Musical Mondays Week 95 The Wiz

[grudlian. 4725]

Someone can correct me, but Return To Oz was kind of a mishmash of the second and third Oz books right? They just took characters from both and made up a movie around them if I remember correctly. I definitely don't remember the books being so horrifying as the movie either.

[Cameron H. 23786]

17 minutes ago, grudlian. said:

Someone can correct me, but Return To Oz was kind of a mishmash of the second and third Oz books right? They just took characters from both and made up a movie around them if I remember correctly. I definitely don't remember the books being so horrifying as the movie either.

I believe you are correct.

[GrahamS. 803]

Ok, just into the first 20 minutes of this, but it appears that Dorothy has been zapped into the land of the Tethered. The graffiti coming to life feels very much like Us! Before they start speaking, that is.

[GrahamS. 803]

Holy shit, there’s even an escalator! Are we sure this wasn’t an Us prequel?

[GrahamS. 803]

I’m writing these as I watch. I like everyone else in this movie, which is why I’m watching it, but I have to say, Michael Jackson creeps me the fuck out. Sorry if there are any due-hard fans but ugh. Only way my stomach would turn more would be if Bill Cosby was here. And I used to like both of them a lot. In fact, I’m fast forwarding Michael’s first number now.

[GrahamS. 803]

Ok, I’m at the halfway point an am taking a break. It’s weird enough and interesting enough to keep watching, but Sidney Lumet WAS NOT the right director to make this. His documentary-style of filmmaking works well in gritty stuff like Dog Day Afternoon and  it played against the absurdity of Network (both of which are films that I love), but it makes the musical numbers weirdly stagy and airless. The music is great, but he makes it feel flat. I like the production design (which is bonkers), sequences like when the subway station comes alive are cool, Nipsey Russell is fucking great and I like Diana Ross....it’s just a weird mix of things that do and don’t work. 

i also am missing the wicked witch.

i would be interested in watching the live version of this—I know it got stronger reviews. But I’m glad I’m watching it.

[GrahamS. 803]

I’m watching the second half and am now convinced it was created to give children a contact high. Or lick the movie screen to get an LSD hit.

it feels like David Lynch took the reigns! Where’s Eraserhead?

i found the scenes where the lion was licking himself to be really disturbing. Especially when he’s sitting on Diana Ross’ lap.

love that Richard Pryor is a failed politician!

I feel like Joel Schumacher took the art design as the jumping off point for his Batman films.

It’s an excellent HDTGM-adjacent choice!

Sidenote: Quincy Jones was a graduate from Garfield High School in Seattle (where my brother and I went to school). There’s a good documentary about him on Netflix but my brother and I were bummed it didn’t talk about his life in Seattle. There’s a historic auditiorium there named after him. From Wikipedia, just FYI: “The music program at Garfield High School has won numerous awards. Several notable musicians attended the school, including Jimi Hendrix, Lil Tracy, Quincy Jones, Macklemore, and Ernestine Anderson.” Also Ishmael Butler—from Digable Planets (whose music takes samples from The Wiz, which I didn’t realize until now).

[Cinco DeNio 5290]

On 6/29/2020 at 9:27 PM, tomspanks said:

Did I love this overall?  No.  

But there were some absolute gems:

• Scarecrow's nose, a Reese's peanut butter cup wrapper?
• As Dorothy announces she's going to confront Evillene, she takes off her earrings matter-of-factly
• Any time they sang East on Down the Road
• Everybody Rejoice dance sequence
• Diana Ross' performance of Home at the end

 

They sang West on Down the Road when they were headed to Texarkana to get the Coors.

[Cameron H. 23786]

 

[Cinco DeNio 5290]

3 hours ago, Cameron H. said:

 

[tomspanks 9039]

On 7/3/2020 at 3:09 PM, Cameron H. said:

 

I FUCKING KNEW IT LOL

[Cameron H. 23786]

As soon he stepped up and sang, “Alexander Hamilton. My name is Alexander Hamilton” I was like “I’m in big, big trouble” lol

In other news, my wife finally witnessed Hamilton (she would not listen to the soundtrack and has made fun of me for years) to which she gave a hearty, “Yeah, I can see why people like this.”

[GrahamS. 803]

13 hours ago, Cameron H. said:

As soon he stepped up and sang, “Alexander Hamilton. My name is Alexander Hamilton” I was like “I’m in big, big trouble” lol

In other news, my wife finally witnessed Hamilton (she would not listen to the soundtrack and has made fun of me for years) to which she gave a hearty, “Yeah, I can see why people like this.”

