December 8, 2023 • 14 mins
Join DMPA President and CEO, Jeff Chelesvig, as he visits with The Wiz director, Schele Williams. Listen as the Broadway powerhouse shares her personal connections to this iconic musical, the benefits of going on tour before opening on Broadway, and what she hopes audiences take away from The Wiz. Learn more and get tickets at DMPA.org
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Episode Transcript
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(00:04):
Hello. I'm Jeff Chelswig, Presidentand CEO of Dwaine Performing Arts, and
I'm delighted to bring you this specialbroadcast in conjunction with our Willis Broadway series
engagement of The Wiz. We lookforward to presenting more podcasts like this to
give you an insider's perspective on thefantastic Broadway shows headed to the Civic Center,
and today I am very pleased tospeak with Shelley Williams, who is
(00:26):
the director of the pre Broadway tourof The Whiz. First of all,
(00:51):
thank you so much for taking thetime today. I think you are one
of the busiest people on Broadway rightnow because you don't have one show opening
on Broadway. You have two showsopening on Broadway this season, and we're
so happy to be a part ofboth of those as investors in both of
those shows, The Whiz, whichwill be opening first, and then The
Notebook. It's pretty incredible. Ifeel like all of my Christmas wishes have
(01:15):
come true all at once. Let'sstart with the excitement. I think this
is only the third time in ourforty five year history that a show has
played at the Civic Center before itgoes to Broadway. So we are one
of thirteen cities that get to seethis show in advance of this, tell
me a little bit about how youdecided to do this show on the road
(01:37):
first. It's an incredible model,and it's a model that Broadway shows used
to do many many years ago,before they started going from not for profit
theaters into Broadway. They would actuallygo to a number of cities across the
country. It's a model that Ilove because on a show like this that
is you know, I believe universallybeloved the story of the Wizard of Oz.
(02:00):
It's been a part of our livessince what the nineteen twenties, right.
It was very important to me thatwe met this new production to audiences
across the country so that we couldfeel what audience has felt and we could
continue to develop this show before webrought it to Broadway. It was important
(02:20):
for it to get to the heartland. I'm an Ohio girl. I wanted
to make sure that it felt likea piece that was a part of all
of us. So that first productionopened in nineteen seventy five on Broadway,
and I don't know that people realizedit was a huge deal. I mean
this is a show that ran forone thousand, six hundred and seventy two
(02:42):
performances almost four years on Broadway.It won seven Tony Awards, including Best
Musical. And I just looked thisup. It's interesting. Of all the
thousands of shows on Broadway, thisis number forty seven in the list of
longest running shows. It's tied withdeer Ivan Hanson. So tell me about
the first time that you have anyrecollection about The Whiz. Oh, my
(03:04):
goodness. I saw the show inNovember of I believe, nineteen seventy eight
in Dayton, Ohio when it wason national tour, and I never forgot
it. You know. I sawthe show with my mother and it was
absolutely extraordinary. I had never seenmusic like that on stage before, and
we saw the touring productions, butit was the first time I felt like
(03:27):
I saw myself on stage, andthat was I've never forgotten it. I
mean, I think it's probably noaccident that I'm in theater today because of
the impact The Whiz had on me. And then I had a second,
really impactful moment where I played Dorothyin The Whiz my senior year of high
school. And so you know,this is now my third time around with
this show, and hopefully the thirdtime is the child. Well it is,
(03:52):
as you said, it's a muchbeloved show. Let's talk about this
production because this has such an extraordinarycreative team, led by you. And
one of the things that I findfascinating is the book of the show.
The script has been rewritten by AmberRuffin, who is represented right now on
Broadway with Some Like It Hot,which is so much fun. Yes,
(04:16):
and I love the humor in thatshow. But tell me about working with
Amber on this. Amber's the best. Amber is so funny and so joyful,
and she is she's incredibly smart.I mean, she's a late night
writer, so every single day she'son top of all the breaking news.
