For all its color and motion and bombast, the latest revival of “The Wiz”  — like the Tin Man of its story — is sadly lacking heart.

The 1974 musical, which reimagines L. Frank Baum’s “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” through the lens of Black culture, is the first production in this year’s touring Broadway series at the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts. It’s full of color and motion and sound — and, delightfully, a face familiar to Central Florida theatergoers. But the talent of the performers, and they are for sure a talented bunch, doesn’t hide the production’s shortcomings.

Things start out promisingly in a black-and-white homage to the beloved 1939 “Wizard of Oz” movie. Dorothy (Dana Cimone) has recently arrived in Kansas and doesn’t fit in with her new surroundings. Wise Aunt Em (Kyla Jade) is there to offer guidance.

Cimone and Jade have a lovely rapport and create genuine human emotion. Their voices also complement each other beautifully on “The Feeling We Once Had.” They get so carried away singing, in fact, that they forget all about the incoming tornado — the one that whisks Dorothy away and sends Aunt Em… well, we never see Em again so let’s just hope for the best.

At the top of “The Wiz,” onstage at the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts, Dana Cimone (left) and Kyla Jade do fine work creating a heartfelt moment. (Courtesy Jeremy Daniel via Dr. Phillips Center)

The tornado scene is creatively staged by director Schele Williams and choreographer Jaquel Knight with dancers in swirling gray cloaks spinning like funnel clouds against a backdrop of malevolently dark projections by Daniel Brodie.

But when things get to Oz with an explosion of technicolor, something odd happens. People keep telling us they want something: Dorothy wants to go home, the Tin Man wants a heart, the Scarecrow wants a brain, the Lion wants courage. Well, you know the story. But any sense of human longing is overwhelmed by the ramped-up stage business. The stakes for these characters never seem real, no one ever appears to be in actual jeopardy, and that makes the emotional connection evaporate.

What’s left? Big production numbers that entertain — even if it feels as though we’re lurching from set piece to set piece without much to connect them. Jade returns as the Wicked Witch, and magnificently rules over the toe-tapping, gospel-ish “Don’t Nobody Bring Me No Bad News.”

“The Wiz” ensemble members Gregory Hamilton, Moriah Perry and Kameren Whigham embody the tornado that whisks Dorothy to Oz. (Courtesy Jeremy Daniel via the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts)

An “Emerald City” dance number mixes the “Soul Train” swagger of the ’70s with a more modern rebuttal in movement. The whole show, in fact, veers between the decades — sometimes cleverly, as in Sharen Davis’s costumes that use fringe, flaired cuffs and the groovy tie-dye of “Everybody Rejoice.”

Other times, it feels a bit awkward: Amber Ruffin has added contemporary material to William F. Brown’s original book that often sounds like snappy retorts from the old “Good Times” TV show.

When she isn’t overpowered by the pastiche of projections trying to distract from how minimal the set is, or upstaged by the mugging of her co-stars, Cimone displays strong dance moves and powerful pipes. Just watch her and Elijah Ahmad Lewis’s scarecrow as they “Ease on Down The Road.”

In “The Wiz,” Dorothy (Dana Cimone) finds herself between two witches: Glinda (Sheherazade, left) and Addaperle (one-time Central Florida actor Amitria Fanae’). The musical opens Orlando’s 2025-26 touring Broadway season at the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts. (Courtesy Jeremy Daniel via Dr. Phillips Center)

Sheherazade brings an equally powerful voice to the role of Glinda, delivering a stirring “Believe in Yourself,” the show’s most traditional-sounding Broadway anthem.

And that familiar face? That would be Amitria Fanae’, who starred as Celie in Theater West End’s production of “The Color Purple” and has worked for Orlando Shakes, in “Little Shop of Horrors,” and at Walt Disney World, in “Festival of the Lion King.” (Coincidentally, Fanae’ gets a funny “Lion King” joke in the show.)

In “The Wiz,” she plays the good witch Addaperle with joyful vivacity and provides the crucial service of setting the energy level high upon Dorothy’s arrival in Oz.

Something whimsical this way comes in Phantasmagoria’s Edward Gorey tribute

There’s no underestimating the cultural significance of “The Wiz,” which 50 years ago made headlines as a big-budget Broadway musical featuring an all-Black cast — years before such shows as “Dreamgirls” or “Ain’t Misbehavin’” came along. This touring production succeeds in showcasing Black talent and capturing the joy of performance. But it could have done so much more.

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‘The Wiz’

Length: 2:20, including intermission
Where: Walt Disney Theater at the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts, 445 S. Magnolia Ave. in Orlando
When: Through Oct. 5
Cost: $67.70 and up
Info: drphillipscenter.org

https://www.orlandosentinel.com/2025/10/01/the-wiz-review-orlando-dr-phillips-center/