August 2, .1985 Prince George's Press

Carla Williams, Miss Greenbelt 1985, wins mother nature's trip to Oz, not the Reader's
Digest one. Williams offers a pleasing smile, charming, outgoing personality plus a belting,
still tuneful voice winning for "The Wiz" musical numbers. Wrapped in a pink party dress,
William's plays Dorothy as pert, cute, and sweet with a youthful energy.

Dorothy is the charming young lady who lives with her Aunt Em (Delores King) and
Uncle Henry (Charles Logan) at their Kansas prairie farmhouse. Director, Beauford K. Woods
adapts mother nature's Kansas cyclone to suit "The Wiz" indoor staging. With choreographer
Andrea S. Hopkins the director invents an indoor dance Tornado—the Markka K. Williams and
dance ensemble—to sway, swivel and swirl, swooping Dorothy off her feet and setting her down
in the land of Oz.

By veering away from the popular Michael Jackson stylized dance, the break dance, generally
the faddish, the Tornado and other dance ensembles are lackluster, even lackadaisical. From
the Tornado on, Burn Brae's "The Wiz" is a departure from L. Frank Baum's book,
"The Wizard of Oz" and the Judy Garland movie.

In the book and movie version, Dorothy's attachment to and protection of her Oz companions—
the Tinman, the Lion, and the Scarecrow,—is based on their resemblance to her Kansas
family. Suddenly cast adrift and alone in a strange land, Dorothy for the first time in her life
realizes how much she loves and needs Aunt Em and Uncle Henry.

"The Wiz" director and cast gloss over Dorothy's familiar association between her Kansas
family and her Oz. traveling companions. And Williams' mood to the show's closing number
"Home" is superficial as we never feel nor see Dorothy return to Kansas to Aunt Em and
Uncle Henry.

To the young at heart and under thirteen, Dorothy's friendship with her Oz companions has
the Sci Fi appeal of children befriending E.T., the charming outer space visitor. Dorothy and
her Oz family offer a whimsical, lighthearted, though unemotional development to characters.
The Scarecrow (Keith Oscar Cross), the Tinman (Ty Willis) and the Lipn (Beauford K. Woods)
are a remarkable trio, thoroughly endearing, causing the young at heart and under thirteen
to swarm about them for autographs.

'The Wiz" has its share of characters representing in dramatic form the forces of good over
evil. Addaperle (Bernadine Mitchell) is the pop and mod faddish Good Witch of the North.
Her counterpart Evillene (Bernadine Mitchell) naturally is the Wicked Witch of the West,
probably tracing her roots to Salem's 17th Century witch trials.

The Wizard himself (Charles Logan) wields power over his Emerald City citizens like real
world Presidents and Kings. The glitter and grandeur, pomp and circumstance of The Wiz's
Emerald City rivals President Reagan's inauguration with no expense spared to show off
the grandeur of his state.

Crediting Broadway's historical distinction to trends in musical productions and Burn Brae's
own unique history with the range of musical shows, "The Wiz" with its whimsical light-
hearted treatment and cast to delight the children offers a rare opportunity to treat your
whole family to a show….