The Kravis Center for the Performing Arts and Broadway Across America are proud to launch the 2025-26 Broadway in Palm Beach with THE WIZ, for a limited engagement from October 21-26. Celebrating 50 years since the beloved musical first opened on Broadway in 1975, this new revival features hometown talent including Miami native Amitria Fanae’ (Addaperle), along with Florida-natives Kameren Whigham (Ensemble) from Fort Lauderdale and Sai Anthony (Ensemble / US scarecrow) from Jacksonville.
Based on L. Frank Baum’s children’s book, “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz,” THE WIZ takes one of the world’s most enduring American fantasies and transforms it into an all-Black musical extravaganza for the ages.
This groundbreaking twist on The Wizard of Oz changed the face of Broadway—from its iconic score packed with soul, gospel, rock and ‘70s funk to its stirring tale of Dorothy’s journey to find her place in a contemporary world.
The principal cast includes Dana Cimone, making her national tour debut, as Dorothy; Alan Mingo Jr., returning to the role he originated on the pre-Broadway tour and played on Broadway as The Wiz. Also making their national tour debuts are Sheherazade as Glinda, Kyla Jade as Aunt Em/Evillene, D. Jerome (MJ the Musical, Hamilton) as the Tinman, Cal Mitchell (The White Rose, The Color Purple)as the Lion and Elijah Ahmad Lewis (Ain’t Too Proud, Motown The Musical) as the Scarecrow.
It was a pleasure to sit down with Cal Mitchell (The Lion) for this exclusive Hotspots interview.
Were you always a performer even as a child or when did it start?
I picked up on the musical theater performing when I was a junior in high school.
My family had just moved like 30 minutes outside of Nashville to a town called Murfreesboro. At the school that I was going to, the choir did all the musical theater shows. My junior year, they did a production of The Who’s Tommy, a Rock Opera, and that was my first show. So I picked up on performing when I was in high school, and I’ve kept up with it.
What was your first paid performing gig?
Oh, God. My first paid singing gig was when I was a freshman going into my sophomore year of college. I booked a little summer stock job in Bartstown, Kentucky, and I got paid as an intern, which was about, I would say, $120 a week.
When did you realize performing would be your career and how did that happen?
I would say it probably happened around the same time as I had gotten into musical theater. When I got into college I was going to originally major in vocal perormance (opera) but changed to Theater with a Musical Theater minor. I think making that decision was what cemented that this is what I wanted to do for the rest of my life.
Other than this role, what has been your favorite role?
That’s hard…I would say I got to do two productions of Jason Robert Brown’s Songs for a New World. And I got to play the character in the show called Man One, who sings some of the most well-known musical theater songs, like King of the World, Steam Train, and specifically Flying Home.
Flying Home is such a good song, and I got to perform it for two different productions at two different times. I was really young when I did it, though, so the vocal ability was still coming into play.
And I would really love to get another shot at doing that show maybe again in the next couple of years. But like having that be the first big gig job was really a big test for me on whether or not this is truly what I wanted to do.
What is your fantasy role, a role you haven’t played, but you would die to play?
A role that I would love to play is The Witch in Into the Woods. It’s a little bit of a reach, I’m sure, but I’m a very big fan of Steven Sondheim. I have been since I first dove into the musical theater standards, and I love Into the Woods. I love specifically the character of the Witch. I think she is crazy and wild, but there’s a lot of themes with her that I really, really do love. I also think that it would just be crazy to play that character because I don’t think anyone would see me playing that character at all.
Describe yourself in three words?
Happy, crazy, and hopefully warm.
What do you do for fun?
I like to stay in the house. I like to stay in my hotel room and, you know, be amongst myself. I enjoy reading a lot. I actually have like three books that I need to finish. I read, I play video games, I have a PlayStation 4 while we’re traveling from city to city. I love to cook. If there’s ability for me to cook in a hotel room, I’m going to cook.
Is there pressure being in such an iconic show?
There’s always a bit of pressure, but it’s nothing that I don’t think that I am able to meet headfirst. I love challenges, and I love the ability to put my stamp and say, I was here on year 50 and this is how I did my show.
What should our readers expect from this production of The Wiz?
Very easy. You should expect a show with a whole lot of laughter, a whole lot of good music, and just a whole lot of fun.
It’s just a good story of this young girl trying to figure out who she is. And along the way of her figuring that out, she meets all these other characters and three specifically where they’re also looking for something.
And so, the only way that they can find all of the things that they need is to go down this road together. And I think that that togetherness and that the story of community and doing something with people behind you is such a prevalent thing that we need to be reminded of now.
The world is turning on its head. And I think that this show is just a bright spot where you can come in, you can let go of whatever is happening outside of the theater, and you can really just like sit there and have fun and laugh as much as you want to.
And we want you to. We want you to laugh and sing the songs and enjoy this show and enjoy the ride as much as we enjoy doing it every night.
For more information on Cal, follow him at
Instagram.com/thecalmitchell
Tickets to THE WIZmay be purchased at Kravis.org or at the Kravis Box Office at 701 Okeechobee Blvd, West Palm Beach, or by calling 561-832-7469.