She's on top of culture in suchan incredible way, and she's very,
(04:42):
very quick. It was such ajoy for me to work on a show
like this which is full of joy, and to infuse it with humor and
all of these moments where we cansee ourselves, the many versions of ourselves
in so many ways and smile,and it was great. We did a
lot of laughing in the room.I mean, for every great joke that's
(05:05):
in this show, there's about fortythat didn't make it, and we did
a lot a lot of laughing duringthe process of making this show. That's
fantastic. Tell us a little moreabout the rest of the creative team.
Oh. The music is led byJoseph Jobert and Alan Brene Lewis, And
the one thing that we wanted todo with the show. The score is
(05:27):
incredible and you know, always hasbeen, has had a tremendous effect on
so many people because of this beautifulmusic. It was pretty deeply entrenched in
the seventies, and so the challengethat I gave to Joseph and Allen is
how can we make this score timelessand how do we allow it to continue
to reflect all the many ways thatblack culture has had an effect on music.
(05:53):
What are all the different musical stylesthat we can nod to throughout this
piece. So we feel like we'regoinging on a bit of a journey.
So no matter what year the Whizor the Wizard of Oz came into your
life, we can kind of nodto that in our musical references. The
choreography is by Jaquelle Knight, whohas had just you know, an unbelievable
(06:15):
effect on culture with his incredible choreographyfor Beyonce and Megan the Stallion, and
you know, the list goes onand on and on, and so I
knew that he would be able tomake us want to dance in our seats,
and he certainly has been able todo that. The set by Hannah
Bieckler is incredible. When I firstthought about what this world should look like
(06:39):
and all of the details that Iwanted it to have, there's no one
that I thought could capture that betterthan Hannah. We're both Dayton, Ohio
girls, were the same age,we grew up with the same influences,
and when I saw her work inthe Black Panther, I really did recognize
an extraordinary, thoughtful, detailed artist, and I was excited to see if
(07:00):
I could woo her to the Americanstage to bring her genius to the stage.
And her partnership on this with DanielBrodie, our projection designer, I
think, has been so seamless andbeautiful and thoughtful to create a world that
is both fantastical and extraordinarily real atthe same time. Sharon Davis has done
(07:24):
the costume design, and she herselfwas a two time Academy Award nominee and
a multi Emmy winner. She's toldstories with wardrobes so beautifully on screen,
but her first love with theater,so it was great to bring her back
to the theater. And Chuckle Pointdid our wigs, and Kurt Depeche has
(07:46):
done our incredible makeup. I mean, has really really been a joy.
The entire team has been a joy. I can't wait to see it.
I have not seen this production yet, so I'll be seeing it for the
first time when it comes to DesMoines. Can you tell us a little
bit about what you've learned along theway on the road since you started in
Baltimore with the show. Well,we've learned a lot about the piece,
(08:07):
you know. It's what's great abouthaving a long runway to come to New
York is you have the ability toput the show up and even I don't
think there's ever been a show that'sever been brought to the stage where a
director thought I did everything I wantedto do, Like at some point,
you're always leaving money on the table, just run out of time. So
there were things that I knew assoon as we open, I was like,
(08:28):
ah, I want to finish this, but there's things that I've discovered,
but just having a little bit moredistance and time and perspective to be
able to say, huh, here'san opportunity to reinvestigate this moment. You
know. I was just with thecreative team. We were all in Los
Angeles together, and we were allthinking about the show very critically, about
(08:50):
things that we feel like the waysthat we can continue to grow this story.
So I'm really excited about the journeywe can continue to take with it
before where we do we get toNew York. Very exciting for us to
be able to see the show beforeBroadway audiences see it. And everything I've
heard from other presenters on the roadis that the audience just loves the show,
(09:13):
and the sales are strong. They'restrong here. We're blessed to have
over thirteen thousand season ticket holders thatare all really anxious to see this show.
