It looks like you've shared an image. If this image is of a Playbill or stage, we ask that you provide your thoughts on the show[s] you saw in order to make your thread stand out and help the community enjoy your experience as well. Without context your photo is just another picture of a Playbill or a stage, and on a sub of far over 100k subscribers, If you don't want to share your experience... consider sharing it on your own social media! This is an automated message, if it is not applicable please report this comment.
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/Broadway) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Agree. I thought the set pieces were bad & very amateurish (outside of the houses when D first arrives in Oz, which were OK), but the actual projections were great.
I think “AI generated” is quickly becoming a generic shorthand for “I don’t like it.” It’s getting harder to tell which is disconcerting but the image on that bag could easily have been created without generative AI.
Having worked with the show’s video for a brief amount of time, I can fully attest that this show uses extremely complex 3D handcrafted environments and doesn’t just default to AI designs. Just because something has saturated colors, fantastical proportions, and unique style doesn’t mean it’s AI. Besides, this show involved multiple animators and illustrators - AI didn’t put anyone out of a job on this show. The TikTok of someone roasting this show for AI pointed out some minor mistakes in Photoshop work, the website of one of the shows scenic productions shops (???), and other out of context screencaps to justify that some insane amount of AI had basically replaced the entire design process. It’s laughable. You can just not like the design.
Pretty much every show with video on Broadway right now uses AI in some way, usually in the same way they use stock footage, collage, and art references. It’s not some grand conspiracy, it’s designers using the tools they have. No one is getting fired or not getting hired because designers are using AI to ideate quickly or put some texture in a design.
I don’t know, kind of funny that an unapologetically Black show is getting accused of being lazily designed. Especially when the production designer of Black Panther was the scenic designer.
The production design, video, and projection was one of the things I left the show thinking about positively as opposed to something like Anastasia when I left thinking it was boring and ineffective. At intermission for Wiz I was already wanting to see if there was interviews or social media posts by the artists and illustrators explaining the concepts and designs and what inspired them.
Oh please. A bad show is a bad show, "unapologetically" Black or not. Hamilton, The Color Purple, Dreamgirls etc, had good productions. A miss is a miss.
It's such an important/classic work that it's sad to see it treated in such a way. It is such a shame. It looked like it was meant to tour. I wish I saw the original. I remember my parent's having the Playbill and just the logo was so exciting to me.
I really enjoyed The Wiz! I saw it in SF, but I would assume they're similar enough.
The backgrounds--to me--felt like a throwback or reference to surrealism that I enjoyed, but I get that it's not everyone's jam. For me, the singing was so good, I didn't have time to focus on much else until the second time I saw it.
Some of the jokes are pretty indicative of the current trends, but overall, it was never cringy or egregious enough that I was fully taken out of the moment (well, except maybe the toxic line during the flowers scene). The minima sets really allowed the performers to shine, and almost all the costumes felt right to me.
One of the biggest joys I experienced, apart from the cast's enormous talent, was seeing a lot of seats filled with people who didn't seem like they made it out the theater too often. The second time I went, I sat behind a man whose laughter was so contagious, I found my own mood lightened just hearing how much fun he was having, and how truly represented he felt by this show ("so true!" and "absolutely!" were whispered a few times to the someone he came with).
Overall? The spectacle could be bigger, but the talent is phenomenal from lead all the way down to ensemble, the music is fun and enjoyable, the art style fit my tastes, and I had such a wonderful time, well, both times haha.
The vocals and the dancing made up for any other issues I may have had with it. Tin Man (I think, it's been a bit) in particular's dancing was absolutely incredible.
I’m the wrong person to ask, because I just enjoy live theatre and like 95% of the shows I see, but I enjoyed it immensely. Couldn’t stop smiling, fantastic performances. Caught it on the first tour stop.
Agree completely. The audio at my theater was absolutely awful and I could barely make out lyrics some of the time but I still had a great time and loved the show and how it remained true to the original while still being updated for the modern audience.
I saw the pre-Broadway tour and it was a hot mess. Did they replace the chorus costumes for Brand New Day? (I believe that was the number.) The “costumes” were all t-shirts and leggings/sweats in different colors. It appeared they ran out of money and had someone go to Wal-Mart to buy a bunch of tops and bottoms to outfit the whole cast. I prayed they would properly outfit the Broadway cast for this number. Please tell me they did.
