It's Dorothy! (2025) Movie Script

1
(bird chirping)
(wind blowing)
- Toto!
- [Fairuza] I don't think
life ever really ends.
It's all transitions.
Birth and life, and
eventually, death.
They're all transitions.
And art is immortal.
Books are immortal.
So long as that book exists
somewhere on a shelf,
that world lives forever.
And even film.
It's just this one tiny point
in time that was filmed,
and yet that one point in
time can resonate forever.
I feel so honored
that I got be a part
of that whole movement
generated by L. Frank Baum.
- [Interviewer] Dorothy, in
one word, what is Dorothy?
Dorothy is-
- [Fairuza] Dorothy is magical.
- I'm Dorothy Gale.
My name is Dorothy.
- Dorothy!
- Dorothy, really?
Dorothy's like a
staple in our culture.
- Left home, gone through
a storm, battled witches.
- She's this diva who's
dropping houses on people
and stealing shoes.
- I know we have so many
different renditions of Dorothy.
Scarecrow, Tin-man, Dorothy
Lion is afraid of me,
lion is afraid of me
- Everything's all right.
- [Manuel] Every actor who has
stepped into those slippers
has become forever identified
as playing Dorothy.
Escape from reality,
where I go you follow me
Where I go you follow me,
where I go you follow me
La-la-la-la-la-la-La
La-la-la-la-la-la-la
- No place like home.
La-la-la-la-la-la-la
- It's a story that
anybody can relate to.
- [Gita] And I think so
many people feel that way.
- Me and my sister watch
it at least every day.
- [Gita] This is a
story about them.
- [Kid] Dorothy is beautiful.
- Dorothy is real.
- Dorothy is hope.
- Dorothy is everything.
- Dorothy is the journey.
- Is found.
- A feminist.
- Dorothy is inspiring.
- Dorothy is deranged.
- Dorothy is a bad bitch.
- Dorothy is iconic.
- My.
- [Kid] She's like
the main character.
- Have you ever felt
like you were searching
for something?
(gentle music)
- [Gregory] L. Frank Baum
gave us a foundational
myth for America that
I do believe won't die
as long as America is a country.
I think Dorothy still has a
great deal of energy and power,
and in part, that's
because of the ambivalence
with which Baum wrote
his original story.
It's the contradictions.
It's the things that
don't quite line up
and the salvages on
the end of the scarf
that give us
something to hang onto
and to make the story
current and keep us warm.
(gentle music)
- [Tori] Dorothy begins her
journey in L. Frank Baum's book
at around the age
of eight or nine.
She's not given any
physical descriptors.
She can be literally anyone.
You are invited to imprint
yourself on who Dorothy is.
- And let's start it like this.
I believe Dorothy
is forever timeless.
For one, Miss Judy Garland,
her performance was everything.
- Aunt Em, just listen what
Miss Gulch did to Toto.
- Dorothy, please,
we're trying to count.
- She just grabs you.
And that's where it starts.
(light music)
- Why, it's Judy!
- Why so it is!
What a coincidence,
or is this part of the plot?
- I'm gonna be a great singer,
and I'm gonna be a
great actress too.
- Are you really?
- Yes.
Oh, yes.
- [Caseen] The story
of Judy Garland
and the story of Dorothy Gale
are beautifully intertwined.
- She, too, is a
child of the theater.
Born in a dressing room,
raised in a wardrobe trunk.
- [Manuel] When Judy Garland
arrives in Hollywood.
- Excuse me, could you tell
me where number 27 is, please?
- [Manuel] The main thing
everyone knows about her
and the thing that
becomes immediately clear-
- I sing, you know?
- [Manuel] She has this amazing
voice that is kind of adult.
Americana
(crowd applauding)
And so she's always cast
as America's sweetheart,
as the girl next door.
She's always singing about
how no one really wants her.
15,000 times a day
I hear a voice within me say
Hide yourself
behind a screen
You shouldn't be heard,
you shouldn't be seen
You're just an
awful in between
This is where Dorothy
becomes an avatar
for the star persona,
or really atomizes who
she had been on screen.
This girl who was
always yearning,
always wanting something that
was forever out of reach.
Nobody wants me
Alone
Alone on a night that
was meant for love
- [Tori] When MGM
purchases the rights
to make the Wizard
of Oz into a movie,
Judy Garland is not
a household name yet.
She is somebody who
has done a few pictures
and lots and lots of radio,
but at this point is not really
considered beautiful enough
to be a starlet at MGM,
but too talented to let go.
- [Judy] May I
come in, Mr. Leroy?
- [Mr. Leroy] Judy,
we've just seen the test
we made of you for the part and-
- [Judy] You mean, I'm-
- [Mr. Leroy] You've guessed it.
You're Dorothy in
'The Wizard of Oz.'
- [Judy] It can't be true.
I dreamed and hoped
for a chance like this,
but I never really
thought I'd be so lucky.
Thank you, Mr. Leroy.
- [Mr. Leroy] Thank you, Judy.
I mean, Dorothy.
- Isn't that wonderful?
- [Manuel] As Garland's
star in life continued
in these other films and
these other performances,
all of that kept putting
back onto Dorothy.
So that Dorothy was Judy,
and Judy was Dorothy.
- That little girl, Dorothy.
- Yeah.
- Dorothy, she did it just-
- Oh Jerry, you're
putting me on.
You know that
little girl was me.
- [Caseen] Toward
the end of her life,
Judy Garland was making
a number of recordings
to sort of chronicle her life.
- [Judy] I was trying
to be a singer.
I don't know how to read notes,
and I don't know how
to work this machine.
- [Caseen] What
really stood out to me
about those recordings was
that she never lost Dorothy.
- [Judy] I have a
rather good intellect.
I have a good sense of humor.
- [Caseen] Dorothy has a
longing, a hopefulness,
but also, she's kind of
lost in a lot of ways.
And Judy Garland
retained that essence
throughout the
entirety of her life.
- [Judy] I worked very hard,
and there's all the
success and failure
and fatigue and
overweight and thinness,
tears and laughter, and
Halloween and, no, oh well.
- [Caseen] She spent
the duration of her life
wanting to find
that greener grass.
- Where are you going?
- I'm going to Oz.
- Oz?
Well, I don't think I've
ever heard of that place.
- Oh, it's very nice.
I go there every holiday.
- [Caseen] And it's
always very poignant
that "Over The
Rainbow" in particular
was her signature song.
- It's far, far away.
Behind the moon,
beyond the rain.
Somewhere over the rainbow
Way up high
There's a land that
I heard of once
In a lullaby
- [Caseen] It's a forward
thinking projection
into a future, into
a different world.
(birds chirping)
Somewhere over the rainbow
Way up high
- [Manuel] It wants us
to imagine a horizon.
Someday I'll
wish upon a star
And wake up where the
clouds are far behind me
- A song like
"Somewhere the Rainbow"
that is soft and vulnerable,
but is one of the biggest
"I want" songs in all of time.
- "Somewhere Over
the Rainbow," to me,
it was just always a
song that when I sung it,
I felt anything that I
wanna do is possible.
I was always longing to
like find where I belonged.
I never fit in at school,
I never fit in at church.
And I don't know, I just
always thought like,
it's okay to be alone, Shanice.
Just don't be a follower.
Birds fly over the rainbow.
Why can't I?
- [Ryan] In its two
and a half minutes,
"Over the Rainbow" tells you
everything you need to know,
not only about Dorothy,
but about every
American, every person.
Somewhere
Somewhere
Somewhere over the rainbow
Over the rainbow
Somewhere
Somewhere
Over the rainbow
Over the rainbow
Bluebirds fly
Birds fly over the rainbow
Why, oh why
Can't
Can't
(vocalizing)
- [Ryan] It makes
sense that it's become
a kind of rallying cry
for a lot of folks who
don't feel like they belong.
Why can't I
- [Rufus] My name
is Rufus Wainwright,
and I'm a singer,
songwriter, composer,
and Dorothy Gale enthusiast.
My early memories of Oz
are incredibly profound.
When I was a kid, I
was very much attached
to Judy Garland in the
form of Dorothy Gale.
- [Announcer] You're
over the rainbow.
- [Rufus] If I was in a good
mood, I would be Dorothy,
and I would kind
of prance around
in a little apron I
called my put-it-on,
and I had a stuffed
lamb that I called Toto
and all was right
with the world.