So we promise that we're going totake good care of your company when
they're here. What's kind of likeyour favorite moment in the show? You
know, my favorite moment of theshow actually is not something that happens on
stage. It's actually something that hashappened in the audience for me. This
(09:37):
show is so joyful. And thething that I guess I just didn't think
about when we were doing the showis that it would really be intergenerational.
I have seen three generations grandparents,parents, and children attend the show together
and having them all laugh at momentsthat are the same and then laugh at
(09:58):
different moments. I got to itsthe show with my parents and then I
was there with my nephew, andI'm like, here we are, three
generations sitting together. I was ina car going to the theater and the
producer and I were talking about thebows. We were working on the bows
that they were in previews, andI was talking about like, you know,
who should go first, and maybewe'll do this, and I,
(10:18):
you know, said scarecrow reliant.You know, I'm throwing around, obviously,
terms that are only used in TheWIZ. And we're in Baltimore,
so it didn't take much for thecar to ever say you say, hey,
are you working on the WIZ AndI was like, oh, yes,
i am, and he said,you know, my mom took me
to see the show when I waslittle, and next week I'm bringing my
(10:39):
mother to the show. And itjust hit me in the heart. You
know that that's something that I didnot think about when we were building the
show, and I love that somuch. And it's so great to hear
people laugh again, I mean reallylaugh, Toget and people leave the show
(11:01):
so happy. And if there's evera time that I thought we needed joy,
it is in this moment. Andso I'm really I feel so blessed
and so grateful to bring some joyinto the world through art. And so
that's been like the biggest surprise forme is not only how much we all
(11:24):
needed it, but how much weall needed it together. Oh boy,
Wow, that is a great story, and I totally agree with you.
I just want to share something that'sreally I find interesting. We have the
Iowa High School Musical Theater Awards,is a program that we do here that
feeds into the Jimmy Awards into NewYork, which I've coached many times.
Yes, yes, yes, yes, And last year we had as our
(11:48):
host here in Des Moines Lilius White, who you may have seen in the
tour that you saw on Dayton mayhave been because she was an understudy for
Dorothy in the second tour, andthen she's went on to play Dorothy but
she ended the night singing the songBelieve in Yourself, and I still get
chills thinking about it. And now, of course Lilius is in Hadestown,
(12:11):
but I love the little circle thatwe have here that she was Dorothy and
the Wiz many many years ago,she was on our stage, and now
this new production is coming to DesMoines. So, Shelley, we're so
grateful for you being with us today. Anything else that you'd like to share
with our audience. Some people willbe listening to this before, some will
be listening after the show. Anythingyou'd like to share. I'll tell you
the one thing that I thought aboutvery consciously when we were building this show
(12:35):
is you know, whether it wasthe book that brought you to this beautiful
story, whether it was The Wizardof Oz, whether it was The Wiz
the stage production or The Wiz themovie, that it was important to me
to put touchstones of all of theversions in the show so that you could
come to this new version of theWiz. But know that your version is
(12:56):
here, It's embedded in it,and there is great beauty and memory and
belonging that is your own inside thispiece. So I'm grateful for this original
story that made us all believe thatwe belong somewhere and that there are people
that love us. With all ofour corps. You know, the theme
(13:16):
of the show is at the endof the day, there is great belonging
and that you matter, and thatyou determine exactly where you need to be
at the time that you need tobe. It. It's a timeless story
for a reason, and I'm sograteful to bring it to a new generation.