I think I might try to watch it in 1/2 hour chunks. I’ll freely admit that musicals where people sing non-stop (or rap, in this case) are not my jam. I’ve seen Tommy and Rent and CATS—among others—and I wasn’t a fan.

i know Hamilton is universally beloved, I Know it great reviews, I was somewhat excited to see it. I sat down with my parents to watch it, made it to the 45 minute mark (the wedding scene) and realized I couldn’t handle two more hours of it. For this reason, I’m glad I didn’t see it as a full production (not that we could have gotten tickets anyway). I just need SOME dialogue to break things up.

Also, I’m not that well-read about Hamilton, so just trying to take everything in was overwhelming. I liked In the Heights better.

Glad you enjoyed it!

[tomspanks 9039]

On 7/4/2020 at 8:50 PM, Cameron H. said:

As soon he stepped up and sang, “Alexander Hamilton. My name is Alexander Hamilton” I was like “I’m in big, big trouble” lol

In other news, my wife finally witnessed Hamilton (she would not listen to the soundtrack and has made fun of me for years) to which she gave a hearty, “Yeah, I can see why people like this.”

That's high praise.

[Cinco DeNio 5290]

20 hours ago, GrahamS. said:

I think I might try to watch it in 1/2 hour chunks. I’ll freely admit that musicals where people sing non-stop (or rap, in this case) are not my jam. I’ve seen Tommy and Rent and CATS—among others—and I wasn’t a fan.

i know Hamilton is universally beloved, I Know it great reviews, I was somewhat excited to see it. I sat down with my parents to watch it, made it to the 45 minute mark (the wedding scene) and realized I couldn’t handle two more hours of it. For this reason, I’m glad I didn’t see it as a full production (not that we could have gotten tickets anyway). I just need SOME dialogue to break things up.

Also, I’m not that well-read about Hamilton, so just trying to take everything in was overwhelming. I liked In the Heights better.

Glad you enjoyed it!

You’re in luck. They’re working on an In the Heights movie.

[Cinco DeNio 5290]

Why were they originally going to release the movie in October, 2021? Was that the end of the current tours? I assume they moved up the release, and to Disney Plus, because of the pandemic.

[Cameron H. 23786]

47 minutes ago, Cinco DeNio said:

Why were they originally going to release the movie in October, 2021? Was that the end of the current tours? I assume they moved up the release, and to Disney Plus, because of the pandemic.

I think I heard that they usually tend to wait ten plus years before adapting to film (See: Wicked which still hasn’t been released) I think that gives the live shows longer legs. As for Hamilton, even 2021 seems soon. My guess is that it was released early because of a) the pandemic, b ) Miranda’s relationship with Disney, and c) it’s a huge election year and Hamilton gets people pumped about politics.

[Cinco DeNio 5290]

2 hours ago, Cameron H. said:

I think I heard that they usually tend to wait ten plus years before adapting to film (See: Wicked which still hasn’t been released) I think that gives the live shows longer legs. As for Hamilton, even 2021 seems soon. My guess is that it was released early because of a) the pandemic, b ) Miranda’s relationship with Disney, and c) it’s a huge election year and Hamilton gets people pumped about politics.

You're saying Wicked has already been filmed, just not released?  I agree about the longer legs.  You're right that 2021 seemed short.  I was surprised a little as well.  Was considering trying to get tickets for Baltimore next summer and I kept trying the Broadway lottery.

[Cinco DeNio 5290]

I watched The Wiz Live! over the weekend.  I really enjoyed it up until the wizard told them to kill the Wicked Witch of the West.  That seemed unnecessarily dark, and the production lost it's zing.  I kind of tuned out a little and had to rewatch from there in.  I may be wrong but it seemed to hew more toward the 1939 storyline instead of the movie, like Dorothy not figuring it out, and the Yellow Brick Road starting right in Munchkinland.  My memory of The Wiz has it starting where she meets the Scarecrow.

[Cameron H. 23786]

1 minute ago, Cinco DeNio said:

You're saying Wicked has already been filmed, just not released?  I agree about the longer legs.  You're right that 2021 seemed short.  I was surprised a little as well.  Was considering trying to get tickets for Baltimore next summer and I kept trying the Broadway lottery.

No, sorry. They’ve been talking about doing Wicked as a movie forever, but they were waiting until it was out of theaters.

[Cinco DeNio 5290]

Just now, Cameron H. said:

No, sorry. They’ve been talking about doing Wicked as a movie forever, but they were waiting until it was out of theaters.

We might get a Rent situation then, with some of the actors too old to play their characters?  Idina Menzel gets a pass though.  She HAS to be in the movie!

[Cinco DeNio 5290]

On 7/3/2020 at 3:09 PM, Cameron H. said:

 

Cameron gave it a 10-star review on Letterboxd.  Rubbybells nailed it with their comment: "Star for each time you cried."