I think both my parents
were very deeply affected
when they saw my reaction to it,
'cause they also knew that
it probably meant I was gay.
That was probably like one of
the first big signs for them.
My mother was a great
singer and songwriter.
She taught me "Over the Rainbow"
when I was very, very young.
Around that time, four or five.
She said, "Okay, well,
you like this musical.
I'm gonna teach you
some of these songs.
So she took that as
an opportunity to
start to train me.
Do, re, mi, fa,
so, la, si, do
And it's interesting, 'cause
she actually had the most
kind of negative reaction
when I first came out,
although I wasn't really
coming out to her.
She discovered like magazines
and stuff when I was about 13.
- Betty, what have
you got there?
- Nothing, ma.
- Come on now, let me see it.
- [Rufus] She
actually threatened
to kick me out of the house.
I mean, she was not on board.
- Well, I'll put a stop to that.
- Oh, ma, I paid a
quarter for that picture.
- [Rufus] But at the
same time, you know-
- Go ahead and
sing and sing loud.
- [Rufus] She was teaching me
"Somewhere Over the Rainbow."
So I think she was conflicted.
She developed her own
type of acceptance.
It was never fully.
But Dorothy Gale
is just so iconic.
And later in life,
Dorothy will come back.
- For me, Dorothy was someone
who was like almost a princess.
She reminded me of
someone like Cinderella.
- It's impossible.
- She doesn't come from much.
But then she comes
into this world of Oz
and she just goes around and
she just helps other people
be who they are and be
proud of who they are.
She also figures out how
beautiful she is as a person.
Seeing something like that,
it was really inspiring
for me as a kid.
My father named me Nichelle,
and he got the name
from 'Star Trek.'
- Mr. Spock, what are the
chances of the captain
and the others being alive?
- The first black woman in
'Star Trek' was named Nichelle.
I was not so happy about
it 'cause I was like six,
and I had to tell my class
about where I got my name from.
And I was like, "My
dad is such a nerd
and he named me Nichelle
from 'Star Trek.'"
A lot of the reason
why Dorothy ended up
in Oz is because she needed it.
She needed it to heal and
understand who she was.
My father was silly.
He was goofy.
He just was everything to
me and my little sister.
He passed away from cancer,
and I was nine years old.
It was the most
heavy day of my life.
(thunder rumbling)
My mom told me
what had happened.
I remember there was a
bunch of people in our house
and my father had
just been taken away.
I went straight to my
room, closed the door,
took out all my toys and
just played with my Barbies.
I was so young.
I think I did my best
to try and deal with it
in the present moment,
but I didn't know how.
And so my first thing was to go
and create a world of my own.
That's what I did for hours.
And even the next day and the
next day and the next day,
I just didn't really want
to come out of my room.
I just stayed in my room
and had this whole world
that I kind of
created to deal with
the circumstances
that were happening.
(ground trembling)
(wind blowing)
I found a stash of
like my dad's CDs,
and I would just play them
and I just stayed in my room.
I don't know if you ever
heard the song "Love Shack."
Love shack, baby love shack
(chuckles) I would
play it over and over.
Dancing in my room
to that one song
Love shack, baby
love shack, yeah
(wind blowing)
And I would pretend that I
was literally in the world
that these CDs created.
- [Emily] Dorothy is an
interesting character.
We know she's an orphan.
She's not being
raised by her parents,
and yet her parentage
is not terribly
important to the story.
Dorothy is lonely.
She feels a little
bit like a kid
who's seen some terrible stuff.
- When kids go through that,
I don't think that they are-
they don't understand.
I don't think I really
realized it in the moment,
but it taught me how to escape
without completely numbing
myself from the world.
(light music)
- [Gita] My mother had a cabinet
that the books were all kept in.
And it had a key to
open that cabinet door,
and I must have been about
three when she opened the door
and took the book out
and read me the story.
And this was a
story about Dorothy.
And I was called Dorothy.
And I said, "Oh, this
is a story about me."
And I remember her saying,
"Oh no, this is not about you.
This is a fairytale."
And she told me that
my great-grandfather
wrote the story.
When I was young,
it was really like being
inside the fairytale.
(light music)
I remember there was a big
buildup about this movie
that had been in the theaters
was now going to be on TV
and you could see it at home.
This was my
great-grandfather's story,
and here it was in
everybody's living room.
Of course it was an
incredible moment
that starts out in
black and white.
Then Dorothy opens the door,
and you are really in
a whole nother world.
- [Dorothy] I have a feeling
we're not in Kansas anymore.
- [Gita] And one of the moments
that I think is really important
is her hesitation
at the doorway.
She stands there,
and she realizes that
everything is different.
It's a real moment
of what do I do here?
Do I just shut the door
and forget about this?
Or do I open up and figure
out where I am and what to do?
And I think that moment
is a really important
moment for all of us.
(upbeat music)
- Eww.
(upbeat music continues)
- [Glinda] There's the house,
and here you are.
- No!
- [Tori] Taking innocent
things and twisting them
into something less
innocent is something
that we really love to
do in the internet age.
- Ever since I
was a little girl,
I wanted ruby slippers.
- Who killed the
witch of the east?
- You see this giant
girl right over here
kind of squashed her to
death with a double-wide.
- What?
- [Tori] There was
a TV guide blurb
that accused Dorothy
of being a murderer.
- Murder?
- Murder!
- I don't know anything
about a murder.
- Woo, it's just crazy.
- Writer Rick Polito wrote,
"Transported to a
surreal landscape,
a young girl kills the
first person she meets,
then teams up with three
strangers to kill again."
That's real.
- [Speaker] You killed her.
- It was an accident.
- I think those interpretations
are really funny, to be honest.
- You're in Oz, Dorothy.
- [Dorothy] Oh my!
- [Tori] It's played for laughs,
because Dorothy's
intentions are pure
in the book and in the film.
- But she sure had
pretty shoes, didn't she?
- Ah! (bleep)
We're not even close
to the same size.
(bright music)
- The shoes were beautiful.
- [Tori] No Dorothy
can start her journey
down the yellow brick road
without her magical footwear.
- They had like
shiny glass mirrors.
- [Tori] In L. Frank Baum's Oz,
they are silver shoes
taken from the feet
of the wicked witch of the east.
- My silver slippers are
more like -- they're boots.
- [Tara] There's all these
folks who have worn the gingham,
worn the silver slippers
or the ruby slippers.
Could be in an adaptation,
in a stage portrayal.
It could have been
in their school play.
When they put on the slippers,
there's some sense of self
that gets cracked open
that maybe they
couldn't see before.
This is the only big
pop culture property
that has been around for
every single generation
that's alive right now.
- [Speaker] Can you
click your heels too?
There's no place like home.
- Is the Wicked Witch's
eyebrows painted?
- No, those are
her real eyebrows.
They're really dark.
- [EmKay] There is an element
of fantasy and fairytale
within us that we wanna
always stay connected to,
and I feel like Dorothy and Oz
help us maintain that connection
to this past part of ourselves.
- Dorothy wants to go
back to Kansas so bad.
- Where's my home?
- You gon' have to see The Wiz.
- Who's The Wiz?
- [EmKay] I think some of
us feel like our happiness
or the thing that
we need to achieve
lies in the hands of
someone or something.
- [Speaker] He can do anything.
He's The Wiz!
- Andrew Lloyd Webber,
his name is on the top
of all the sheet
music in my cupboard.
Being a working class girl
from a working class family,
there was no yellow brick road.
I didn't see a path from my life
to television or the
movies or onto the stage.
The hills are alive
- Next!
- Andrew Lloyd
Webber and the BBC
had these "search for" programs,
and the very first
one was the search
for Maria in the
'Sound of Music.'
Now, I do remember
watching parts of this show
with my grandma.
And she said, "Oh, you could
do something like this."
And I was like, "Absolutely not.
This looks terrifying."
- [Announcer] There can
only be one Dorothy.
The wonderful wizard
Join Andrew Lloyd Webber
as he starts his search.
- I guess my logical brain said,
"Okay, Danielle, you want
to go to drama school.
If you don't get a scholarship,
you probably can't go."
And I said, "Okay,
I'll go and have a go
at this audition and
then I'll leave."