That is fabulous. Well, weare so anxious to see The Whiz
(13:39):
here at THEA Civic Center. ShelleyWilliams is the director of this revival of
The Whiz that we'll be playing aspart of the Willis Broadway Series and then
heading to New York. Thank you, Shelly for joining us today. You
are so welcome, Happy holiday andsane to you. Thank you, Thank
(14:03):
you for joining us with this specialconversation. To our donors too to Win
Performing Arts and the season ticket holdersto the Willis Broadway Series, thank you
for providing the foundation for all thegreat work we do here. We're able
to do it because of you.Visit DMPA dot org or wherever you get
your podcasts for conversations like this inthe future. Thanks so much,
Hello. I'm Jeff Chelswig, Presidentand CEO of Dwaine Performing Arts, and
I'm delighted to bring you this specialbroadcast in conjunction with our Willis Broadway series
engagement of The Wiz. We lookforward to presenting more podcasts like this to
give you an insider's perspective on thefantastic Broadway shows headed to the Civic Center,
and today I am very pleased tospeak with Shelley Williams, who is
(00:26):
the director of the pre Broadway tourof The Whiz. First of all,
(00:51):
thank you so much for taking thetime today. I think you are one
of the busiest people on Broadway rightnow because you don't have one show opening
on Broadway. You have two showsopening on Broadway this season, and we're
so happy to be a part ofboth of those as investors in both of
those shows, The Whiz, whichwill be opening first, and then The
Notebook. It's pretty incredible. Ifeel like all of my Christmas wishes have
(01:15):
come true all at once. Let'sstart with the excitement. I think this
is only the third time in ourforty five year history that a show has
played at the Civic Center before itgoes to Broadway. So we are one
of thirteen cities that get to seethis show in advance of this, tell
me a little bit about how youdecided to do this show on the road
(01:37):
first. It's an incredible model,and it's a model that Broadway shows used
to do many many years ago,before they started going from not for profit
theaters into Broadway. They would actuallygo to a number of cities across the
country. It's a model that Ilove because on a show like this that
is you know, I believe universallybeloved the story of the Wizard of Oz.
(02:00):
It's been a part of our livessince what the nineteen twenties, right.
It was very important to me thatwe met this new production to audiences
across the country so that we couldfeel what audience has felt and we could
continue to develop this show before webrought it to Broadway. It was important
(02:20):
for it to get to the heartland. I'm an Ohio girl. I wanted
to make sure that it felt likea piece that was a part of all
of us. So that first productionopened in nineteen seventy five on Broadway,
and I don't know that people realizedit was a huge deal. I mean
this is a show that ran forone thousand, six hundred and seventy two
(02:42):
performances almost four years on Broadway.It won seven Tony Awards, including Best
Musical. And I just looked thisup. It's interesting. Of all the
thousands of shows on Broadway, thisis number forty seven in the list of
longest running shows. It's tied withdeer Ivan Hanson. So tell me about
the first time that you have anyrecollection about The Whiz. Oh, my
(03:04):
goodness. I saw the show inNovember of I believe, nineteen seventy eight
in Dayton, Ohio when it wason national tour, and I never forgot
it. You know. I sawthe show with my mother and it was
absolutely extraordinary. I had never seenmusic like that on stage before, and
we saw the touring productions, butit was the first time I felt like
(03:27):
I saw myself on stage, andthat was I've never forgotten it. I
mean, I think it's probably noaccident that I'm in theater today because of
the impact The Whiz had on me. And then I had a second,
really impactful moment where I played Dorothyin The Whiz my senior year of high
school. And so you know,this is now my third time around with
this show, and hopefully the thirdtime is the child. Well it is,
(03:52):
as you said, it's a muchbeloved show. Let's talk about this
production because this has such an extraordinarycreative team, led by you. And
one of the things that I findfascinating is the book of the show.
The script has been rewritten by AmberRuffin, who is represented right now on
Broadway with Some Like It Hot,which is so much fun. Yes,
(04:16):
and I love the humor in thatshow. But tell me about working with
Amber on this. Amber's the best. Amber is so funny and so joyful,
and she is she's incredibly smart.I mean, she's a late night
writer, so every single day she'son top of all the breaking news.
