To mark the 250th anniversary of the United States, we’re cataloging 25 objects that define the country’s history.
Just over 50 years ago, “The Wiz” premiered on Broadway.
The musical reimagined a classic American story, “The Wizard of Oz,” as an all-Black production filled with gospel, funk and soul music. Now, some of the show’s most striking costumes from designer Geoffrey Holder are a part of a collection at the Smithsonian Institution.
Here & Now’s Robin Young spoke with Dwandalyn Reece, associate director for the Humanities at the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, about one of the show’s most dazzling outfits worn by “The Wiz” himself: Emmy, Grammy and Tony Award winner André De Shields.
4 questions with Dwandalyn Reece
You could almost draw a line from this costume to ‘Black Panther.’ Could you describe it?
“It is a one-piece jumpsuit and a voluminous cape, which is cream white on the outside with red lining on the inside. And it looks like someone getting ready to fly. It’s got the goggles and it just fits flatly over your head. And it has that futuristic look that ties to the concept of Afrofuturism, which was really exploding in the 1970s.”
What did André De Shields bring to this role?
“He kind of tells the story himself when he auditioned for the part. He said the original concept was to have a character similar to the character that Frank Morgan played in the 1939 film, ‘The Wizard of Oz.’ But De Shields said he didn’t see the character that way, and so when he auditioned for the part, he said he had these platform shoes, blue hot pants and a red top that said, ‘love’ all over it.
“His idea was that the conception of the character really had to match the music. There’s gospel, there’s R&B and there’s funk. And so his very sense of it is that that character was super-human.
“And it’s also a product of its time. In the 1970s, things are becoming more integrated. There are more opportunities for people. Just in this case, for André De Shields, this was his first major Broadway role. And André De Shields is also a gay man. And I think he was bringing all of that to play in conceiving this character as a way of announcing himself.”
The collection also has the Tin Man’s costume. Tell us about that.
“It’s silver, but it’s accentuated by household objects – pots, pans, a skillet – things that you have in everyday life. Also, Geoffrey Holder is from the Caribbean, and so he had those sensibilities of his own heritage. So it’s not only a show about Black America at the time, but it’s also a show about the African diaspora.”
At your museum, what’s it like when visitors come across these symbols of the stage?
“I think there is some kind of immediate recognition, I think particularly for people born after ‘The Wiz’ came out. We’ve had so many reincarnations in the last 10 years or so, so it’s not a show that has been forgotten, but I think it reminds our visitors that these kinds of themes that André De Shields was trying to address in his own characterization have lasted across time.
“So visitors can reflect on the continuities and take pride in the way that Black artists have managed to change their identity or talk about their identities in ways that are embraced by the entire culture.”
This interview was edited for clarity.
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Will Walkey produced and edited this interview for broadcast with Catherine Welch. Walkey also produced it for the web.
This article was originally published on WBUR.org.
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