And there were maybe 2000 girls
and there were
cameras everywhere
and they were making us
do all these funny things.
- I'm Dorothy.
- I'm Dorothy.
- No, I could be Dorothy.
- No, I could be Dorothy.
- I think that was the first
time I've ever been in the room
with more than one
camera in my life,
and they were everywhere.
And everyone was
asking questions
and all the lights were
so bright, and I was 17.
My working logic was
just keep working hard
and maybe no one will
notice you're here.
- Please welcome our Dorothys!
- [Dorothy] Are you a
good witch or a bad witch?
- [Jay] Judy Garland
received a lot of criticism
when it was announced
she was cast as Dorothy.
- I'm not a witch at all.
I'm Dorothy Gale from Kansas.
- Oh.
- [Jay] This wasn't the persona
that they had in their minds
of this simple Kansas girl.
- [William] The public had
a conception of Dorothy
as this slender, sweet-faced,
blonde-haired little girl.
There were several prominent
Hollywood columnists
who expressed that she
was too old for the part.
- Don't tell them I'm
here 'cause if you do,
they won't let me go on tonight.
- [William] And that she was too
what was then called "hot-cha".
And I si-i-i-i-i-ng hot
Which was sort of 1930s
slang for over-exuberance.
- Now, how old are you?
- [Tara] She's only 15 when
she goes into this process.
So she's super young, when
she's playing a 12-year-old,
so they obviously did a lot
of like constricting
of her body.
She had to wear a corset
and like lots of
tape on her breasts
so she appeared
younger than she was.
- It's the nose.
The nose is the problem.
- [Tara] They put
things in her nose
to make her nose look perkier.
- [Roxane] Dorothy is
one of those characters
that many people can
relate to, of realizing
that the authority
figures in your life
oftentimes don't have
more answers than you do.
They're just better at
pretending that they do.
- Just follow the
yellow brick road.
- [Roxane] During
the 1920s and 30s,
the studio system
was really rigid.
Women in particular were signed
to really impossible contracts
that dictated almost every
aspect of their lives.
You're being constantly
weighed and measured,
and oftentimes publicly.
- Oh, darling, I do
wish you'd stop growing.
And look at your hair.
Oh, poor little ugly duckling.
Well, well, mother
loves you anyway.
- [Roxane] I have
a lot of empathy
for what those
women went through.
I have a lot of empathy for
women in any decade, honestly.
- [Judy] I've never had a
friend that I could confide in.
The only one I did have was
a girl that MGM assigned,
and I thought she was my
friend for eight years.
Turned out that she was
working for Louis B. Mayer
and Eddie Maddox,
and she was reporting
every minute of my day
and getting paid for it.
- You're not eating your soup.
- I don't feel very hungry.
- [Jay] Newspaper reporters
would be interviewing her.
- Come on, let's go see if we
can find some of that cake.
- [Jay] And she would say,
"Everybody's watching me.
They're just looking to see
that I don't get an extra
dessert or something."
- [William] The use
of chemical stimulants
prescribed by studio
doctors to Judy Garland
were not specific
to Judy Garland.
They were prescribed to all of
MGM's actors who needed pep.
I wanna stand
right, up, and swing
At the time, they were
thought to be wonder drugs,
because it could also
help you to lose weight,
for the energy that it gave you.
Unfortunately, what was
unknown at the time were the
long-term and addictive
side effects of these drugs.
- Sometimes, I wonder
if it's all worthwhile.
- [Jay] William Stillman and I,
we discovered in our research,
she did go to her senior prom
while she was making
the "Wizard of Oz."
This boy was vetted to make sure
that he was going to be okay
for their star, Judy Garland
to be in the company of.
- Gee, Mary, I feel dandy.
Couldn't we go someplace
where we could, well,
sort of be alone?
- Oh, now Willie,
you'll be a good boy.
Remember what I told you.
- [Tara] They even like
gave her a flower shop
to show like she had a flower
shop, Judy Garland's Flowers.
Like they were
doing all this media
and really trying to ascend her.
And it worked, it did work.
- [Announcer] From
all advanced reports,
Judy Garland will become
an overnight sensation.
(crowd chattering indistinctly)
- Things were just
moving really, really
fast at that time.
Seeing my name and
hearing people talk about,
"Oh, this new girl?
Oh my gosh, she's number one.
This record went number one."
- Give it up for Ashanti.
- I really didn't understand
what all of it meant.
It was surreal.
I was on a record label full
of rappers, full of guys.
It was definitely a
male-dominated industry.
I can't go through
being misused
But very early on,
I was able to see,
okay, it works different.
- Good thing I have the
magic shoes to protect me.
- [Ashanti] I definitely felt
like I wanted to explore more
and see where the
path would bring me.
- And I'm also
going to Vancouver
to shoot with Quentin
Tarantino, Queen Latifah,
and we're doing The Muppets
version of 'The Wizard of Oz.'
- [Interviewer] Playing Dorothy.
- Oh yeah, I'm playing
Dorothy. (laughs)
It's a good life
It's a good life, yeah
Stop!
Stop the music.
(all laughing)
- [Speaker] Grammy
Award-winning artist Ashanti
has just recorded
her own version
of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow."
- [Ryan] What I love
so much about Ashanti
is that I know she
loves 'The Wizard of Oz'
as much as any
diehard Oz fan does.
(vocalizing from
"Defying Gravity")
- You have so many intersections
with Dorothy, right?
- Yes.
- Because you played her
in 'The Wiz.'
- In 'The Wiz'
and 'The Muppets' Wizard of Oz.'
I hope you're happy
When I think about Dorothy,
I think about dreaming big,
and wanting to bring
your people with you.
Galinda
- And Dorothy, take good
care of the slippers.
They will protect you
as well as give you
power against the witch.
- [John] Glinda, who was
such a goodie-goodie,
she got on my nerves
right from the beginning,
even as a child, and
she was a sadist.
- Well then, you'll
have to walk.
- [John] 'Cause she
knew all she had to do
was click her heels, why
didn't she tell her that?
I could have gone home
By clicking my
heels three times
- Uh-huh.
- [John] Instead of
making her risk her life
with winged monkeys,
going through hell with witches,
all she could have done is,
"Hey, bitch, click your
legs together three times."
(Munchkins cheering)
I made a movie called "Dorothy
the Kansas City Pothead."
I didn't know what I was doing.
It was eight millimeter,
I thought I would dub
in the voices later.
That's impossible.
I had no sync sound or anything.
I was on pot when
I thought it up.
It was never finished.
I'd just been thrown out
of NYU for marijuana.
Now I don't smoke pot.
It just makes me
worry about things.
(Wicked Witch of
the West laughing)
The Witch was
always my obsession.
To me, the wicked
witch was never ugly.
- Do you know something?
You have got to be the
most beautiful person
I have ever seen.
- Oh, keep still.
- [John] Margaret Hamilton
always, she stayed in style.
- Sometimes, I wear the cape
and ride around like that.
- [John] She was dressed in
Commes des Garons, basically.
(Margaret laughing)
- I'll get you, my pretty.
And your little dog too.
- [John] Dorothy
had that annoying
little dog the whole time.
- Toto that's not polite.
- [John] But she had fun
and she was basically
a fag hag in a way.
(upbeat music)
(Dorothy laughing)
She was attracted
to the Scarecrow who
was an intellectual.
- Dorothy!
- [John] I doubt very sexual.
The Tin Man who was
probably impotent-
his joint was rusty.
And the Lion who was a sissy.
So she attracted to her men
that were not gonna be threats.
- I was doing musical
theater, so you know,
all the guys, we just
hang out and have fun.
But I had a lot of guy friends
that protected me always.
Good luck with me dating.
I mean, it was like, no.
- [Lena] Judy Garland
just embraced gay people
from the very beginning,
and she was a queer ally at a
time when it wasn't popular.
I think the thing I remember
most about 'The Wizard of Oz'
is that my mom would
always tell babysitters
if she gets rambunctious
or starts misbehaving,
just put on 'The Wizard of Oz,'
'cause it really had that
power over me as a young kid.
I would just stare at it all
day and be fascinated by it.
Judy Garland I think
laid the groundwork
for diva singers, belters
that came after her
to understand that it is this
community that will keep you
when everyone else leaves.
