It used to be that when you heard the phrase “Broadway classic,” it meant splashy productions from theater’s Golden Age and composers like Rogers & Hammerstein (‘Carousel’, ‘Oklahoma!’), Cole Porter (‘Kiss Me, Kate’) Frank Loesser (‘Guys and Dolls’), Irving Berlin, Jule Styne, Meredith Wilson and Noël Coward.
Eventually, new classicists Stephen Sondheim, Stephen Schwartz, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Jerry Herman and Kander & Ebb jumped into that canon with Broadway productions that continue to play – a lot – on regional stages, from ‘Wicked’ to ‘West Side Story’ and ‘Chicago’.
Now, newer composer-writers such as the late Jonathan Larson, Marc Shaiman, Amber Ruffin, Lolita Chakrabarti and the team of Charlie Smalls, Timothy Graphenreed, Harold Wheeler, George Faison and Luther Vandross have created massive new stage extravaganzas – musicals ‘Rent‘ and ‘The Wiz‘.
And both hit the stage this summer.
When it comes to comedian, talk show host-now-playwright Amber Ruffin, two of her books hit Philadelphia this season: the ‘Some Like It Hot‘ musical with composer Shaiman, now at the Forrest Theatre (through June 1), and her updated remix of 1975’s ‘The Wiz’, running June 3 to 15 at the Academy of Music.
“It was groundbreaking then, and continues to be so… The story of Dorothy has always been an American folk tale. Only now, you get to see her story from our perspective,” says Alan Mingo Jr., the man behind ‘The Wiz’s titular character, of making this musical a modern classic and its reflection of the Black cultural experience. “We pulled it out of the 1970s, removed the slang of the time, and made ‘The Wiz’ timeless.”
One of the ways that the new ‘Wiz’ goes about that remastering process is by mixing elements of the 1975 Broadway show with its 1978 movie musical with Michael Jackson and Diana Ross.
“Fans introduced to the story by the film aren’t left out, and audiences who loved the original musical aren’t left out – it’s a beautiful marriage of both,” says Mingo Jr.
Another way that this ‘Wiz’ is fresher is what Mingo Jr. calls the removing of “the heavy funk” of its musical score with something sprightlier – e.g. the rock-soul hybrid of Prince and the pop of Madonna.
“Our ‘Wiz’ is lighter and livelier, musically… there is a contemporary spin to the choreography by JaQuel Knight (Beyoncé’s ‘Single Ladies’), recognizable to kids looking at TikTok and Instagram,” says Mingo Jr.
As for his portrayal of ‘The Wiz,’ the actor-vocalist has performed the stately character before Amber Ruffin made the character less redeeming and evil.
“Because in real life, not everyone has redeeming qualities,” he says. “Sometimes we’re not the best people. We leave the heroes of the story in the lurch. And I could add my own sense of danger to that character – now, my Wiz is like a quirky, love-to-hate Willy Wonka-like salesman.”
Oddly enough, Mingo Jr.’s introduction to Broadway came through performing Jonathan Larson’s ‘Rent’ on stage, and its performance meant the world to who he would become as an actor and vocalist.
“I don’t want to get too emotional, but ‘Rent’ came at a time when people were not surviving the AIDS epidemic,” he says. “Doing a musical about homelessness, AIDS and how the corporate world turns you out – that was a lot. ‘Rent’ was entertaining and it said something serious.”
Philadelphia director Steve Pacek has spent the last year immersed in all things Larson as he co-directed and did the choreography for the late composer’s autobiographical musical ‘tick, tick BOOM!’ at Theatre Horizon before taking on ‘Rent‘ at the Arden Theatre, where he would share directing duties with Terrence J. Nolen.
“My love of Jonathan Larson goes back to me being a freshman and Ithica College in 1996, getting in a car, driving to New York and sleeping outside on 41st Street for $20 student rush tickets because we heard that this immediate blockbuster musical had opened,” says Pacek.
“And my mind was blown. I was a musical theater major in college, but grew up loving rock music – I used to paint the Guns & Roses logo on my pencil cases – so to have those two sounds cross, for the first time, was amazing. Now, the mash-up of musical theater and rock happens all the time, due to shows like ‘Rent’. But then, my face melted as I sat in the second row… it was a transformational experience.”
Along with learning the score, memorizing the lyrics and honoring the impact of Larson’s inner city take on Puccini’s ‘La Bohème’, Pacek – like the rest of the world – discovered ‘Rent’s greater tragedy: that Larson passed away, suddenly, before its Off-Broadway preview debut.
“Larson’s message in ‘Rent’ – “no day but today… forget regret for life is yours to miss” – he truly tapped into some sort of universal energy,” says Pacek, still roused by the playwright-composer’s life and message. “That energy and that message and that mash-up and the fact that Larson idolized Stephen Sondheim as I do… all of that stuck with me.”
Pacek is trying to explore Larson’s emotional personal message and ferocious musicality with the Arden’s cast of creatives – actors, vocalists and co-director Nolen, alike.
“We’re here to re-activate Larson’s language in ‘Rent’ from the 1990s, today, in a time where socially, culturally, politically, there are so many parallels when it comes to class, race and LGBTQIA+ struggles.”
