Patrons complain about subpar performance of The Wiz

[quote]Lavarious Slaughter

Jesus Christ, that's a name.

Hilarious!

Come on and...

Rip on off Rip on off

The patrons!

Tasha McGhee, who went to the 7 p.m. show, said the actor playing the Cowardly Lion didn't have a tail or a mane on his costume. He was missing one of his paws and was wearing one black sock instead.

"He didn't look like a lion," McGhee said. "He looked like a dumb sasquatch!"

Racist!

I'm laughing my ass off reading some of the comments about the show.

"people forgot their dialogues"

"the cowardly lion looked like a DAMN SASQUATCH"!

If it was so bad, why did no one film it on their phones? I would have whipped mine out and filmed this travesty.

I understand that people will laugh at this article but it makes me sad. I would imagine this was a play produced and performed by African-Americans and directed at an A-A audience. I'm sure these people had better ways of spending their money but wanted a night of enjoyable entertainment and this is what they got. It's shameful enough when whites rip off blacks, but this takes it to another level.

This is one of those times I wish I'd won that mega zillion lottery, I'd refund everyone who attended.

The cowardly lion ( sasquatch?) was missing one of his paws, so he was wearing a black sock on his hand instead.

Damn, this production was purely amateur hour.

This sort of thing has alreayd been made into a pretty good play and movie called "Noises Off".

They’re doing it again in Florida this weekend. If you look at the poster for it (which was also the image on the marquee in Louisville), they are straight up using the logo & images of the cast of the live TV production. I’m surprised NBC’s lawyers haven’t stepped in yet

The Wiz was performed at The Brown Theater.

Irony abounds.

It sounds like a true Dollar Tree version.

And R8 I think you're right. This was probably the old "chitlin" circuit for black-themed and black aimed shows.

Let's all go to it!

[quote]Lavarious Slaughter

[quote]Panflaca Merrivadge

Who thinks of names like this?

I'll always remember Noises Off for watching it when I was sick with a sore throat. It hurt to laugh, but I couldn't stop laughing anyway. It's a laugh riot, maybe the best thing Carol Burnett's done outside of her show.

Only I can get these things done right!

Sounds like the Ratchet Ass Theatre Company would be a better name. I’d love to see this production in person.

Oh, my sides! Jesus, I can't stop laughing. I'd have paid serious $$$ to have seen this abortion.

The scenery projected from a laptop is a technique I witnessed at Bucks County Playhouse for the Joyce DeWitt GYPSY. I think the putative orchestration was on the same laptop.

Joyce was fine. The production was not.

Well, it was either "The Wiz" or Tyler Perry's latest travesty. Which would you prefer, bitches?

They eased on down the......zzzzzzzzzzzz

Lavarious Slaughter? I don't believe it.

New updates at the link below. Lavarious says there will be NO refunds. Blames the venue for his own failings with an insinuation of racism thrown in for good measure

[quote]Slaughter did, however, say there were problems such as missing props, poor sound quality and microphone issues at the venue. He blamed those issues on the Brown Theatre, saying the facility did not give the show time for a technical rehearsal

[quote]"It calls into speculation and saddens me to think that the lackluster, sabotaging treatment we endured had something to do with ours being an all-black cast and crew," Slaughter said.

After all this publicity, they could really clean up if they advertised it as audience participation theater, along the lines of Rocky Horror Picture Show.

From the back cover of [italic]Playbill of Love: A Woman's Guide for Love, Happiness & Her Fairytale Ending[/italic]...

[quote]Lavarious A. Slaughter is the epitome of a trendsetter. He's a great innovator for anything related to performance on or offstage and a guru in personal matters of the heart.

Randy Rainbow's playing there tomorrow night.

Lavarious is Hilarious!

"dumb sasquatch"

!!!!!

Theater ain't easy kids

On the bright side, the whole audience could empathize with Dorothy. Shortly after arriving in a strange place, they all fervently wished they could go home.

If Lavarious is such a mover and shaker, he should know what is his responsibility and what is the venue’s. You don’t just show up day-of with janky equipment and expect a miracle. I feel sorry for the tech guys there. I can guarantee they felt worse than the audience. Having been tangentially involved in venue rentals, you’d be surprised how much worse some of these things could be.

The fact that he’s using NBC’s artwork for this is enough for any venue to back out of the contract. It points to deeper problems.

Every time I see that name I think of Lascivious Laughter.

