on your second musical. What makes this style of writing different from the rest?<\/p>\n Amber Ruffin:<\/strong> My everyday real full-time job is writing late night comedy. So, when writing musicals, there’s almost no overlap in your brain; I have all this room for writing songs and writing a story and fleshing out characters because you don\u2019t get to do any of that in late night. So, every non-occupied nook in my brain fits exactly what you need for musicals.<\/p>\n FW:<\/strong> What about the individual shows themselves? I know you worked on the \u201cSome Like It Hot\u201d revival, how was that different from working on \u201cThe Wiz\u201d?<\/p>\n Ruffin:<\/strong> They are similar in that they’re both stories that already exist. The difference is that, with \u201cSome Like It Hot,\u201d I was writing with Matthew Lopez, and we would sit together and have a blast. With \u201cThe Wiz,\u201d I was writing alone. But the rest of the team (a team Ruffin called \u201can all-star cast of Black creative artists\u201d) was very present. So, in that way it kind of felt like I was writing with more people. It was a really good time.<\/p>\n FW:<\/strong> So, tell me a little about your personal history with \u201cThe Wiz.\u201d I\u2019ll admit the Michael Jackson\/Diana Ross movie was my introduction to it. What was yours?<\/p>\n Ruffin:<\/strong> It was also seeing the movie. I have no idea what your age is, but I never lived in a world where \u201cThe Wiz\u201d didn\u2019t exist. It was ever present. So, the first version I saw was the movie version, and then I saw it on stage. I never got to see the Broadway version or the US Tour, and I don\u2019t think they ever recorded the tour. So, you had to just hear a lot of stories from people who had seen the \u201cThe Wiz,\u201d and it really did fill in a lot of gaps for me. But that\u2019s why I like our version of \u201cThe Wiz.\u201d We understand a lot of people have never seen the stage version, not even local or high school productions of it. A lot of people only know the movie. So, we made sure to honor both of them with our production, and I think we did a good job of marrying the two.<\/p>\n FW:<\/strong> So, outside of paying homage to the movie version, how else is this stage production different from the original?<\/p>\n Ruffin:<\/strong> The movie and original Broadway production were very much anchored to the seventies. What I wanted was for us to have a version of \u201cThe Wiz\u201d that you could do today and you could pick it up and do it 30 years from now, and it would still feel fine. We use a teeny bit of slang, but the slang we use is slang that has stood the test of time.<\/p>\n And we made sure to put a lot of old Black grandma saying in there. At one point, I was like, \u2018Well, we have to keep a little bit of our mother slang alive. I didn\u2019t want to date it, but if you could picture [the words] coming out of a cute little grandma\u2019s mouth, I think it\u2019s fine. And I think it\u2019s something we should keep.<\/p>\n FW:<\/strong> Considering recent musicals and films that take place in the Oz universe, I wonder if things like \u201cWicked,\u201d which evokes a lot of sympathy for the eventual Wicked Witch of the West, is having an influence on subsequent tellings of \u201cThe Wizard of Oz\u201d story.<\/p>\n Ruffin:<\/strong> That’s certainly possible. I think that\u2019s why I love \u201cThe Wiz\u201d so much. It is based on \u201cThe Wizard of Oz,\u201d but it really took the turns it needed to take to be its own thing, and I really appreciate that. Whereas \u201cWicked\u201d really serves the \u201cWizard of Oz,\u201d I don’t think \u201cThe Wiz\u201d does. I think \u201cThe Wiz\u201d took it as a lovely jumping off point and then kind of found itself.<\/p>\n FW:<\/strong> Perhaps this is purely anecdotal and not entirely true, but I feel like there have been a lot of great revivals on Broadway in recent years. Like it\u2019s a phase. Why do you feel it\u2019s important to revive these older musicals and give the younger generation a little taste of it?<\/p>\n Ruffin:<\/strong> I think the good thing that happens with revivals is a lot of problematic stuff gets cut out. And I got to tell you, that’s my favorite fricking part. Then you can watch this [version of] \u201cThe Wiz\u201d with your grandpa, and he can be like, \u201cWhere are the police mice?\u201d And you can be like, \u201cNo one wants to see a bunch of Black men get snatched up by the police today. We’re here to have fun.\u201d<\/p>\n Certainly, in 20 years, people will be like, \u201cYou can’t make a lion talk like that\u201d or who knows what the next thing will be? But if we can get grandpa and grandbaby on the same page and give them something they can all enjoy, that\u2019s the goal. Because how many times have you been talking to one of the oldest people on Earth, and they’re like, \u201cYou know what I like is the most problematic thing you’ve ever heard of\u201d? And you have to be like, \u201cI don’t want to see that. And you shouldn’t have ever liked it. It’s trash.\u201d<\/p>\n FW:<\/strong>\u00a0I interviewed Shane McAnally<\/a> a couple months [one of the writers of “Shucked,” which will be at Bass Performance Hall<\/a>\u00a0later this month], and I asked him about experiencing the Broadway opening of his show. Now,\u00a0this is someone who has had 50 Billboard-topping country songs to his name, and he said it\u00a0was like experiencing all 50 of those No.1\u00a0hits at once. He saw it as the pinnacle of his career to this point. Now, similar to Shane, you’re also an extremely successful writer outside of Broadway.\u00a0I want to know if you had a similar experience when you first saw “The Wiz” revival on Broadway?<\/p>\n Ruffin:\u00a0<\/strong>It is weird to write jokes and then have Broadway professionals say them. It’s bananas because I did quite a bit of theater at the beginning, but it was never theaters that are this size. I mean, rarely the size of a Broadway theater; it was just me and my little doofus friends. So, to have a real professional slaying\u00a0your jokes to hundreds and hundreds of people at once is very, very exciting.<\/p>\n FW:<\/strong> And I know that you\u2019re from Omaha [Nebraska]. Certainly a long way from both coasts. How has that affected your writing? Is it still an influence?<\/p>\n Ruffin:<\/strong> I would imagine it does. I don’t know. I guess it broke both ways. Initially, I was like, well, this is how you appeal to the masses, which is your only move in Omaha, Nebraska. And then you end up writing for something like \u201cThe Wiz\u201d and you just go, \u201cScrew it. I’m going to do exactly what I think this show needs, and it will be entirely through the Black lens, and if we leave people behind, so be it.\u201d We’ll just make sure that it is in every way exactly what was in our hearts. And I think that’s what comes through.<\/p>\n