She's on top of culture in suchan incredible way, and she's very,
(04:42):
very quick. It was such ajoy for me to work on a show
like this which is full of joy, and to infuse it with humor and
all of these moments where we cansee ourselves, the many versions of ourselves
in so many ways and smile,and it was great. We did a
lot of laughing in the room.I mean, for every great joke that's
(05:05):
in this show, there's about fortythat didn't make it, and we did
a lot a lot of laughing duringthe process of making this show. That's
fantastic. Tell us a little moreabout the rest of the creative team.
Oh. The music is led byJoseph Jobert and Alan Brene Lewis, And
the one thing that we wanted todo with the show. The score is
(05:27):
incredible and you know, always hasbeen, has had a tremendous effect on
so many people because of this beautifulmusic. It was pretty deeply entrenched in
the seventies, and so the challengethat I gave to Joseph and Allen is
how can we make this score timelessand how do we allow it to continue
to reflect all the many ways thatblack culture has had an effect on music.
(05:53):
What are all the different musical stylesthat we can nod to throughout this
piece. So we feel like we'regoinging on a bit of a journey.
So no matter what year the Whizor the Wizard of Oz came into your
life, we can kind of nodto that in our musical references. The
choreography is by Jaquelle Knight, whohas had just you know, an unbelievable
(06:15):
effect on culture with his incredible choreographyfor Beyonce and Megan the Stallion, and
you know, the list goes onand on and on, and so I
knew that he would be able tomake us want to dance in our seats,
and he certainly has been able todo that. The set by Hannah
Bieckler is incredible. When I firstthought about what this world should look like
(06:39):
and all of the details that Iwanted it to have, there's no one
that I thought could capture that betterthan Hannah. We're both Dayton, Ohio
girls, were the same age,we grew up with the same influences,
and when I saw her work inthe Black Panther, I really did recognize
an extraordinary, thoughtful, detailed artist, and I was excited to see if
(07:00):
I could woo her to the Americanstage to bring her genius to the stage.
And her partnership on this with DanielBrodie, our projection designer, I
think, has been so seamless andbeautiful and thoughtful to create a world that
is both fantastical and extraordinarily real atthe same time. Sharon Davis has done
(07:24):
the costume design, and she herselfwas a two time Academy Award nominee and
a multi Emmy winner. She's toldstories with wardrobes so beautifully on screen,
but her first love with theater,so it was great to bring her back
to the theater. And Chuckle Pointdid our wigs, and Kurt Depeche has
(07:46):
done our incredible makeup. I mean, has really really been a joy.
The entire team has been a joy. I can't wait to see it.
I have not seen this production yet, so I'll be seeing it for the
first time when it comes to DesMoines. Can you tell us a little
bit about what you've learned along theway on the road since you started in
Baltimore with the show. Well,we've learned a lot about the piece,
(08:07):
you know. It's what's great abouthaving a long runway to come to New
York is you have the ability toput the show up and even I don't
think there's ever been a show that'sever been brought to the stage where a
director thought I did everything I wantedto do, Like at some point,
you're always leaving money on the table, just run out of time. So
there were things that I knew assoon as we open, I was like,
(08:28):
ah, I want to finish this, but there's things that I've discovered,
but just having a little bit moredistance and time and perspective to be
able to say, huh, here'san opportunity to reinvestigate this moment. You
know. I was just with thecreative team. We were all in Los
Angeles together, and we were allthinking about the show very critically, about
(08:50):
things that we feel like the waysthat we can continue to grow this story.
So I'm really excited about the journeywe can continue to take with it
before where we do we get toNew York. Very exciting for us to
be able to see the show beforeBroadway audiences see it. And everything I've
heard from other presenters on the roadis that the audience just loves the show,
(09:13):
and the sales are strong. They'restrong here. We're blessed to have
over thirteen thousand season ticket holders thatare all really anxious to see this show.
So we promise that we're going totake good care of your company when
they're here. What's kind of likeyour favorite moment in the show? You
know, my favorite moment of theshow actually is not something that happens on
stage. It's actually something that hashappened in the audience for me. This
(09:37):
show is so joyful. And thething that I guess I just didn't think
about when we were doing the showis that it would really be intergenerational.