I hope Mel Brooks sees this and pays attention. It's high time for [italic]The Producers II.[/italic]

"The backdrop was a projected image of a cornfield and a barn. But then laptop notifications kept popping up on screen."

I would SO have paid money to see this performance. And of course I would have recorded it all.

I foresee our Tasteful Friends™ whipping out their laser levels and falling to the ground shrieking.

"Playwrites" such as Lavarious should be slaughtered.

[quote]"Playwrites" such as Lavarious should be slaughtered.

So should playwrights.

—Lavatorius Slattern

[quote]Helen Barnett...described the show as "janky."

R36, I loved that detail, but my very favorite was the Cowardly Lion wearing a black sock on one of his hands, because part of his costume was missing. This is the kind of magic you can get only from a live performance.

Lavarious don't take no comments on his IG page. He hip to what's real.

It sounds like if you can lower your standards, the show would be a riot to watch.

The Scarecrow: If I only had a brain!

The Tin Man: If I only had a heart!

Cowardly Lion: If I only had a paw!

Lavarious Slaughter: If I only had a clue.

Was it being performed on a Monday because, well, you know.

[quote] "The backdrop was a projected image of a cornfield and a barn. But then laptop notifications kept popping up on screen."

I wonder if they were Wit & Wisdom notifications.

The lion was missing a paw, and had on one black sock.

That is too fucking much. High school performances are better.

Was black twitter on this? If that's a hashtag, I'm so on it.

Isn't this the NBC poster with Dorothy 'shopped out?

Why on earth would the Cowardly Lion's actor think that it would look better with a black sock on his hand -- wouldn't that stand out MORE than his brown skin?

And really, couldn't someone have run down the street to Dollar General and picked up a brown sock for the man? My God!

“It was terrible. Dorothy was wearing a Walmart dress. They forgot their dialogues ... at one point Dorothy said she wanted to go back to Texas!” —Helen Barnett

Well, at least Dorothy remembered the Alamo.

BUMP!

Next performance is tonight!

That is STANK.

R48 No hashtag, but a cursory search of "Lavarious" brought up some hilarious comments.

Including: "Who else could have put on a janky, sloppy and terrible play? You knew it had to be a Lavarious."

Well, okay. Lavarious could get it.

WTF is a Lavarious Slaughter?

Lavarious Slaughter’s The Wiz.

[quote]WTF is a Lavarious Slaughter?

A great porn name.

I want to see this production.

Or maybe the film version of itl Lavarious Slaughter's The Wiz, a show gone wrong.

Live a black cast of this,

Lavarious, Tennessee

only instead of 17 years to put on the production he does it in 17 hours.

Was the black sock on his hand or foot?

It was on his cock, Rose.

So in that Orlando Sentinel article, he goes on and on about providing tickets to youth so that they can experience this wonderful gift of theater, but it turns out he wants other people to pay for those tickets! That’s some nerve right there

The things you find when you search "Lavarious" on Twitter.

r63 r64 r66 Either the lion has his hands behind his back to hide the sock, or the sock really is on his cock.

I think that the Tin Woodsman's outfit is a shiny silver weight loss suit.

LSA, of course, has the receipts -- more photos, and possibly videos.

Well, at least now I can hold my head up high.

FF’d R69. Don’t post that hate site here. Not after Kevin Hart.

Sorry, Di. I think even this is better than the movie

Somebody PLEASE go watch this tonight

holy Shit!

From the LSA thread, which is hysterical:

[quote]Can we discuss how raggedy and to' up Dorothy is looking? That's not even a Walmart dress; that's one of Big Mama's summer slips from the mid-80s paired with a pair of compression stockings and a bus station wig. I f I were the actress, I would have busted Lavarious' head open to the white meat for having me look so damn raggedy.

Are those folding chairs in R74? That would have been your first clue that the evening was going to be Off x2,457 Broadway.

The Tin Man’s medieval axe is one of a set of four plastic weapons purchased at Walmart for 75% off two days after Halloween.

Sleep easy, children. We are guaranteed at least three other Lavarious Slaughter productions.

Negro stuff.

Complaining that Dorothy was wearing a "Walmart dress" is ridiculous, she isn't supposed to be the height of sophistication.

The woman playing Evilene posted this:

[quote]Come and check out our special guest, Greg Davis Jr. aka Klarity doing his standup comedy performance right before The Wiz ‼️ There are still some tickets left go to www.lavariousslaughter.com/tickets or you can purchase at the door. #wiz #comedystandup #orlandoborn #proudmom

Did anyone attend?