- [Judy] I have many,
many interesting,
good, solid, talented,
lovely people
that have taught me the
meaning of laughing,
being able to laugh at oneself.
- [Speaker] Gee, you're
singing about us, Judy?
- [Judy] I was singing about
that hamburger with onions.
(audience laughing)
I am funny.
- [Lena] The queer
community latches on
to people that have
overcome things,
people that have been told no.
There's something
special about them.
- I'd like a cigarette
and a blindfold.
- I gotta see that. (laughs)
- [Lena] And there's a
desire for something more.
And I think that is the hope
that we see and we hold onto
because we know that their
voices, their smiles,
their determination means
that we too can do anything.
- [Dee] My father
read the Oz books
that he had saved from
when he was a child
to me and my brother
as bedtime stories.
The original motivation for
my research was gay visibility
and learning more
about my father.
So I ended up,
over several years,
getting questionnaires
from gay Oz fans.
A lot of my respondents
said that as a kid,
they identified with Dorothy
because she didn't fit in
and she was misunderstood
and she didn't feel like
her family loved her.
- Fancy shoes there, Hank.
- [Dee] In the course
of doing this research,
I discovered there
were a bunch of things
that probably weren't true
or that were hard to verify
about gay culture
and the MGM movie.
- You know, friends
of Dorothy, Judy,
Wizard of Oz.
- [Dee] One, that
the Oz-gay connection
began when the MGM
film came out in 1939.
Another is that the
love of Judy Garland
is the main reason
gay men love the film.
- The other thing about
you and your mother
is that you're both gay icons.
What do you think that's about?
- [Dee] I think it's
much more likely
that it's the other way around,
that she became a gay icon
because she was in a movie
that a lot of gay men liked.
- I think it's simple.
They have good taste.
- What is more
boring than a queen
doing a Judy Garland imitation?
- [Dee] Another one is that
her song, "Over the Rainbow,"
inspired the rainbow flag.
But the "Friend of Dorothy"
one is probably the strongest.
- I'm a friend of Dorothy's.
That's a code name
for men like me.
- I love that term,
friends of Dorothy.
- [Dee] People claim that a
friend of Dorothy was used
in the 60s and 50s
as slang for gay men.
- He was a convicted
homosexual, sir.
- [Dee] And the idea was, you
could say in mixed company,
"Are you a friend of Dorothy?"
- You are a friend of
Dorothy, aren't you?
- [Dee] Most people, if
you ask, will just assume
that it's the Dorothy
in 'Wizard of Oz.'
- Friends of Dorothy means
that you're quietly gay.
- You gonna make the
'Wizard of Oz' costume?
- Yes.
- Which one?
- Dorothy.
Forget your troubles
and just get happy
You better chase
all your cares away
Sing Hallelujah,
come on get happy
Get ready for
the judgment day
- Oh, look what
happened by accident.
The sun is shining,
come on get happy
The lord is waiting
- [Dee] All of these myths,
they sort of
reinforce each other.
It's like a
constellation of beliefs.
Whether it's true or not,
it almost doesn't matter.
People wanna believe that.
They make you feel
like you're part
of something larger
than yourself.
- Toto, I have a feeling we're
not in San Francisco anymore.
(audience laughing)
- Dorothy invites us in.
Shout Hallelujah,
come on get happy
We're going to
the promised land
There is no judgment.
You can come along and
get what you need too.
For the judgment day
- Oh, you're the best
friends anybody ever had.
- [Margaret] My earliest
memories of Oz as a child
were watching it yearly.
As I got older, I would
definitely watch it with sound
down and blasting 'Dark
Side of the Moon,'
which I always thought
was the more exciting
way to watch it.
I think Dorothy has a lot
of different meaning in it
because of Judy Garland.
Her story is very relevant to
me as an actress in Hollywood
who was heavily
criticized for their body
and their body size.
- [Judy] They cut out
"Over the Rainbow" once.
- I know that, isn't
that the truth?
- But they thought it
would take up too much time
with this little
fat girl singing.
(audience laughing)
- Oh, you look beautiful.
What are you talking about?
What do you mean
fat little girl?
You're absolutely gorgeous.
Can we take a picture of that?
Oh that one. (laughs)
And Toto.
Hey, you have a
little Toto right now.
- It's time.
I think power in comedy, it's
really about vulnerability.
I went to Provincetown
Bear Week.
(audience laughing)
I love hanging out with bears
'cause you know
you're gonna eat.
(audience laughing)
I myself also battled with
addiction and alcoholism
and then also have
had a lifelong love
affair with gay men.
Life is too hard for gay men
who don't feel beautiful.
You don't get any dick.
(audience laughing)
All you do is you work on your
'Wizard of Oz' collection.
(laughter continues)
Bitch, don't go
see 'Wicked' again.
(audience laughing)
Then you have the journey,
as so many queer
people have been
needing to leave
their places of origin
and then go off to the big city.
The journey is the most
important part of it all.
(bright music)
- As soon as I got out of
college, I was just going.
(upbeat music)
I really wanted to do something
with the gift I had been given.
(vocalizing)
One point in my life, I
was working like five jobs
to try and make it
work in New York.
I did 'Hairspray,' but I
also was a wedding singer.
I also worked in stores,
at Crate & Barrel.
- Thank you very,
very much madam.
- Thank you.
- Please come
and see us again soon.
- Working at the gym.
- I'll change my clothes
and be right back.
- Working at a restaurant.
- Well, what's
good to eat today?
- Well, we have cheeseburgers,
nut burgers, banana burgers,
chicken burgers, lobster
burgers, tuna burgers,
chop suey burgers,
and our own special,
super, super burger.
- I put my foot to that
pedal and I was like,
"I'm just not gonna stop."
My agent would call
me and she'd be like,
"Okay, there's this
opportunity next,"
and I'd be like, "Got
it, I'm doing it."
Like I was just
ready for anything.
I am so excited to be cast
as Dorothy in 'The Wiz.'
I just started rehearsal today,
and I just cannot
believe that I'm here
with all of these
amazing people.
(upbeat music)
We just finished our hundredth
show just on Broadway.
(upbeat music)
In this specific version,
I think it's very different
because it's a revival,
and every time you
revive something
or you change up the person
who plays the character,
it's gonna be different
because of what they
can bring to the role.
- [Amber] When I was
rewriting 'The Wiz,'
it occurred to me that
this little black girl
was saving these three men,
and essentially, an
entire alternate universe.
I just thought,
"Dang, do Black women
have to save the day
every day forever?"
And then I realized, "Yeah, man.
Yeah, we do."
Black women always save the day.
And it's not that we have to,
it's that we can't help it.
- When I read the story
of Dorothy, I was like,
I love that when she sees
these friends of hers
and when she meets them,
she has the ability
to kind of open up
little by little.
- [Amber] African Americans
are severely community-minded.
And if you are a smart person
in a community that is
suffering and you care,
you're gonna end
up like Dorothy.
You're gonna end up
saving the people you meet
to the best of your ability
and using the time you have
to not only bring yourself up,
but to bring other people up.
Once I saw that, I was
like, "Well, I don't know
that there's ever been a
more accurate depiction
of a Black woman than
Dorothy in 'The Wiz.'"
- Anyone should be able
to relate to this story
because it's about individuals
searching for their own
identity in a fantasy sense,
a lion, a tin man,
and a scarecrow.
But that's what we're all about.
We're all searching
for our identity.
- [Caseen] Ken Harper
knew how important it was
for Black kids to see
themselves in this story.
'The Wiz' was really
the first time
that a classic American story
was adapted for
Black performers.
(upbeat music)
- [Interviewer] How do
you like doing 'The Wiz?'
- I like it, I love it.
Yeah, it's a lot of fun.
It was new for me because I
never had a big role like this,
and I had to get
used to the pacing,
being the fact that
I never took dancing,
singing, or acting.
It was hard for me.
- [Caseen] Stephanie Mills was
well-received by audiences,
but a lot of the critics
were really unkind to her.
- Although the critics
did not love it at first.
Is that true?
- Oh no, they hated me.
They thought I was
too short, ugly,
and Judy Garland should have got
out of her grave and slapped me.
- That's what they wrote?
- That's what they wrote.
- [Dorothy] Did
you say something?
- [Caseen] In his review,
Rex Reed said 'The Wiz'
was a musical for drug freaks.
