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NEW YORK – A 24-year-old triple risk who toured in “Hairspray,” competed on “American Idol” and got here to the eye of casting brokers along with her TikTok movies has landed the plum position of Dorothy in the Broadway-bound production of “The Wiz.”
Nichelle Lewis will celebrity in the nationwide traveling display this autumn after which make her Broadway debut next 12 months because the display’s heel-clicking heroine, following in the footsteps of such icons as Stephanie Mills and Diana Ross.
“It’s been a pretty crazy journey,” she advised The Associated Press ahead of her reliable unveiling Monday. “I’m honored to be making my debut as Dorothy. I know I’m following in some really big footsteps.”
“The Wiz” excursions the U.S. beginning this autumn in Baltimore and can land on Broadway in 2024. Lewis joins a forged that incorporates Wayne Brady and Alan Mingo Jr. sharing the role of the Wiz, Deborah Cox as Glinda, Kyle Ramar Freeman because the Lion, Phillip Johnson Richardson because the Tin Man, and Avery Wilson because the Scarecrow.
Lewis, who grew up in Virginia and graduated from Molloy University in 2021, used her modest TikTok account to proportion her voice — one track was once “Home” from “The Wiz” — and it got here to the eye of casting brokers, who invited her to audition.
“I’m so excited that this is a part of my story, because I feel like there’s so many people out there who started out with such a small following and I feel like they’re hard on themselves about it,” she said. “But I’m like, ‘You never know who’s watching those videos.’ I never knew that ‘The Wiz’ was looking at my videos.”
The display is customized from “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” via L. Frank Baum, with a guide via William F. Brown, and song and lyrics via Charlie Smalls.
Lewis says she identifies with Dorothy, who’s by myself on a adventure of self-discovery in a brand new global whilst additionally serving to others alongside the best way in finding out who they’re.
“I feel like it’s extremely important for people, especially right now, to see that they can be powerful just by being themselves and just by being individual and unique. So I think that’s how the show speaks to me,” she mentioned.
“The Wiz” opened on Broadway in 1975 and received seven Tonys, together with perfect musical. It has such vintage songs as “What Would I Do If I Could Feel” and “Ease On Down the Road.” The authentic Broadway manufacturing featured Mills as Dorothy, Dee Dee Bridgewater as excellent witch Glinda and Andre De Shields because the Wiz.
A 1978 film model of “The Wiz” starred Ross, Lena Horne and Richard Pryor because the Wiz. Michael Jackson co-starred because the Scarecrow, with Nipsey Russell because the Tin Man and Ted Ross because the Lion. NBC televised a reside model in 2015 with Queen Latifah, Ne-Yo and David Alan Grier.
Lewis’ love of song was once inspired via her father, who died when she was once younger. At his carrier, she sang “My Help,” a track he sang when he was once a kid, and shocked the congregation.
“I don’t know what happened that day, but I guess just I had this voice come out of me that didn’t used to be there, but probably came from the millions of songs that I grew up listening to,” she says. “I felt like it was something that I could share with others and it was something that I noticed made other people happy.”
Lewis received a Golden Ticket on the latest collection of “American Idol” however did not development from the Hollywood spherical. Now she’s earned any other — main a Broadway display.
Her mom, naturally, has been screaming and crying. “She’s like, ‘Your life is going to change.’ And I’m like, ‘I don’t know. It probably will,’’ she says, laughing. ”I believe so blessed and I’m so happy I am getting to proportion it along with her.”
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Mark Kennedy is at http://twitter.com/KennedyTwits
