As a kid, Brian Jordan Jr. regularly attended church on Sunday mornings in his hometown of Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The tradition was his introduction to what would become his first true love — performing arts.
“Church is theater, but, obviously, we don’t look at it that way, but it was just what I was used to,” the 31-year-old said. “When I experienced theater, I realized how parallel it was to church and it was something I knew very well, and then I wanted to know the ins and outs of it. I wanted to understand how something could feel so magical in the same room. It’s a beautiful thing. I think it’s the most beautiful thing in the world.”
Credit: DeWayne Rogers
Credit: DeWayne Rogers
So when he received the call from True Colors to direct the theater’s new production of “The Wiz,” one of Jordan’s favorite plays of all-time — he jumped at it. The choreographer and actor, who currently stars on Tyler Perry’s hit show “Sistas,” perceived the opportunity as a chance to make theater more accessible to Black communities.
With previews for the musical beginning today, the new production features an all-Atlanta cast and will open to the public on Friday at True Colors Theatre Company.
“I think that there is an elitist quality to theater that happens with African Americans, and it’s been that way since the beginning, and so I do understand the fanbase that comes with the show, the TV show that I’m on,” Jordan said, referring to ”Sistas,” which premiered its sixth season last month and is the #1 cable scripted series among Black viewers. “So I just want to integrate the two like bridge that gap. ... I come from a low socioeconomic family in an industrial town, so theater was just not ever in the forefront of any of our minds, which I hope to change with shows like ‘The Wiz’ in South Fulton.”
Credit: Jason Getz / Jason.Getz@ajc.com
Credit: Jason Getz / Jason.Getz@ajc.com
True Colors’ “The Wiz” will star Taloria Merricks as Dorothy, 112′s Q Parker as Tinman, George Lovett as Scarecrow, Latrice Pace as Glinda, Greg McKinney as Lion, Fenner Eaddy as The Wiz, Tina Pearls as Evillene.
It’s the theater’s first production of the classic play in nearly two decades. An earlier rendition featured a young Chloe Bailey and was helmed by Tony-winning director and the theater’s co-founder Kenny Leon. Although the new production will have an entirely new cast, Jordan wanted to maintain the youth appeal of the previous one to honor Leon’s work and celebrate the theater’s 20th season.
“I wanted to make sure that I nodded to the work that Kenny had done with the youth in the area, so I spent two weeks going to different high schools and having auditions, and we cast a young lady from Tri-Cities High,” he said. “We cast a young lady from who’s going to Pebblebrook, she’s in middle school. We have three young people in the cast, so I’m so excited to keep that legacy going. In addition to just modernizing the feel of the show, (we’re) modernizing the music and the movement to be something that is universal to everyone and pulling in things that will appeal to audiences who may have not seen the theater production before.”
The play is Jordan’s directorial debut at True Colors. He previously starred in the theater’s 2017 production of “The First Noel,” which was directed by Jasmine Guy.
At 17, Jordan played the role of Tin Man in “The Wiz,” the first musical he ever performed in.
“‘The Wiz’ is a generational musical,” he said. “It is also a story, a musical tale that can rival any other, especially among the African American culture because it is one that has lived for 50 years. ... ‘The Wiz’ to me is something that we all know, at least something, from. It’s a beautiful opportunity to start this with ‘The Wiz’ on my journey to wherever I go because I feel like ‘The Wiz’ is such a beautiful starting point for all of us.”
But Jordan wanted his production of the play to be more than just dancing and singing. Instead, it’s about the feeling.
“I was interested in telling the story in a way that would touch everybody, and so that looks like the four things — I have a diamond. I tell my cast all the time (that the four points on the diamond) are laughing, loving, healing, pain. There’s pain, but then you find healing and then love can make you laugh and it just goes either way.”
“In a story where you have a young girl who is kind of having a hard time at home and she decides that she wants something else, and she gets something else. That entire dream sequence lesson teaches her that home is not a place, but it’s your heart.”
Credit: Jason Getz / Jason.Getz@ajc.com
Credit: Jason Getz / Jason.Getz@ajc.com
For Jordan, who splits his time between College Park and Los Angeles, bringing “The Wiz” to Atlanta also gave him an opportunity to highlight and celebrate the diversity of talent and Black culture in Atlanta.
“Atlanta is the cultural hub of Black change,” he said. “I always say that and that’s why I’m so excited to bring this show here because this is the place for it to happen because in our show, Atlanta is Oz ... because Oz is a utopian place where all these Black people live ,and it’s magical. Atlanta is such a magical place. There’s such a broad spectrum of blackness here on all levels. You can find any kind of Black anything here, and I never experienced that before.”
Atlanta’s “The Wiz” is the last regional production of the musical before it embarks on a Broadway-bound tour in September. Kandi Burruss and Todd Tucker, Atlanta-based couple and reality stars/entrepreneurs, are among the producers for the musical’s upcoming revival. Jordan hopes his play inspires others to see another production of it.
“I want them to feel satisfied because they know what ‘The Wiz’ was and they are able to see this new version and appreciate it as much, and I want them to just feel renewed,” he said. “That’s what I believe theater does for people.”
THEATER PREVIEW
“The Wiz”
June 16-July 2. $20-55. True Colors Theatre Company at Southwest Arts Center, 915 New Hope Road SW, Atlanta. 404-532-1901, truecolorstheatre.org.
About the Author