- Oh, dear.
- [Caseen] The New York critics
were largely horrible
to 'The Wiz.'
- And stupid as usual.
- [Caseen] And they
were so bad, in fact,
that it seemed like the
show was gonna close
right after its opening night.
- [Announcer] Believe
your eyes The Wiz is live.
- [Caseen] For the first time
there were gonna be
television commercials
for a Broadway show at the
beginning of the show's run.
- The winner is Ted
Ross for 'The Wiz.'
The winner is Dee Dee
Bridgewater for 'The Wiz.'
(audience cheering)
Geoffrey Holder for 'The Wiz.'
The winner is 'The Wiz!'
(audience cheering)
- Thank you, Bill.
I'd like to thank, first of all,
Frank L. Baum who wrote
'The Wonderful Wizard of Oz'
because it's lasted from
the year 1900 until 1975.
- [Caseen] But in the end,
it was really Black audiences
that saved the show.
- My first introduction to 'The
Wizard of Oz' was 'The Wiz.'
My older cousin made me
watch it in the basement
at my aunt's house when I
was like seven, I think.
I just remember feeling
like, "Oh, what is this?"
- This came up magically.
I went to see the
Broadway version,
and I went home
and I had a dream
that I was Dorothy of 'The Wiz.'
And I called Berry Gordy
at four in the morning
and woke him up and said,
"I wanna be Dorothy."
He said, "You're crazy."
- Wait a minute, hold on.
Hold on, hold on.
- You got Diana Ross.
- Put your hands
together for the one,
the only Diana Ross!
(upbeat music)
- And Diana Ross is
like, The Queen. (laughs)
- She's a legacy of inspiration.
- [Amber] I do love that Diana
Ross loved 'The Wiz' so much
that she was like, I realize
The Wiz is about a child.
Rewrite it. (laughs)
- With Diana Ross, suddenly
the question was gonna be,
was 'The Wiz' going
to be turned into
a glitzy one-woman show?
- She brought an
innocence to the character
and just something that
we all could relate to.
- [Caseen] I think there's
a lot of misunderstanding
as to how Diana Ross
ended up in 'The Wiz'
and why she wanted to do
it in the first place.
She was really searching
for a lot in her life
and she talks about
this in her memoir.
- [Diana] In the summer of 1977,
when I was first beginning
the rehearsals for the part
of Dorothy in 'The
Wiz,' I felt lost.
I had left Detroit for
LA and LA for New York
trying to find my place.
I asked myself over and over
again, "Where's my home?"
(baby crying)
- [Caseen] I like seeing
a Dorothy who's an adult
who doesn't know which
way her life is going,
because while that's
true for children,
it's also true for adults.
- Can't see how going
south of 125th Street
ever made anybody's life better.
- And you're never gonna
know unless you try.
Are you?
(bright music)
- [Alfred] Coming off of a cycle
of inexpensively made
Black cast films,
also known as
Blaxploitation films.
- The end of your rotten
life, you dope pusher.
- [Alfred] 'The Wiz' signaled
that it could be the start
of something really, really
big for Black cast films.
- [Announcer] Now, part of
going to a movie premiere
is of course watching the movie
and the $30 - $40 million
spectacular screen version
of the stage version
of the Black version
of Judy Garland's movie
called 'The Wizard of Oz'
is the kind of film
that's bound to provoke
a variety of reactions.
- [Alfred] If we
then look at the way
that 'The Wiz' is
reviewed in press-
- But I have to tell you
that not everyone loved it,
and I must confess that I
myself am in that category.
- [Alfred] The white
press generally is like,
"This isn't the Judy Garland
version of 'The Wizard of Oz,'"
or, "Why is Dorothy so old?"
"Why is Dorothy in Harlem?"
- Well, I think from
the very beginning,
it was created to
show our culture
and to show how proud
we are of who we are.
- [Caseen] At that point
in Diana Ross's career,
"Brand New Day" was everything
she was going through.
- [Diana] Even though 'The Wiz'
was disappointing
at the box office,
it was a huge success in my life
and in the lives of many of
the other people involved.
Making the movie when I did
helped me to work through
a lot of difficult times
and to make many
important decisions,
getting my strength both
as a woman and a performer.
This is a moment
that I've dreamed of
since I was a little kid
back in the Brewster Projects
in Detroit, Michigan.
- [Alfred] Seeing Diana Ross
in that red sequin bodysuit
drenched from head to
toe in Central Park
spoke to the idea of the
consummate performer.
- Historic.
That was important
for me to see.
- It's amazing sometimes how
the thing that you are
searching for is right there.
You have it already,
but you didn't know it.
It takes you a certain
amount of time to find that.
So 'The Wiz' was a
personal experience for me.
- [Caseen] "Brand New Day"
represents liberation.
It represents freedom, it
represents the Black experience.
- It's alright.
We're gonna get
wet, that's okay.
- It makes me melt! No!
I'm melting!
- Feels good, actually.
- I mean, by the time we
get to "Brand New Day,"
I'm like, "We're free."
- [Diana] It took me a
lifetime to get here.
I'm not going anywhere.
(audience cheering)
Everybody be glad
'Cause the sun is
shining just for us.
Everybody wake up
Into the morning,
into happiness
Hello world, it's like a
different way of living now
Thank you, world!
- That song, it is a
story of celebration.
- [Announcer] Her hair
swirling in the wind.
She looked like some fantastic
sorcerer in a fairytale.
- [Caseen] You just see so
much freedom and excitement
and fun that she's having,
and the audience is
totally with her.
Can you feel a brand new day
Can you feel a brand new day
(thunder rumbling)
- [Caseen] I challenge the
idea of 'The Wiz' as a failure.
- Oh, shit, 'The Wiz?'
- Put this away.
- 'The Wiz?'
You're kidding.
- That's a gay video.
- It's a kid's video.
- [Speaker] All we really
wanna do is get our party on.
Ease on down, ease
on down the road
- [Caseen] What do
we do with a text
that continues to resonate
for nearly 50 years?
- I mean, you either got
it or you don't have it.
She's got it.
- She got it.
Here's Whitney Houston.
- Tonight, she's going
to be singing "Home."
Her name is Beyonc Knowles.
- [Caseen] Having
these up and coming
major Black singers
roots it in Black culture
as a rite of passage.
- Singing "Home" every night
was something that I
genuinely looked forward to.
This was a way for
me to kind of cement
who I am as an artist.
- Please welcome Nichelle Lewis.
- [Caseen] Let's be very clear,
that song is not for someone
who has middling
vocal abilities.
It's a really tough song.
- I'm ready now.
- Think of home.
- [Tori] "Home" from 'The Wiz'
is the culmination of everything
that Dorothy has experienced
up until that moment.
- Home is knowing.
Knowing your mind, knowing your
heart, knowing your courage.
- A lot of my life, I
didn't have much of a voice
or maybe like people
didn't truly understand me
or what I was going through.
When I think of home
I think of a place
Where there's
love overflowing
I wish I was home
I wish I was back there
With the things
I been knowing
It really took me
like a long time
to piece the puzzle
together and be like,
"Okay, I will be okay
without that person."
And even though they might
not be there in my life,
they are still
there in other ways,
and I am still a
part of that person
just as much as
they're a part of me.
Maybe there's a chance
for me to go back
Now that I have
some direction
It would sure be
nice to be back home
Where there's
love and affection
And just maybe I can
convince time to slow up
Giving me enough time
in my life to grow up
Time, be my friend
Let me start again
- I just think about
the lyrics in "Home"
from now and then.
Even when I'm not realizing it,
I'm drawing from
those life lessons.
I'm drawing from
those life lessons.
Tell me, should
I try and stay
Or maybe I should run away
Would it be better
Better, better, better
just to let things be
Living here, in
my brand new world
- [Announcer] Finally,
you probably heard NBC's
next big live
musical is 'The Wiz.'
On Tuesday, NBC announced
David Alan Grier
will play the Cowardly Lion.
- Oh, great.
- Queen Latifah, Mary J. Blige
also on board already.
The question is, who will
play the lead role Dorothy?
- I knew I didn't have an agent.
I didn't have a manager.
Every audition I was gonna
do was gonna be an open call.
I know every Black
girl in New York,
in New Jersey are gonna
be at this audition.
I just knew it.
