The Broadway musical “The Wiz” will play Boston’s Citizens Opera House from August 12 – 24.  This marks the groundbreaking show’s first national tour in four decades.

In the mega-musical hit, young Dorothy is whisked off from the boredom of her Kansas farm by a tornado, only to be plunked down in The Land of Oz. As she searches for a way to return home, she crosses paths and makes friends with a Scarecrow, a Tin Man and a Cowardly Lion, each of whom is also searching for something missing in their lives.  

Their solutions lie in the Emerald City with grants from The Wizard of Oz.  Challenging their journey, of course, are the evil machinations of the Wicked Witch of the West. 

Kent Gash, founding Director of NYU Tisch School of the Arts’ New Studio on Broadway, has written,  “In ‘The Wiz,’ black artists, composers, lyricists, director, choreographer, orchestrator and others tell the timeless story of ‘The Wizard of Oz.’ 

“By doing so in vernacular black speech, rhythms, music and expression, the particularity of the black experience and the authority of the cultural voice in all its specificity transcends to become, universal. The lives of African Americans are explored and uplifted through the familiar story where a young girl with a strong sense of home is transformed by the black community of Oz and, in turn, she transforms them.”

The Wizard of Oz was introduced to the world in 1900 through author L. Frank Baum’s children’s fantasy, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.  This was the first in Baum’s series of 14 Oz books following the tales of Dorothy and her friends.

That first book became the basis for the lavish MGM technicolor musical, “The Wizard of Oz,” released in 1939.  Starring Judy Garland, Ray Bolger, Burt Lahr, Jack Haley and Margaret Hamilton, the film was well received.  However, it was its initial television airing in 1956 that brought the film massive popularity.  

In the days before VHS, DVDs and streaming, the film would go on to air once a year in an annual television event, securing it as a family favorite.   According to the Library of Congress, “Oz” ranks as the most seen movie in film history.

In 1975, “The Wizard of Oz” returned for a dynamic retelling as “The Wiz.”  With music and lyrics by Charlie Smalls, the story was reset against a backdrop of contemporary African American culture. 

According to The Los Angeles Times: “For a generation of black Americans, this was the first time they saw people who spoke, sung and moved the way they did in a Broadway production and, later, a big-screen musical, and it has become a kind of rite of passage for the black community.

“’The Wiz’ is foremost a story of racial liberation, and an early piece of Afrofuturism — the combination of science fiction, fantasy, magic realism and ancient African tradition that critiques historical events or envisions a black future . . .”

Popular songs from “The Wiz” include “Ease On Down The Road,” “Everybody Rejoice,” “If You Believe” and Dorothy’s stirring finale, “Home.”

Broadway’s 1975 production of “The Wiz” would go on to win seven Tony Awards including the coveted prize for Best Musical.  The show made Stephanie Mills, as Dorothy, a star.

“The Wiz” was subsequently revised as a 1978 film starring Diana Ross, Michael Jackson, Lena Horne and Richard Pryor.

In 2015, following successful live NBC telecasts of the classic Broadway musicals, “The Sound of Music” and “Peter Pan,” “The Wiz-LIVE!” aired on December 3, introducing the show to a whole new television audience.  Starring Queen Latifah, Mary J. Blige, Common, David Alan Grier, Amber Riley and others, the broadcast drew 11.5 million viewers.

As fans know, the characters of Oz have since gone to dazzle audiences in “Wicked.” Plus, the original 1939 film is currently being technologically re-imagined for a lavish, although controversial, presentation later this summer at the 17,000 seat Sphere in Las Vegas. 

As Kent Gash believed, “Everything about ‘The Wiz’ is about the power, breadth and depth of extraordinary African-American and Afro-Caribbean creativity . . . Dorothy discovers just how beautiful and rich a gift it is to be black. In the 1970s, this had not been seen in quite this way before. Forty years later, it remains a rarity.”

So, click your heels three times and join “The Wiz” at The Opera House.

Info: “The Wiz,” August 12 – 24, Citizens Opera House. Tickets: $57-$155, boston.broadway.com