If you’re at all familiar with The Wiz, elements of Charlie Smalls’s score hit with Pavlovian precision. There’s the groove of “Ease on Down the Road,” the seductive slickness of “Slide Some Oil to Me,” and of course that triumphal, transporting lilt that kicks off “Home.” When that tune peeks out, early on in Dorothy’s journey to Oz, you can feel a collective ahhh from the audience at this revival. Yet it’s a particular kind of familiarity, given that The Wiz is arguably both overlooked and omnipresent. The all-Black reimagining of The Wizard of Oz hasn’t been on Broadway since 1984—and that was a short stint after its immensely successful four-year run in the mid ’70s—but it’s maintained a staying power in other forms, thanks to the Sidney Lumet film starring Diana Ross…
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