Queen Latifah may be portraying the all-seeing, all-knowing, all-powerful Wizard of Oz and Mary J. Blige the Wicked Witch of the West for NBC’s “The Wiz Live!,” but in real life both artists are powerful in their own right. In a Broadway Black exclusive interview, Queen Latifah and Blige talk about how The Wiz – a 1975 Tony Award winning musical – has empowered them and how they hope the production will speak to today’s generation.
Queen Latifah, also known as Dana Owens, realized that a role primarily played by a male is perfect for her. Having been raised by a strong mother and other strong women, Queen Latifah noted, “I have been doing things to empower women my entire career before I even attached the word feminism to it.” She also was encouraged by the men in her life. “The male feminists in my life, too, who told me I could do it: ‘Get out there, Dana, go ‘head.’”
From rapper to entrepreneur, jazz singer to actor and talk show host, Queen Latifah as “The Wiz” is not a stretch and in line with how producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron – who also produced NBC’s “Sound of Music” and “Peter Pan” as well as the 2002 film Chicago – challenge traditional Broadway.
“It was not shocking to me because I know Neil and Craig,” said Queen Latifah, who played Matron Mama Morton in the Chicago film, “and I know they are not traditional people. They traditionally respect Broadway, but they are not traditional thinkers. Chicago was not the Broadway version of Chicago…. It had to be reimagined and you had to have producers who were open-minded enough to allow it to be imagined through the lens of (director) Rob Marshall at that time and Kenny Leon right now. And so it really speaks to who we are right now. We want to tell this version of The Wiz.”
Queen Latifah and Blige join Ne-Yo, Elijah Kelley, Uzo Aduba, Amber Riley, Common and newcomer Shanice Williams, among others to tell a new version of the Kenny Leon-directed Wiz, which features new songs by Harvey Fierstein and is co-produced by Cirque du Soleil’s stage theatrical division.
“I want to see Mary J. Blige play Evillene. That’s my Evillene. And this will be the Evillene for this generation and this time,” Queen Latifah said. “And it’s very exciting to me. Ne-Yo. I’ve been watching Ne-Yo write things for years, produce records for years, sing, remind me of Michael Jackson for years. But this is my Tin Man…. When I see him, his body, the way he moves, the way he sings, that’s Tin Man to me. So he’s this generation’s Tin Man.”
When Blige received a call from her management (Flava Unit Entertainment, which was founded by Queen Latifah and Shakim Compere in 1995, and has produced Bessie, Steel Magnolias and Just Wright) about the opportunity, she screamed. Before knowing her role, she told Compere that the good witch wasn’t for her; she wanted to be the evil witch, Evillene. “This is a person we can all recognize, but we keep in back of us. We don’t want that person in front of us running our lives,” Blige said. However, she has enjoyed acting like a terrible and self-centered person.
“I was excited just to be a part of it,” said the Queen of Hip Hop Soul, who has been in the Black Nativity (2013) and Rock of Ages (2012) musical films. “Because it’s The Wiz, and it did so much for us. It encouraged us and inspired us to be better, to know what we have in us to know we have what it takes to make it in the world. It’s one of the reasons why we are here. It’s the reason why I’m here right now.”
Celebrating its 40th year, The Wiz – with its many installments over the years – has inspired many generations and especially Black audiences. The 2015 version will include refinements, courtesy the creative team headed up by Leon and Fierstein.
“It’s just very exciting to see this whole thing imagined for today’s audience and today’s time. And we get to go out there and have the great honor of presenting it and kicking ass,” said Queen Latifah, who has discovered the very essence of herself from the production’s creative process. “Drama teachers in schools across America gonna be like, ‘Ok, how can we put this on stage. We want this version on stage with the new songs and the new movements.’”
Both have learned a lot from the cast and creative team. Blige said, “It’s beautiful. It’s a lot of love and support. Everyone is there for one another. I’m not like your seasoned actress. I’m learning and getting my feet wet still. So I’m bumbling and fumbling and stumbling and messing up in front of everyone…. they’re coming to my rescue and giving me compliments when I’m doing good as well. So it’s love, a lot of love.”
It also is a lot of pressure and stress, knowing that the show is live and a one-time-only event. “It’s not under control,” Blige said, “but that’s not what we need to think about. It will be under control on that day. That’s it.”
When “The Wiz Live!” airs Dec. 3 on NBC, millions of people will tune in as they have done for the network’s other live theatrical offerings. For the youth that will tune in, Queen Latifah has some wishes of her own she would like granted.
“I would like for their imaginations to run wild. I just want for them if they see anything that connects to them, you know, whether it’s from the acting to the singing to the costumes to the lighting to the way sets change to anything that they relate to that they feel ‘Maybe I can do that.’… I want them to be inquisitive. I want them to be fascinated by what they saw. First of all, I just want them to love it and to be in it for the journey. If they are fascinated in any way shape or form by anything they see and it speaks to the talent they may have inside, I want that talent to be unlocked. I don’t care if they are in a foster home watching this, or they’re in a mansion in Calabasas, I want whatever their creativity is to be unlocked and unleashed so that 15 years later or 20 years later they’re… following their dreams and bringing more creativity to the world.
“We need that hope. We need that fresh eyes on things. We need fresh minds to approach things, you know, to approach life. Or maybe it’s even the politics of how this whole thing works. Or how maybe they’re not living the life, the real life they should be living. Maybe something in there touches someone, and that’s the greatest hope for me.”
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