Kokandy Products Presents THE WIZ, a soultrain to Oz

Hop onboard the yellow brick road to Oz, paved with catchy music from Gospel to Soul to rock (Jimmy Morehead, Music Director), kitschy costumes that totally charm (Virginia Varland, Costume Designer), Broadway style dance moves galore that sometimes wink at you with the likes of minuet moments and square dance doh-see-dohs (Breon Arzell, Choreographer), and so many golden chords that you meet your inner musical Midas.

The journey starts at an imagined Southside project called Kansas, replete with a metal chain basketball hoop, graffiti and every type sidewalk scene and street character you can imagine.

Overflowing with Talent- a Kokandy Productions trademark

Primed as you now are for a good time, soon Gilbert Domally as the Scarecrow begins to sing and dance the WOW! and fun ratchets up even higher. You too may find yourself a tad disappointed at the conclusion of The Wiz that Domally’s part isn’t larger to help shine a light on his triple threat talent.

But the talent show continues as singer-actor star after singer-actor star joins wide-eyed Dorothy on her journey. Steven Perkins sings the soulful Tinman and Chuckie Benson‘s Lion has a different more classical voice and add just the right tail-clutching fear to make his funniest of funny lines about his owl psychiatrist into a hoot you will carry with you out the theater door forever.

Ensemble Rocks

How fun too that the singing and dancing ensemble comes in all sizes and shapes and elastically transforms from people in the ‘hood, to cyclone simulating ballet, to monkeys, to poppy purveyors,to shaded Emerald City hipsters and more (Breon Arzell, Kyrie Courter, TJ Crawford, Desmond Gray, Jyreika Evelyn Guest, De’Jah Perkins, Tia Pinson, and Michael Rawls).

The entire cast HAS to be noted because this production shows that they are talents all.

While many a musical production in the Belmont Theater District get their sizzle by bringing big Broadway scale productions down to almost touch them theater size, The Wiz might be a bit stifled in this small theater environs. The talent in this production is so super-sized it could easily hold court in Soldier Field.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

Note: An excerpt of this review appears in Theatre in Chicago.

About the Author: Amy Munice

Amy Munice is Editor-in-Chief and Co-Publisher of Picture This Post. She covers books, dance, film, theater, music, museums and travel. Prior to founding Picture This Post, Amy was a freelance writer and global PR specialist for decades—writing and ghostwriting thousands of articles and promotional communications on a wide range of technical and not-so-technical topics.

Amy hopes the magazine’s click-a-picture-to-read-a-vivid-account format will nourish those ever hunting for under-discovered cultural treasures. She especially loves writing articles about travel finds, showcasing works by cultural warriors of a progressive bent, and shining a light on bold, creative strokes by fledgling artists in all genres.

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