They spoke abut this show in the latest NPR Wait Wait show...

Here's the crushing irony: this Lavarious will now make $$$ because people want to see this train wreck in all its horrifying glory.

[quote]Complaining that Dorothy was wearing a "Walmart dress" is ridiculous, she isn't supposed to be the height of sophistication.

True, but she shouldn't look like a $5 hooker, either.

Apparently they inserted pop songs into the score. There’s an interview online in which the woman who played one of the witches confirmed that another witch sang “I’m Every Woman” and the Scarecrow played by Carl Thomas sang “I Wish!”

R83 the best part of that Wait, Wait segment was when the phone contestant, asked to point out the real story, correctly guessed The Wiz story becuase,,,the theater is terrible.

[quote]Apparently they inserted pop songs into the score.

That is illegal and unethical.

Tell it to Lavarious!

The choreography in that clip is hilarious! The director likely just said “Do what you want”

Are they shaking due to The Lord?

Also from LSA:

[quote]The oil can from the closeup looks like one of those Swanson chicken broth boxes

It's quite obvious that Slaughter and the producers never expected this to get much attention outside the cities it played in so they pulled shit that they know is illegal: interpolating songs, using the NBC poster, etc. At first, I felt sorry for them because they just seemed like a well-meaning troupe who worked in a production that just didn't jell. But the illegal shit changed all that.

The play's poster is interesting. It looks like the Lion, the Tin Man, and Rocky Horror's Dr. Frank n Furter being advertised.

It's just a jump to the left, and a black sock to the right

I once saw a very amateurish production of the Rocky Horror Show at a small, local venue.

Sleaze on Down the Road.

Even the worst, most amateurish community theatre production have dress rehearsals - this didn't and had the nerve to charge people 65 bucks!

Was it the satire version, but no one informed the audience- or the cast?

Murdering art like that, SHAMEFUL.

As a peer of Lavarious once wrote: Art isn’t easy

A Lavarious production!

I hope NBC and everyone who owns rights to the Wiz bankrupt this lavatories guy

[quote]a bus station wig.

I love that!

This sounds like something they'd feature on RHOA with Porsha as Dorothy and Nene as The Moose.

[quote]As a peer of Lavarious once wrote: Art isn’t easy

This made me LOL. People are staring

Shuckin' and Jivin' 24/7

This one of the funniest threads in a long time. Lavarious is an instant DL icon

Lavarious? Is his sister named Lystreene?

It is a damn shame we can't organize a Datalounge field trip. This production is crying out for our attendance.

r108 He has another sister named La' Sundry.

His brother, the well known producer La'assorted puts out QUALITY productions. I saw his BRILL production of Peter Pan last year in the ATL. BRILL, I say.

His half-brother Lamiscellaneous has been working with noted director Corky St. Clair in Missouri on an important new theatre piece that's expected to attract massive attention from Broadway movers and shakers.

When I fell to the floor:

[quote]They forgot their dialogues.

Has anyone uploaded the video clips on YouTube?

Another gem from the oeuvre of Lavarious.

Every time I read "Lavarious Slaughter" I feel the need to piss but am afraid to go into the loo.

[quote]His brother, the well known producer La'assorted puts out QUALITY productions. I saw his BRILL production of Peter Pan last year in the ATL. BRILL, I say.

Was it about peanut butter?

Update from earlier this summer. Lordt.

We’ve got costumes in the barn! And scenery on the laptop!

[quote] The backdrop was a projected image of a cornfield and a barn. But then laptop notifications kept popping up on screen.

If only his personal porn collection had come up on the screen.

That would have been EPIC!

What is a "BLACK NATIVATY""

Is that when Shantee tells Joseph and Mary they can't STAY? To SHANTAY AWAY?

Lavarious' promo says 'Lavarious was determined to never let go of his dreams'... His first big break came from his play “You Better Be Glad I’m Saved,” .

From there, it wasn’t all smooth sailing, but Lavarious knew what he was capable of and refused to let his failures define his career."

....In 2016 Lavarious traveled to Toronto Canada to direct and produce Mahalia Jackson the musical which opened with raved reviews.'

“Janky”? LMAO

Raved reviews?!

Did it get savaged headlines?

Younger brother Lanumerous Slaughter has wisely decided to stay away from the smell of the greasepaint and is pursuing a career as a dental hygienist.

Lavarious Slaughter he's the chitlin circuits Brian Stokes Mitchell with less talent.