A Broadway Musical the black-themed musical itself. "The Wiz" proved to be Brown's only success. Following a dismal October–November tryout with Helen Gallagher and Julius LaRosa at the theatre in the Riverside Church in Morningside Heights, the producers fired most of the cast and creative personnel, including director/choreographer George Faison. Gower Champion was called in to rescue the Broadway-bound production with only a month to go, but he feared that the show's defects were too serious to remedy and insisted on receiving a "Production supervised by" credit only. After 14 previews, the Broadway production opened and closed the same night at the Lunt-Fontanne
Mel Tolkin Mel Tolkin Mel Tolkin, né Shmuel Tolchinsky (August 3, 1913 – November 26, 2007), was a television comedy writer best known as head writer of the live sketch comedy series "Your Show of Shows" (NBC, 1950–1954) during the Golden Age of Television. There he presided over a staff that at times included Mel Brooks, Neil Simon, and Danny Simon. The writers' room inspired the film "My Favorite Year" (1982), produced by Brooks, and the Broadway play "Laughter on the 23rd Floor" (1993), written by Neil Simon. Tolkin, who won an Emmy Award and every other major prize for television writing,