Carl Hall and Stephanie Mills in the original Broadway production of The Wiz
Promotional chapbook for The Wiz
Charlie Smalls (1943–1987)
Annotated piano-conductor score for “Ease on Down the Road”
1974
Music Division, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center
Annotated piano-conductor score for “Ease on Down the Road”
The composer and lyricist Charlie Smalls studied at The Juilliard School, a private performing-arts conservatory in New York City, and toured with the singer Harry Belafonte (1927–2023) before composing his masterpiece: the score for The Wiz, which incorporated elements of Motown, jazz, disco, and other genres. This sheet music for “Ease on Down the Road,” his best-known song from the show, was used during rehearsals and performances.
“Ease on Down the Road” is a gospel and funk-inflected response to the march-like “Follow the Yellow Brick Road” featured in the 1939 Wizard of Oz film, and it reflects the liberating spirit of Black social movements of the 1970s. Rather than “follow,” the characters in The Wiz “ease on down”—a significantly freer action—and encourage each other to unburden themselves (“Don’t you carry nothin’ that might be a load…”).
: Music Division, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Dorothy an…
Currently on View at Stephen A. Schwarzman Building
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