I have seen three generations grandparents,parents, and children attend the show together
and having them all laugh at momentsthat are the same and then laugh at
(09:58):
different moments. I got to itsthe show with my parents and then I
was there with my nephew, andI'm like, here we are, three
generations sitting together. I was ina car going to the theater and the
producer and I were talking about thebows. We were working on the bows
that they were in previews, andI was talking about like, you know,
who should go first, and maybewe'll do this, and I,
(10:18):
you know, said scarecrow reliant.You know, I'm throwing around, obviously,
terms that are only used in TheWIZ. And we're in Baltimore,
so it didn't take much for thecar to ever say you say, hey,
are you working on the WIZ AndI was like, oh, yes,
i am, and he said,you know, my mom took me
to see the show when I waslittle, and next week I'm bringing my
(10:39):
mother to the show. And itjust hit me in the heart. You
know that that's something that I didnot think about when we were building the
show, and I love that somuch. And it's so great to hear
people laugh again, I mean reallylaugh, Toget and people leave the show
(11:01):
so happy. And if there's evera time that I thought we needed joy,
it is in this moment. Andso I'm really I feel so blessed
and so grateful to bring some joyinto the world through art. And so
that's been like the biggest surprise forme is not only how much we all
(11:24):
needed it, but how much weall needed it together. Oh boy,
Wow, that is a great story, and I totally agree with you.
I just want to share something that'sreally I find interesting. We have the
Iowa High School Musical Theater Awards,is a program that we do here that
feeds into the Jimmy Awards into NewYork, which I've coached many times.
Yes, yes, yes, yes, And last year we had as our
(11:48):
host here in Des Moines Lilius White, who you may have seen in the
tour that you saw on Dayton mayhave been because she was an understudy for
Dorothy in the second tour, andthen she's went on to play Dorothy but
she ended the night singing the songBelieve in Yourself, and I still get
chills thinking about it. And now, of course Lilius is in Hadestown,
(12:11):
but I love the little circle thatwe have here that she was Dorothy and
the Wiz many many years ago,she was on our stage, and now
this new production is coming to DesMoines. So, Shelley, we're so
grateful for you being with us today. Anything else that you'd like to share
with our audience. Some people willbe listening to this before, some will
be listening after the show. Anythingyou'd like to share. I'll tell you
the one thing that I thought aboutvery consciously when we were building this show
(12:35):
is you know, whether it wasthe book that brought you to this beautiful
story, whether it was The Wizardof Oz, whether it was The Wiz
the stage production or The Wiz themovie, that it was important to me
to put touchstones of all of theversions in the show so that you could
come to this new version of theWiz. But know that your version is
(12:56):
here, It's embedded in it,and there is great beauty and memory and
belonging that is your own inside thispiece. So I'm grateful for this original
story that made us all believe thatwe belong somewhere and that there are people
that love us. With all ofour corps. You know, the theme
(13:16):
of the show is at the endof the day, there is great belonging
and that you matter, and thatyou determine exactly where you need to be
at the time that you need tobe. It. It's a timeless story
for a reason, and I'm sograteful to bring it to a new generation.
That is fabulous. Well, weare so anxious to see The Whiz
(13:39):
here at THEA Civic Center. ShelleyWilliams is the director of this revival of
The Whiz that we'll be playing aspart of the Willis Broadway Series and then
heading to New York. Thank you, Shelly for joining us today. You
are so welcome, Happy holiday andsane to you. Thank you, Thank
(14:03):
you for joining us with this specialconversation. To our donors too to Win
Performing Arts and the season ticket holdersto the Willis Broadway Series, thank you
for providing the foundation for all thegreat work we do here. We're able
to do it because of you.Visit DMPA dot org or wherever you get
your podcasts for conversations like this inthe future. Thanks so much,
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