- Can you sing "Home?"
- Yes.
- Let's do that.
- Okay.
Sprinkling the scene
- And I go in
there to sing Home.
Makes it all clean
I forgot (laughs)
I forgot the words.
Boom. Forget the lyrics.
But I'm giving them
a show with my eyes.
Like home
- You better learn that song.
- I will, I will. (laughs)
- How you gonna come here
and not know that song?
- It's just the nerves.
- All right, thank you.
- He's like,
"You better go
learn them lyrics."
And I'm like, "Why?
You wanna see me again?"
- [Speaker] You are Dorothy.
- I would watch commercials
when it would say,
"And introducing as
Dorothy, Shanice Williams."
- [Announcer] It's the
live event of the season.
(Shanice laughs)
- It's just crazy.
- [Speaker] Five,
six, seven, and.
- Please welcome David Alan
Grier, Shanice Williams,
Elijah Kelly, and
Ne-Yo to our show.
- It's live on TV.
- Yay.
- There's so much pressure.
And a lot of these NBC Lives
have a history of
people going on Twitter
and being like-
bashing these performances.
- Diana Ross.
- Yes.
- Stephanie Mills.
- Yeah.
- And now you?
- Yeah.
(all laughing)
- I wanted to be as real
as I could to who I am.
This is the new Dorothy
of my generation.
- Shanice Williams, a new
discovery, as Dorothy.
- Yeah, I don't know her yet.
- From Jersey.
They just picked her out
of thousands of people.
- A girl that dresses like them,
talks like them,
moves like them.
- He might be able
to give you courage.
- Just like that?
- I don't see why not.
I mean, he's gonna
give Scarecrow a brain
and Tin Man a heart,
and get me home.
The best cast.
And they would always
remind me like,
you're supposed to be here.
- [Speaker] Few things
live up to the hype,
this and 'Star Wars' have
lived up to the hype for me.
How did it feel
for you, Shanice?
- It felt amazing.
It was such an
out-of-body experience.
Like I was Dorothy.
I was Dorothy.
- The story really
facilitates the idea
of that American dream.
There's something
you don't have,
and you can come and get it.
There might be things
you have to do.
You have to work hard.
You come to America and you
work hard but it's attainable.
- [Caseen] One of the ways you
gain pop culture immortality
is through commercialism.
- Who rang that bell?
- I did.
You have the 50th anniversary
tape of 'The Wizard of Oz.'
- Prove it.
- It's got extra footage.
It's only $24.95, and you
get $5 back from Downy.
- Well, come on in.
(upbeat music)
- [Caseen] It enabled more kids
to have a piece of Dorothy.
(upbeat music)
- Dorothy!
- Toto,
I've a feeling we're
not in Kansas anymore.
- Wow, what's that?
- [Caseen] One of the major
lessons of 'The Wizard of Oz'
isn't just that you
can always go home.
It's that home has a lot of
things already there for you.
Every Sunday evening
with their swell beaus
Rubbin' elbows,
come let's mix
Where Rockefellers walk
with sticks and umbrellas
In their mitts
- I wish I had c-c-c-c-
- Courage?
- No, a c-c-Club.
- [Caseen] There's
something uniquely American
about this idea of not fully
appreciating what you have.
- 'The Wizard to
Oz' scratch off.
See, it's paying off already.
- You know when you're a child,
the moral of the story
of, but just be careful,
'cause things aren't
always as they appear.
(upbeat music)
- Come on, you've
gotta be made up
and ready to shoot that
test by nine o'clock.
- [Caseen] Judy Garland
felt incredible pressure
to always have to
live up to Dorothy.
- Dorothy?
Who is Dorothy?
- [Judy] At the age of 44,
to finally get over fears
that I should have been able
to get over had I not
been a public commodity,
a sort of paying-off slot
machine everlastingly,
jackpot, thing, from
the age of 13 at MGM.
- What difference does it make?
How will I sing if
my face is so awful?
- We're on our way to
meet the Wizard of Oz,
and he's gonna make
me a superstar singer.
- I've been in the
industry for a long time.
People don't see the downside.
- What's this I see?
- They see the fame and
the glitz and the glamour.
(audience applauding)
- But she's Dorothy.
- I never saw myself
being Dorothy.
- I never saw myself
being Dorothy.
I never thought
that it would align.
Me being the only like human
on the set was hilarious.
- Hola!
(Dorothy screams)
(Pepe screams)
- I grew up watching
'The Muppets.'
It was a very
unique opportunity.
- Interesting.
What do these do?
- Nothing, they're my nipples.
(Pepe screaming)
- I feel dirty.
- We have 'The Wizard of
Oz,' we have 'The Wiz,'
and this was kind of like
the bridge between the two.
I just can't stop thinking
about my audition today.
So how do I look?
- You look like one of them
girls in one of them rap videos.
- Order's up.
(bell dings)
- It made a lot of sense
because it paralleled
a lot of what I had
already been going through.
I wanted to sing for you,
but if it's too late,
you think maybe you
can listen to my demo?
- Oh, uh-
- No time.
We'll have to get
your song off Napster.
- No, no, Piggy. Sure.
- That time, yeah, I
had already gone down
my path of like three
failed record deals.
- Let her down easy but
do it so she'll stay down.
- But she won't, she'll
bounce right up again.
- So portraying Dorothy
and some of the letdowns
and the restrictions
and some of the doors
being slammed in her face.
- Dorothy Gale.
Mm, nope, not on the list.
- Definitely able to relate to.
- And Miss Piggy, I understand
because you need to get
as much screen time as possible.
You play all four witches.
- It's true.
I had script approval.
That had something
to do with it.
- [Kermit] Obviously, Ashanti
is an extremely talented
and accomplished singer.
- Yes, well, I taught her a
few things myself actually.
- Did you?
- Yes.
- Such as?
- Yes, well, well.
I mean, how to hit
those high notes.
Yes.
- I think it's important
your judgment is not clouded
and jaded by
expectations and critics.
- She reminds me a lot of
myself when I was younger.
- Really?
- Really?
- Only not half as talented.
- That's bizarre.
(speaking simultaneously)
- You're always gonna have
people that just don't like you
and wanna pick you apart and
criticize you for things.
- Well, I mean Piggy was cool.
She kind of thought
I was kind of messing
with Kermit for a little while.
I had to tell her it
wasn't happening, (laughs)
but it was all good.
- 'The Wizard of
Oz' is just a story
that every human
being could relate to.
It really shows
everything is not
always gonna go how you think.
- How real do you
wanna get? (chuckles)
When we finished
and I sang "Home,"
(audience cheering)
and everybody was getting
ready for the party
and I was literally
backstage by myself,
and I sat down on the house
that crushed the Wicked Witch,
and I was just crying.
And I was like, "What
a freakin' blow."
All that adrenaline,
we did the show
and now it's over.
One and done, literally.
(Shanice screaming)
Like my mom, she tells me
like, "You just came home
and you acted like nothing
had ever happened to you.
Like you just didn't have
this crazy experience."
I did this incredible show,
and then things were
kind of dry for me.
And that's just my story.
It wasn't onto the
next movie or TV show
or what's Shanice doing?
We want her.
I just didn't get those calls.
And so for me, it was
like back into life.
- [Lena] It's important
to see ourselves dreaming
and wanting for more.
And I think sometimes, we can
be punished for wanting more
and for leaving home
to pursue a life
that we feel like
we're worthy of.
There's sometimes a
lot of guilt and shame
associated with that.
- These are like the
challenges that we all face.
But I faced it after
such like a crazy
turning point in my life.
I wondered if my
career would ever
surpass this show
that I just did.
I used to be very nervous.
Like, what could feel
better than that?
You feel like you're
following this path,
the Yellow Brick Road,
and you don't know where
it's gonna lead you.
(light music)
And so the story
of Dorothy is like
a daily reminder to
me, like, you're okay.
- [Lena] Dorothy reminded
us as Black women
that we too can go on these
huge adventures and journeys
and come out of
it the other side.
When Dorothy goes back
home, she's not the same.
- [Speaker] You just
had a bad dream.
- [Dorothy] Doesn't
anybody believe me?
- [Fairuza] Most children,
you'll experience something
and you'll go to tell
the adults about it
and they'll just
be so dismissive.
