The Wiz

134 minutes | Rated G

Sidney Lumet's 1978 adaptation of Broadway's all-black musical resembles Saturday Night Fever more than The Wizard of Oz. There's the same dark disco lighting, the same romanticization of urban rubble. And the theme is no longer "There's no place like home," but a learning-to-love-yourself homily that might have been lifted from Werner Erhard. Still, it's one of the more competent neomusicals of the period, if only because of Dede Allen's punchy editing and Tony Walton's cavernous sets. A lot to look at, little to contemplate, and nothing to hum. With Diana Ross, Michael Jackson, Nipsey Russell, and a curiously restrained bit by Richard Pryor. By Dave Kehr

Director: Sidney Lumet
Writer: L. Frank Baum and Joel Schumacher
Producer: Rob Cohen
Cast: Diana Ross, Michael Jackson, Nipsey Russell, Ted Ross, Mabel King, Theresa Merritt, Thelma Carpenter, Lena Horne, Richard Pryor and Stanley Greene