The Wiz

Beverly Stewart-Anderson as Glinda in The Wiz

Related Content

• The Mae Ingredient: Something's missing in Dirty Blonde
  September 22, 2011
• St. Louis Stage Capsules
  May 12, 2011
• St. Louis Stage Capsules
  May 5, 2011
• A Few Olympics Theme Songs As Weird As London's Muse Track
  August 3, 2012
• Midnight Specialty: The Black Rep puts a twist on the Lead Belly legend with Black Pearl Sings!
  April 28, 2011

More About

• Surrender Dorothy
• William F. Brown
• Mae West
• Charlie Smalls
• Monica Moore

Director Ron Himes has apparently told his cast to play big in the relatively intimate Grandel Theatre, and it's a strategy that works well. This is a large cast, with bit players in multiple roles as various denizens of Oz and lots of smart and sexy dancing choreographed by Vivian Anderson Watt, who may enjoy the Solid Gold dancers but clearly has spent time in the contemporary dance world. Scenic designer Felix E. Cochren has contrived tidy set pieces (a tiny Kansas domicile, an artistic creation of plumbing fixtures for Evillene's domain) that whisk on and off. Reggie Ray's costumes for the chorus rely heavily on the simple sarong style, but his duds for the principals are towering confections -- here, those shiny slippers are the least of it.

The Wiz continues through June 25.