Their parents don't
even have access
to remember what it's
like to be a kid,
and you're often not believed
about a lot of things.
- Aunt Em, look!
A key from Oz.
- Remember how we spoke?
- Not to talk about Oz.
- [Walter] We did audition
initially 1200 girls.
We had a question that
we asked all of them.
Did you have an
imaginary friend?
If you had an imaginary friend,
then your imaginative
life is strong.
It was clear that
Fairuza was Dorothy.
- Then whoosh!
We fly off.
(light music)
- [Interviewer] You think
you look a little bit
like Dorothy should look?
Like Judy Garland looked?
- Well, I don't necessarily
need to look like Judy Garland
because she played Dorothy the
way she thought it was best.
And now I'm playing Dorothy
the way I think it's best.
- [Interviewer] So it's not
really considered a sequel
to 'The Wizard of Oz' at all.
- No.
Well, it is in fact what happens
after Dorothy comes
back to Kansas.
It's L. Frank
Baum's other books.
- [Walter] I wanted to ground
the beginning of the film
in the specific situation
a Dorothy who had
survived a tornado
would find herself
in the next morning.
- My friends are in
trouble, I know it.
- [Walter] That's
where the whole theme
of electric healing came from.
- I know you don't wanna
go to the doctor's,
but you just haven't
slept the night
right through since the tornado.
- [Walter] When Aunt Em
reads that advertisement,
she sees something
the real people
of the time would have seen.
Dr. Worley was
actually a real person
in Nebraska at that time.
- Ready?
- Yes, doctor.
(thunder rumbling)
- Don't remake classic films.
- So it didn't take me long
watching 'Return to Oz'
to begin closing
my eyes and saying,
"There's nothing
like the original.
There's nothing
like the original."
- You have to come
out sooner or later.
And when you do, we'll tear
you into little pieces.
- But wait, let's be fair,
and judge 'Return to Oz'
strictly on its merits.
It's a bummer.
- [Emily] I had a sense of it
being a huge flop at the time,
'cause you know, dark and gritty
reboot is now such a clich
and often terrible.
But it is fascinating to
me the way that people
just don't know how to cope
with the idea of that in 1985.
- The new film 'Return to
Oz' is not in the same league
as the original, first,
because it isn't a musical.
And that was amazing that
they made that decision.
Second, because it
doesn't star Judy Garland.
Of course, they
couldn't help that.
- [Emily] I think the
1939 MGM movie presupposes
that home is a place you
would want to return to.
And 'Return to Oz' presupposes
that even if you get back home,
you're still gonna be haunted
by the bad things that
have happened to you.
And the latter spoke to me
much more than the former did.
I was an adopted kid.
I was not being raised
by my biological parents,
in the middle of nowhere,
and a queer child.
For some of us, home is not
a place we would like to be.
- [Fairuza] Because of how the
film was received initially,
- [Fairuza] Because of how the
film was received initially,
I always assumed nobody saw it.
Nobody at all.
Many, many, many years later,
it was really lovely to have
people come up to me and say,
"Oh my goodness, I loved you
as Dorothy in 'Return to Oz.'
That was my favorite
movie when I was little.
I watched that VHS
until it fell apart."
It was their escape
from troubles at school
or troubles at home or
troubles with health.
- [Announcer] Return to Oz.
- [Coyote] When we would rent
it, I would like sometimes
sneak it in with other
things, which is ironic
because the 80s
is full of movies
that I remember
vividly traumatizing me
that I was absolutely
allowed to watch.
But no, Mombi's head
screaming from a cabinet
and waking up all these
other disembodied heads
was just a little too much.
- Dorrrrotthyyyy Gaaaaaale
(intense music)
- I watched that movie over
and over and over again.
I just remember finding
it so fascinating.
- This time, I meet new friends.
- My name's Jack.
Jack Pumpkinhead.
- [Coyote] What I
think is interesting
for these characters
is they all require
some sort of assistance.
Their bodies are
not static things.
- And then my other
leg's fallen off too.
- You may call me Tik-Tok.
- If you don't mind, Mr. Tok,
I'll wind up your action.
- [Coyote] And 'Return
to Oz' challenges
what is this
definition of ability.
- Here I am.
- [Coyote] What social models
have we given to bodies
that say they have
to do certain things
to have value or to be useful,
because their bodies
adjust all the time.
They change constantly,
and yet they're all
very good allies.
They're good helpers to
Dorothy and they're capable.
- Help me!
- [Coyote] What is a
normal act of friendship
of being patient
with people's bodies.
- Pick me up.
Pick me up.
- [Coyote] Being patient with
things that you have to do
to help people
participate equally
in a journey along the way.
- Oh, thank you, Dorothy.
- Well, good luck to you.
- Thank you.
- [Interviewer] Down
the Yellow Brick Road,
which is torn up in the movie.
- Yeah, it gets wrecked.
- [Interviewer] It does, okay.
(upbeat music)
- [Gregory] The wizard
says she is wicked
and she deserves to die.
- Destroy her.
- [Ryan] I love Gregory
Maguire's revisionist
version of 'Oz.'
But that's exactly what
I think is important here
is that it's revisionist.
I'm keenly aware that
there are generations today
who will see 'Wicked'
before ever reading
or perhaps seeing the
film, 'The Wizard of Oz,'
which will then inform
not only their notion
of the Wicked Witch of the
West, but also of Dorothy.
- Oh, my goodness.
- You go away, or
I'll fight you myself!
- Dorothy.
- You wicked old witch.
- [Gregory] The opening
of that door upon Oz
that was seeded in
my mind by Dorothy
also opened the door to
the Oz that she didn't see
and that I did, which was an Oz
that was, sadly, just as
dangerous, just as poisonous,
just as unjust as the world
she had hoped to escape.
- Put him in the basket, Henry.
(loud explosion)
- [Gregory] In the way
that I tell the story,
I think Dorothy sees
Elphaba as her sister soul.
She doesn't have
the language for it,
she doesn't have the
life experience for it,
but she nonetheless has
an elective affinity
for this hard-bitten
woman who's trying
to keep things together
in this desolate castle
out on the edge of nowhere.
How is that castle any different
than an isolated farmhouse
in the path of
tornadoes and twisters?
- Dorothy's in that awful place?
- Oh, I hate to think
of her in there.
We've got to get her out.
(wind blowing)
- [Gregory] Dorothy sees
what Elphaba is up against,
and in some ways,
Elphaba sees in her guest
her mirror soul.
(light music)
- The Dorothy that stayed
took the shoes, like - okay,
this is why I've blocked this
out because it's just tragic.
- The two girls with
the least viewer votes
must sing again for Andrew.
- I was in the bottom two
twice on the live show.
- Andrew, you must now
decide, who will you save?
- I'm gonna save Danielle.
(audience cheering)
- [Host] Congratulations,
Danielle.
- After the bottom
two, when the Dorothy
who was returning
home was chosen-
- We thank you very sweetly
for doing it so neatly.
You've ditched
her so completely,
that we thank you very sweetly.
- The Dorothy remaining would
have to take their slippers
from them and present
them to Andrew
and then have them leave
on this moon-shaped trapeze
into the rafters, and
it always felt wrong.
They are also giving
their final performance
of "Over the Rainbow"
shoeless.
We were sleeping
in the same house.
We were in the same cars.
We were in the same
dressing room in the studio.
We were rehearsing all week.
We only had each other.
And so very quickly,
we started to notice
how we could potentially
be taken out of context.
For example, this
was the first one,
this was the big one for us was,
who do you think has
struggled this week
and why should they go home?
And one of us got asked that
in an interview and ran-
I remember it as if
it was yesterday -
ran into the canteen.
And said, "I've just
been asked this question,
I said, this
person, you say me."
And we planned it so
that nobody was left out.
Movies, television stories,
interviews, they outlive you.
So it was really vital
and important for us
to be authentic and genuine.
- Millions of votes have
been counted and verified.
I can now announce that the
winner of 'Over the Rainbow'
and the nation's Dorothy is...
Danielle!
- Even after I won the show,
I felt
guilty.
- If you please, I am Dorothy.
- All of a sudden,
you are Dorothy.
And what does that mean
and how those relationships
change after that?
[Danielle Paige] I love
the idea of characters
who have never had power
and they finally have power.
What do they do with that power?
