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Arts & Entertainment

Ticket sales begin for Middle School South Players production of 'The Wiz'

Howell Middle School South Players present ‘The Wiz’

 

A yellow brick road will dance its way through Howell, NJ with a cast and crew of 100 students in grades six through eight in this year’s Spring Musical, “The Wiz” on April 7th, 8th and 9th at Howell Middle School South.   

The 1975 Tony Award winning production The Wiz is a musical written by William F. Brown and the lyrics by Charlie Smalls all adapted from L. Frank Baum's "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz."
It spent four years on Broadway comprising of 1,672 performances. It is based off the same idea as the Wizard of Oz, with the same characters and plot. But The Wiz is full of musical numbers and dances. Students may have heard it being named as the "funky musical version" of the Wizard of Oz.

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Anyone familiar with the story knows it is about Dorothy, a young teenage girl, played by 8th grader, Stephanie Hanvey, who is swept up in a tornado and deposited in the mystical Land of Oz. The cleverly crafted tornado is a set of dancers who sweeps up Dorothy and drops her in Oz. Once she’s there she will meet some fresh characters such as Addapearle, the hip, swingin’, happenin’ now, “Good Witch of the North” and will give Dorothy her magic silver slippers played by 7th grader Devin McGowan along with lots of outlandish, colorful munchkins. 

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Dorothy’s journey to the Wiz is musically entertaining when she meets her companions 7th grader, Paul Ternosky as the Scarecrow, 7th grader, Jordan Mitchell as the Tin Man and 8th grader, Nick Scala as the Cowardly Lion.  They enter the yellow brick road, and what a road it is: an ensemble of dancers, all decked out in yellow, who lead Dorothy and friends along the way to Emerald City. 

The great Wiz, played by 7th grader Vincent DeSeno appears late in the first act.  His memorable entrance will delight audiences looking forward to seeing more of him in the second act.   Then another Wicked Witch, Evillene, played by 8th grader Marycate Baroska, the Wicked Witch of the West begins Act 2 with her hard at work Winkies, who will roll her on to the stage, only to be mistreated and scolded for their efforts in capturing Dorothy.  Many more amusing characters of Ozians and the Citizens of Emerald City will grace the stage with their energetic performances.  Glinda, the beautiful Good Witch of the South, played by 8th grader Kristen Rutigliano, makes a grand entrance and will delight audiences with a surprise for Dorothy.

The spectacular set design was created by Derek Hulse of Point Pleasant, and Mike Moorman of Howell.  The set was built by a group of volunteer dads, and the art work designed by the Howell Middle School South’s Art Club. The entire production was supported with parent volunteer committees and fundraising efforts by the cast. 

The Howell Middle School South Players’ directors Gillian Bryck, Cindy Lutz and Art Perez, teachers at Howell South are very proud to work with this year’s cast of talented actors, dancers, singers, and stage crew.  This production promises to be a crowd pleaser.

For Tickets call: 732-836-1327 x 6822

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