If you weren’t one of the 11.5 million people who watched The Wiz Live last night, you missed out on a glorious gay treat. Like 99.9 percent of all musicals, it was a bit corny and sugary sweet, but there were also a few wickedly funny nods to queer culture that were just subversive enough to fly over the heads of most in middle America who were snuggling up to watch with the kids.
It’s running again on NBC on 12/19 if you missed it (and duh, it’s on Hulu), and here are five reasons why it was much gayer than any of us expected.
(Spoilers for a 40-year-old Broadway musical follow.)
1.
The Citizens of Emerald City Gave You Ballroom Realness
When the gates of Emerald City opened to residents voguing, spinning, and dipping like they’d paid $10 to get in the ball, our TV practically exploded in rainbows. The gays we watched with gagged at the first of multiple death-drops, and the genderf*ck flamboyance of the dancers didn’t seem altered or watered-down for a mainstream audience for a second. If anything, it was heightened. The scene was a brilliant and completely unexpected nod to the vogueing subculture that started in the black gay ballroom scene of the ’70s and ’80s and obviously continues to influence mainstream culture to this day. Work.
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