I think there is some comfort
in seeing the darkness
in other people.
It gives you hope for
your own redemption
in whatever small way.
- [Gita] In the book, when
she throws that pail of water
and connects with her anger,
that's when she transforms.
- [Crowd] Hail, hail Dorothy!
- [Gita] That's when she
starts to recognize who she is
and the power that
she really has.
I think that's the beginning
of her finding her way home.
- Be good, drink this, come on.
- Have you come to take me home?
- No, I've come to take
you to the theater.
- [Manuel] "I Could Go On
Singing" was her final role.
- Oh no, you haven't.
I'm not going back there.
I'm not going back
there ever, ever again.
- [Manuel] There's a
monologue that she rewrote,
and in a way, it does
feel very prophetic.
- You can get me there, sure,
but can you make me sing?
I sing for myself.
I sing when I want to,
whenever I want to.
Just for me.
I sing for my own
pleasure, whenever I want.
Do you understand that?
- Yes, I do understand that.
Just hang onto that, will you?
Hang onto it.
- Well, I've hung on
to every bit of rubbish there
is to hang onto in life.
And I've thrown all
the good bits away.
Now, can you tell
me why I do that?
- No, no, I can't tell
you why you do that,
but I can tell you this.
You are going to be late.
- I don't care.
- It's Dorothy, sir.
We took care of things
like you told us.
- [Fairuza] We build
things up so much.
We assume the
supernatural ability
to those that we admire,
and really, people
are just people.
- We brought you the broomstick
of the Wicked Witch of the West.
We melted her.
- [Wizard] Go away and
come back tomorrow.
- No more lies.
- [Amber] Everything
he says is a lie.
- Pay no attention to that
man behind the curtain.
- [Amber] Everything
he does is for show.
- Everything they
say about me is true.
I'm a phony.
- [Amber] The people
of Oz overcome the fact
that a leader wanted
their destruction.
And so will we.
We'll do the same thing.
- [Gita] When I got
a little bit older,
my mother and I
traveled together
to the different places
where he had lived.
When I was in South
Dakota, one of the things
that I really wanted
to do was read
the original
editorials he wrote,
'cause he had a newspaper there.
- Here.
- Thank you.
- [Gita] As a family member,
it was really disturbing to me.
- [Dorothy] Who are you?
- [Tori] L. Frank Baum
was a complicated person.
He was very liberal in
most of his viewpoints,
especially when it
came to women's rights.
But while he was living
in the Dakota Territories,
had a newspaper, and in
1890, he published an article
that called for the annihilation
of all indigenous people.
- [Gita] I really felt
like I needed to respond.
In the book, Dorothy has to
make another whole journey.
She's gotta figure out
how to get home herself.
- [Reporter] Two
descendants of the man
who wrote 'The Wizard of
Oz' say they're sorry.
They're in South
Dakota to apologize
for what L. Frank Baum wrote
before his famous book.
- [Gita] As the great
granddaughter of L. Frank Baum
and the bearer of
the name Dorothy,
I acknowledge the
offensiveness of his comments
and apologize for the arrogant
and righteous attitude
that permeates
through this culture.
You can't change what
someone has done,
but I think it's so
important to recognize
the mistakes we've
made in the past,
to acknowledge those so that
we can do something different.
- [Roxane] A lot of
times, the conversations
about like what do we
do are so simplistic.
Like, oh, we can never watch
our favorite movie again.
Like, no, no one's saying that.
I do think you
have to foreground.
By the way, here's some context.
You need to know this.
Enjoy, or not.
I think that helps,
that way people know
like a human being made this art
and human beings make
mistakes all the time.
- [Lena] We all wanna live
somewhere over the rainbow.
Truly.
When Dorothy is
singing about that,
even though she's talking about
wanting something
tangible and here and now
and on this earth, in essence,
I think she's singing
about the afterlife.
That is what we
all have in common.
We are all born, we all live,
and at some point, we
all make our transition.
And I think that's what
Dorothy represents:
the breadth of our lives.
(gentle music)
- [Reporter] Funeral services
were held in New York today
for Judy Garland, who
died in London Sunday
at the age of 47.
- [Child] I never saw her before
and I wanted to see her.
- Have you ever seen
any of her movies?
- Yes, I saw 'The Wizard of Oz.'
- [Reporter] Thousands of
people lined the streets
outside the funeral chapel on
Manhattan's Upper East Side.
Many of them had waited
for hours in the heat
to pay this last tribute
to a woman they had known
since her childhood.
- She was fabulous.
She's just a beautiful
woman on a stage.
- [Manuel] The Stonewall
Riots in New York City
happened on June 28th, one
day after Garland's funeral.
There were riots
before Stonewall,
there were riots after,
but it becomes a kind of
mythologized focal point
for when gay liberation begins.
(dramatic music)
- Judy just died.
- Judy who?
- Garland.
(dramatic music)
- If Judy Garland's
funeral was not that day,
the Stonewall rebellion would
not have happened that night.
- It was because they
were upset about Judy,
Judy Garland.
- [Speaker] That was
fighting for gay rights,
and people were killed.
- [Manuel] Historians have
pointed out time and time again
that it is not historical fact.
- Nobody was killed at
Stonewall. - Nobody was killed?
- [Manuel] These two events,
because they're in
such close proximity,
have led a lot of
people to mythologize.
What is fact is that
losing Judy and Stonewall
cleave the LGBTQ
history in half.
There's a before and
there's an after.
Every new generation
has found something
in Judy that speaks to them.
We are, in many ways, like
the stewards of her legacy.
- When I did perform my
first Judy Garland concert,
the Carnegie Hall show,
me being sober at the time
was kind of an
important milestone.
She was always in
that battle, for sure,
and I had sort of
gotten out of it.
I'd like to invite on stage
now my incredible mother,
Ms. Kate McGarrigle.
(audience cheering)
My mother accompanied
me on the piano
up until she died actually.
She was an incredible
accompanist.
We would do it whenever
we could at certain shows.
She died sadly at 63.
Somewhere over the rainbow
Way up high
Five or six years ago,
I would've been of
a different opinion,
saying, okay, maybe
that is old fashioned.
Maybe the whole Judy
Garland thing is dated
and limited in
its representation
of what's actually happening
in the queer world today,
but it does seem more spot on.
We really are being
pursued by this dark force
that wants us dead and
wants to eliminate us
and wants to steal
our ruby slippers.
Dorothy chooses to
just fight for them.
(horn blaring)
- Every night when I performed
"Somewhere Over the Rainbow,"
I felt connected to Judy.
The London Palladium
has such a rich history.
It celebrated its
100-year anniversary
the year we opened 'The
Wizard of Oz' there.
So it's a very special place
where incredible artists
have performed, and we
actually choreographed
and staged the song
so that I could begin
exactly where she sung it.
Somewhere over the rainbow
Way up high
And I'm really
glad I found a way
in which to incorporate
her and pay homage to her,
bringing this character
to our hearts,
to our homes, to our lives,
and helping that live on in
that very, very special room.
- The next artist
that plays Dorothy
is gonna make another injection
to a younger generation,
and I think that's what's
important to continue,
the evolution and
teachings of the character.
- What have you
learned, Dorothy?
- That energy that she has,
that's something that you
need every single day.
You look at social
media, you feel like,
I wish I could be that, or
I wish I could have this.
No, everything that you
need is inside of you.
That means everything.
- Dorothy has healed
me in so many ways.
I honestly think that because
I was so creative as a kid
and because I continued
to be creative,
it really helped me hone
in on a lot of those things
that maybe I didn't
really realize
were even a part of who I was.
- [Fairuza] I think in certain
ways, we were very similar.
- I wish I could be in both
places at the same time.
- [Fairuza] I've been able
to retain the child part
and not let the
world shut me down,
and I think that's
what Dorothy has,
and that's why she
was able to go to Oz
and able to go back.
- Come on, Toto.
- They've had what
they've been searching for
in them all along.
I don't know what's in you.
You'll have to find
that out for yourself.
- [Gita] The next step
is how do you integrate
Oz and Kansas?
How do we materialize these
values in our culture?
- [Interviewer] My last
question that I ask
everybody at the
very end, one word:
Dorothy is?
- [Gita] Dorothy is, oh my gosh.
One word?
Dorothy is you.
(bright music)
(upbeat music)