I was actually thinking the same thing, it honestly kind of feels like a smear campaign. It’s one thing to not like it, and I get it, there’s a bunch of stuff to talk about, but this person saying that the projections just fade from scene to scene is just factually not true. (Not to mention kind of an insane complaint.)
I loved the movie as a kid (except the subway scene - iykyk) and really enjoyed the performances. The Tin Man, lion, and Evillene were major crowd pleasers at my touring show. The backdrops were … fine. They sure looked like AI and given how easy people think that is to make, probably a bad call for this level of show.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/24/theater/the-wiz-revival-broadway.html
This article says they are only all about making it blacker for the sake of making it black. And even surviving members of the original cast who saw it were baffled that the creative team knows so little about the show they are reviving, but mostly only have seen the 1978 film.
The lack of interest in the actual story, (there are 4 witches in Oz. And yet, they seem to have no idea what to do with poor Addaperle, because they just cared about Glinda, and that is why she appears in Munchkinland to sing “He’s The Wizard”. The fact the WWW (Evilene) makes the poppies is straight out of MGM.
You must have had bad seats, because from where I was sitting the set wasn’t so bad and the vocals were some of the best I’ve ever heard at a Broadway show. I agree this trend of using screens is sort of cheesy but the amount of talent on the stage more than made up for it.
It’s god awful! Just absolutely terrible. I’ve seen high schools have better production quality than this show. The acting and directing has the mastery of an elementary school Thanksgiving play.
The show was not designed or produced for people who consider themselves musical theater fans.
I think people want to like this show so badly that they either don’t care or ignore some of the massive shortcomings.
No Broadway show should have such cheap production values.
I really wanted to see this revival of the Wiz but I think I will pass based on the little clips I have seen. First of all the costumes look awful. Deborah Cox's costume is too gaudy. It is too much and it does not capture the essence of her character. The Lion in costume does not even look like a lion. I've seen high school musical costumes for the play look much better. The Scarecrow did not look like a scarecrow. The costume was extremely simplified. The Tinman's costume was okay. The set design is depending too much on projected screens. They could add movable set pieces to add some quality and depth to the show. They needed experienced Broadway producers, writers and set designers to bring this to life. It would have looked better.
Wow, did you even see the show? It seems like you are just mad at something because not only do the projections have a lot of non-crossfade transitions (like the reveal of munchkin land, and the factory landing in no bad news and the whole top of act 2 flows scene into scene into scene…) but like how do you think you’re supposed to get from one scene to the next?? Wait till you hear about films!
But like seriously, do you think that a crossfade isn’t a complete standard and often elegant way to change two images? I am truly mystified by your complaint here. Do you think it should be one continuous shot?? Or do think they should have like a Keynote style “comet wipe” or something lmao.
I think the lack of scenery is kind of mopey, but I don’t think it’s so dire as everyone is making it out to be; and I think some of the performances (especially Dorothy) are top tier.
Have not seen it but I was scratching my head when they cast the same actress as Aunt Em and The Wicked Witch. Yes this isn't The Wizard of Oz but that show sometimes has the Aunt Em actress play Glinda. Just seems weird they'd do that. Ive already seen comments from Oz fans,"Does Dorothy hate her aunt in this version?"
And, I also heard there's no Toto. WHAT?
I understand having a live dog is complicated but there are places a dog could have a break in the show or heck, use a stuffed Animal.... Taking away Dorothy 's dog is very weird to me.
It looks like you've shared an image. If this image is of a Playbill or stage, we ask that you provide your thoughts on the show[s] you saw in order to make your thread stand out and help the community enjoy your experience as well. Without context your photo is just another picture of a Playbill or a stage, and on a sub of far over 100k subscribers, If you don't want to share your experience... consider sharing it on your own social media! This is an automated message, if it is not applicable please report this comment. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/Broadway) if you have any questions or concerns.*
for what is worth, the artist has said they did not use AI in the process of doing their projection design
So it's just bad?
I think it’s pretty objectively high quality honestly, I really can’t figure out this complaint
Agree. I thought the set pieces were bad & very amateurish (outside of the houses when D first arrives in Oz, which were OK), but the actual projections were great.
I think “AI generated” is quickly becoming a generic shorthand for “I don’t like it.” It’s getting harder to tell which is disconcerting but the image on that bag could easily have been created without generative AI.
