LaChanze, Orlando Jones Join Complete Cast of The Wiz
Tony Award winner LaChanze will play Glinda and comic actor Orlando Jones will play the title role in the forthcoming Encores! Summer Stars production of The Wiz. Starring the previously announced Ashanti as Dorothy, the show will run June 12-July 5 at New York City Center, directed by Thomas Kail. Opening night has been set for June 18.
In addition to Ashanti, LaChanze and Jone, the cast of The Wiz includes Tichina Arnold Everybody Hates Chris, Big Momma’s House as Evillene, Dawnn Lewis How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying, TV’s A Different World as Addaperle, Joshua Henry In the Heights as the Tinman, James Monroe Iglehart The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee as the Lion and Christian White Hairspray national tour as the Scarecrow.
Completing the cast will be Raymond Bennett, Tanya Birl, Darlesia Cearcy, Asmeret Ghebremichael, Angela Grovey, Ebony Haswell, Lauren Lim Jackson, Carl Lation, Maurice Lauchner, Jennifer Locke, Amy McClendon, Kenna Morris, John Eric Parker, Herman Payne, Ryan Rankine, Levensky Smith, Ephraim Sykes, Adrienne Warren, Daniel J. Watts, Juson Williams and Will Wingfield.
The Wiz is an adaptation of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum, told from the African-American perspective. Featuring a book by William F. Brown and music and lyrics by Charlie Smalls, the original Broadway production opened at the Majestic Theatre on January 5, 1975, moved to the Broadway Theater on May 25, 1977, and ran for a total of 1,672 performances. The Wiz won seven 1975 Tony Awards including Best Musical.
LaChanze, a Tony winner for The Color Purple, recently appeared in the play Inked Baby at Playwrights Horizons. She made her Broadway debut in Uptown...It’s Hot! and was part of the first international tour of Dreamgirls. Her other New York theater credits include a Tony-nominated performance in Once on This Island, Company, Dessa Rose, The Bubbly Black Girl Sheds Her Chameleon Skin and The Vagina Monologues. LaChanze starred in the Encores! production of Out of This World.
Jones appeared onstage in the Pasadena Playhouse production of August Wilson’s Fences. His many film credits include Liberty Heights. Other film credits include Biker Boyz, The Time Machine, Bedazzled, Say It Isn’t So, Double Take, Magnolia, New Jersey Turnpikes and Primeval. His TV credits include The Evidence, The Adventures of Chico & Guapo and MADtv and writing credits for Roc Live and Sinbad.
The Wiz will feature choreography by Andy Blankenbuehler, music direction by Alex Lacamoire, sets by David Korins, costumes by Paul Tazewell, lighting by Ken Billington and sound by ACME Sound Partners. The show is the third Summer Stars production from Encores!, following Gypsy 2007 and Damn Yankees 2008.
