The Wiz will be at the Tennessee Performing Arts Center through Sunday September 28th. The Tony-Award winning musical kicks off TPAC’s 2025-26 season, celebrating its 45th year. Rebecca Bourne, senior communications manager for Broadway at TPAC, spoke with WPLN afternoon host LaTonya Turner about the show.
“We opened our doors in 1980 and we have been so blessed to be able to serve the Nashville community with all things arts and education,” she said. “It really is a storybook season. We have some fairy tales coming up. We have classics like ‘The Outsiders.’ We have ‘The Wiz’ that everyone knows and loves. It is just a fun show. It is one that is recognizable, but we’re also super excited that we’re welcoming two Nashville locals in the cast making their Broadway touring debut. We’re super excited to have this be their homecoming show.”
One of those locals making their debut is Cal Mitchell, who plays Lion in the show that reimagines the “Wizard of Oz” story. Mitchell grew up singing in church and that’s where he figured out that he could sing. It wasn’t until he got to Siegel High School in Murfreesboro and joined their choir that he understood that there was an actual route for him to hone this gift that he was given. He said coming back home to do this show means everything to him.
“My senior year of high school, I was nominated for the Spotlight Awards and I got to perform at Andrew Jackson Hall on that stage in front of like 2000 people,” said Mitchell. “Being able to come back to that same theater and also being able to do it in front of my family, people that I’ve grown up with since I started doing this, it feels absolutely surreal, but it feels so nice.”
He continues, “Doing this show and singing these songs, I try not to take it for granted. I’m singing this show that is turning 50 years old, and it’s had such impact. Because at the time when this show came out, it was still radical to see an entire Black cast on stage. Our main jobs as theater performers is to hold a mirror up to whatever the times are to make sure that you get a reprieve from that life in a space that is so crazy and whimsical and no matter how hard things get there is a brand new day coming.”
Additional event opportunities in the next week:
Wednesday (Sep 24) Nashville Show To-Go Birthday at the OG Basement and Sombr at Muncipal Auditorium. Thursday night (Sep 25), Maren Morris performs at The Pinnacle and on Friday (Sep 26), Morgan Freeman brings his Symphonic Blues Experience with the Nashville Symphony at the Schermerhorn, Tune-Yards performs at Exit/In, and Sharp Pins performs at The Blue Room. Back at the same venue Saturday (Sep 27), WNXP Presents Water From Your Eyes and also on Saturday and Sunday (Sep 28) you’ve got Pilgrimage Music and Cultural Festival out in Franklin. We wrap up this week’s listings on Tuesday (Sep 30) with HAIM at The Pinnacle.