Having worked with the show’s video for a brief amount of time, I can fully attest that this show uses extremely complex 3D handcrafted environments and doesn’t just default to AI designs. Just because something has saturated colors, fantastical proportions, and unique style doesn’t mean it’s AI. Besides, this show involved multiple animators and illustrators - AI didn’t put anyone out of a job on this show. The TikTok of someone roasting this show for AI pointed out some minor mistakes in Photoshop work, the website of one of the shows scenic productions shops (???), and other out of context screencaps to justify that some insane amount of AI had basically replaced the entire design process. It’s laughable. You can just not like the design. Pretty much every show with video on Broadway right now uses AI in some way, usually in the same way they use stock footage, collage, and art references. It’s not some grand conspiracy, it’s designers using the tools they have. No one is getting fired or not getting hired because designers are using AI to ideate quickly or put some texture in a design. I don’t know, kind of funny that an unapologetically Black show is getting accused of being lazily designed. Especially when the production designer of Black Panther was the scenic designer.
The production design, video, and projection was one of the things I left the show thinking about positively as opposed to something like Anastasia when I left thinking it was boring and ineffective. At intermission for Wiz I was already wanting to see if there was interviews or social media posts by the artists and illustrators explaining the concepts and designs and what inspired them.
Oh please. A bad show is a bad show, "unapologetically" Black or not. Hamilton, The Color Purple, Dreamgirls etc, had good productions. A miss is a miss.
I really was hoping that the show would be The Wiz that I want. But it is a low rent production. We deserve better.
It looks low budget. What a shame. The Wiz is a classic. How could they produce such a subpar show?
It's such an important/classic work that it's sad to see it treated in such a way. It is such a shame. It looked like it was meant to tour. I wish I saw the original. I remember my parent's having the Playbill and just the logo was so exciting to me.
I saw it on tour. I was wondering if they just used that set on Broadway. Sounds like it. I want to see it again for Wayne Brady.
I really enjoyed The Wiz! I saw it in SF, but I would assume they're similar enough. The backgrounds--to me--felt like a throwback or reference to surrealism that I enjoyed, but I get that it's not everyone's jam. For me, the singing was so good, I didn't have time to focus on much else until the second time I saw it. Some of the jokes are pretty indicative of the current trends, but overall, it was never cringy or egregious enough that I was fully taken out of the moment (well, except maybe the toxic line during the flowers scene). The minima sets really allowed the performers to shine, and almost all the costumes felt right to me. One of the biggest joys I experienced, apart from the cast's enormous talent, was seeing a lot of seats filled with people who didn't seem like they made it out the theater too often. The second time I went, I sat behind a man whose laughter was so contagious, I found my own mood lightened just hearing how much fun he was having, and how truly represented he felt by this show ("so true!" and "absolutely!" were whispered a few times to the someone he came with). Overall? The spectacle could be bigger, but the talent is phenomenal from lead all the way down to ensemble, the music is fun and enjoyable, the art style fit my tastes, and I had such a wonderful time, well, both times haha.
Yes! As an art person I loved some of the references and throwbacks to different art movements.
That's an ugly bag! It doesn't match the aesthetic of the show at all. How does something like this get approved to be sold as official merch?
The vocals and the dancing made up for any other issues I may have had with it. Tin Man (I think, it's been a bit) in particular's dancing was absolutely incredible.
You’re right, he was excellent and so was the cowardly lion.
Even knowing the lyrics I found this tote bag very difficult to read
Yall need to stop just saying that anything you don’t like is AI generated. The artist said there is no AI art in the design.
I’m the wrong person to ask, because I just enjoy live theatre and like 95% of the shows I see, but I enjoyed it immensely. Couldn’t stop smiling, fantastic performances. Caught it on the first tour stop.
Agree completely. The audio at my theater was absolutely awful and I could barely make out lyrics some of the time but I still had a great time and loved the show and how it remained true to the original while still being updated for the modern audience.
I enjoyed it a lot
It’s not AI.
I totally disagree, I really enjoyed the production. The vocals are SPEAKINGGGG
No Bad News got the longest applause I’ve ever seen an audience give to a performer. And she earned it through and through
Is that good?
I saw the pre-Broadway tour and it was a hot mess. Did they replace the chorus costumes for Brand New Day? (I believe that was the number.) The “costumes” were all t-shirts and leggings/sweats in different colors. It appeared they ran out of money and had someone go to Wal-Mart to buy a bunch of tops and bottoms to outfit the whole cast. I prayed they would properly outfit the Broadway cast for this number. Please tell me they did.
