So, it's going to sound like I drop more names than a Kansas tornado drops houses on witches, but my editor Emma's father was Tony Walton, who was both art director and costume designer — sorry to quibble you, but the sets are his, not the set dressers, who are to the art director what seamstresses are to fashion designers. Tony had a distinctive pop-art-ish style, which is why I'm quibbling. There were these weird production designers' guild rules about credits that saw NY production designers demoted to art director, for a start, so he isn't allowed his true title — there is no production designer dredit at all. But it's Tony Walton.
Despite having been nominated for and Oscar for costumes, Tony and everyone associated with it were hugely embarrassed by The Wiz. The choice of social-realist Sidney Lumet as director was widely considered the original sin, and might seem peculiar were he not married into Black royalty: his wife Gail was Lena Horne's daughter.
This is a Black Yankee production, the Obama Martha's Vineyard crowd, sometimes called WASPs — the W in that case means "wealthy." They are my Black counterparts.
I didn't meet Emma until year following its release, when we both enrolled at Trinity, she a senior, I a junior. The first time I saw The Wiz was at a screening Emma and her step-sister Bridget had in their living room of Tony's apartment on the Upper West Side. Afterwards they trotted out various props and sketches of the sets.
Casting Diana Ross and changing the show's original music was widely thought to be the fatal flaw. But setting it in the real New York, rather than the fantasy Oz of the stage musical, is significant: By then it was a city dominated by Black culture and influence. I've come to understand that there is a significant difference in outlooks between Yankee and Southern Blacks, which is explored in some depth in 'The Gilded Age.' That's about my specific socio-cultural group, meaning the stuffy old ones who live across the street. If you watch it, note how there are no Black servants. That is the dynamic after the Civil War that prompted the Great Migration.
But there were already Black Yankees pre-Migration, like Lena Horn's family, and a few friends of mine's ancestors. A recent episode follows Black Yankee journalists being cavalier around Whites, as they would be in NYC, when they go to the South to cover the success of a burgeoning Black community.
I love this! I literally was just talking about this with someone the other day! She pointed out how the taxis always leave them, and it cuz in NYC, yellow cabs usually don’t stop for black folks.
Also, the Emerald City sequence goes through the colors of the Afro Diaposa: Green, Red, and Gold/Yellow.
“The Feeling that We Have.” Is in my top 5 of the soundtrack. Love your thoughts.
So, it's going to sound like I drop more names than a Kansas tornado drops houses on witches, but my editor Emma's father was Tony Walton, who was both art director and costume designer — sorry to quibble you, but the sets are his, not the set dressers, who are to the art director what seamstresses are to fashion designers. Tony had a distinctive pop-art-ish style, which is why I'm quibbling. There were these weird production designers' guild rules about credits that saw NY production designers demoted to art director, for a start, so he isn't allowed his true title — there is no production designer dredit at all. But it's Tony Walton.
Despite having been nominated for and Oscar for costumes, Tony and everyone associated with it were hugely embarrassed by The Wiz. The choice of social-realist Sidney Lumet as director was widely considered the original sin, and might seem peculiar were he not married into Black royalty: his wife Gail was Lena Horne's daughter.
This is a Black Yankee production, the Obama Martha's Vineyard crowd, sometimes called WASPs — the W in that case means "wealthy." They are my Black counterparts.
I didn't meet Emma until year following its release, when we both enrolled at Trinity, she a senior, I a junior. The first time I saw The Wiz was at a screening Emma and her step-sister Bridget had in their living room of Tony's apartment on the Upper West Side. Afterwards they trotted out various props and sketches of the sets.
Casting Diana Ross and changing the show's original music was widely thought to be the fatal flaw. But setting it in the real New York, rather than the fantasy Oz of the stage musical, is significant: By then it was a city dominated by Black culture and influence. I've come to understand that there is a significant difference in outlooks between Yankee and Southern Blacks, which is explored in some depth in 'The Gilded Age.' That's about my specific socio-cultural group, meaning the stuffy old ones who live across the street. If you watch it, note how there are no Black servants. That is the dynamic after the Civil War that prompted the Great Migration.
But there were already Black Yankees pre-Migration, like Lena Horn's family, and a few friends of mine's ancestors. A recent episode follows Black Yankee journalists being cavalier around Whites, as they would be in NYC, when they go to the South to cover the success of a burgeoning Black community.
#32 took me out.
I love this! I literally was just talking about this with someone the other day! She pointed out how the taxis always leave them, and it cuz in NYC, yellow cabs usually don’t stop for black folks.
Also, the Emerald City sequence goes through the colors of the Afro Diaposa: Green, Red, and Gold/Yellow.
“The Feeling that We Have.” Is in my top 5 of the soundtrack. Love your thoughts.
I lovee that you mentioned the Afro diaspora colors! Hadn’t even thought of that! I could really go for a the wiz karaoke night at your apartment :)
PLEASE!