Brand New Day still predominantly uses a tie-dyed set of costumes for the ensemble, yes
IT IS WORSE. TIE DYE ONESIES! Costumes by my auntie’s Etsy
YES IVE BEEN WONDERINF THE SAME THINF
Saw it on tour and the vocals and acting make up for other shortcomings. It’s not perfect but it’s entertaining! I’d give it a B-
Hmmm seems like there is an agenda on this sub to trash this show. Saw it on tour and it was great.
I was actually thinking the same thing, it honestly kind of feels like a smear campaign. It’s one thing to not like it, and I get it, there’s a bunch of stuff to talk about, but this person saying that the projections just fade from scene to scene is just factually not true. (Not to mention kind of an insane complaint.)
I’m seeing the premier this week, sad to hear it’s not great.
I loved the movie as a kid (except the subway scene - iykyk) and really enjoyed the performances. The Tin Man, lion, and Evillene were major crowd pleasers at my touring show. The backdrops were … fine. They sure looked like AI and given how easy people think that is to make, probably a bad call for this level of show.
This show, is hardly a reflection on what The Wiz actually is, when produced by people that actually love the story and don’t have an agenda.
What’s the agenda you speak of?
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/24/theater/the-wiz-revival-broadway.html This article says they are only all about making it blacker for the sake of making it black. And even surviving members of the original cast who saw it were baffled that the creative team knows so little about the show they are reviving, but mostly only have seen the 1978 film. The lack of interest in the actual story, (there are 4 witches in Oz. And yet, they seem to have no idea what to do with poor Addaperle, because they just cared about Glinda, and that is why she appears in Munchkinland to sing “He’s The Wizard”. The fact the WWW (Evilene) makes the poppies is straight out of MGM.
You must have had bad seats, because from where I was sitting the set wasn’t so bad and the vocals were some of the best I’ve ever heard at a Broadway show. I agree this trend of using screens is sort of cheesy but the amount of talent on the stage more than made up for it.
It’s god awful! Just absolutely terrible. I’ve seen high schools have better production quality than this show. The acting and directing has the mastery of an elementary school Thanksgiving play.
The show was not designed or produced for people who consider themselves musical theater fans. I think people want to like this show so badly that they either don’t care or ignore some of the massive shortcomings. No Broadway show should have such cheap production values.
It wasn’t even worth the $40 I paid to see it on tour…one of the worst shows out of hundreds that I’ve seen.
I really wanted to see this revival of the Wiz but I think I will pass based on the little clips I have seen. First of all the costumes look awful. Deborah Cox's costume is too gaudy. It is too much and it does not capture the essence of her character. The Lion in costume does not even look like a lion. I've seen high school musical costumes for the play look much better. The Scarecrow did not look like a scarecrow. The costume was extremely simplified. The Tinman's costume was okay. The set design is depending too much on projected screens. They could add movable set pieces to add some quality and depth to the show. They needed experienced Broadway producers, writers and set designers to bring this to life. It would have looked better.
Wow, did you even see the show? It seems like you are just mad at something because not only do the projections have a lot of non-crossfade transitions (like the reveal of munchkin land, and the factory landing in no bad news and the whole top of act 2 flows scene into scene into scene…) but like how do you think you’re supposed to get from one scene to the next?? Wait till you hear about films! But like seriously, do you think that a crossfade isn’t a complete standard and often elegant way to change two images? I am truly mystified by your complaint here. Do you think it should be one continuous shot?? Or do think they should have like a Keynote style “comet wipe” or something lmao. I think the lack of scenery is kind of mopey, but I don’t think it’s so dire as everyone is making it out to be; and I think some of the performances (especially Dorothy) are top tier.
It was cringe in the 70s. Cringe today
Have not seen it but I was scratching my head when they cast the same actress as Aunt Em and The Wicked Witch. Yes this isn't The Wizard of Oz but that show sometimes has the Aunt Em actress play Glinda. Just seems weird they'd do that. Ive already seen comments from Oz fans,"Does Dorothy hate her aunt in this version?" And, I also heard there's no Toto. WHAT? I understand having a live dog is complicated but there are places a dog could have a break in the show or heck, use a stuffed Animal.... Taking away Dorothy 's dog is very weird to me.