Stephanie Mills Recalls Vicious Criticism When She Played Dorothy in The Wiz

A long and diverse list of divas have played The Wizard of Oz’s Dorothy Gale, one of the most iconic female characters in the history of everything, over the decades. Judy Garland, Diana Ross, Stephanie Mills, Fairuza Balk, Ashanti, Nichelle Lewis and Glee alum Amber Riley are just a few of the ladies who have dreamed of an Emerald City somewhere over the rainbow while easing on down the yellow brick road to Oz.

In celebration of the 125th anniversary of L. Frank Baum’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (the novel from which all our Oz memories originated), the new documentary It’s Dorothy! examines the history of Dorothy, its cultural resonance and many of the talented ladies who have stepped into her ruby slippers.

The film, directed by Jeffrey McHale, premieres on June 7 at the Tribeca Festival. It features interviews with Ashanti, Balk, Ruffin, Lena Waithe, Rufus Wainwright, Margaret Cho, John Waters and others.

“There’s something about this girl from Kansas that resonates with so many people, especially anyone who feels like they don’t fit in,” McHale tells PEOPLE. “Dorothy’s story shows how even when you feel like an outsider or when you struggle with just figuring out how to be in the world, you can still move through life with curiosity and empathy. We think of it as a story for kids, but so many adults connect to these experiences too.” 

The most celebrated version of Dorothy is perhaps the one immortalized by Judy Garland in the 1939 classic The Wizard of Oz. The movie remains a Hollywood touchstone nearly a century after its release. When the Broadway musical The Wiz opened at the beginning of 1975, it extended Dorothy’s dream to little Black girls.

“Anyone should be able to identify with the story because it’s about individuals searching for their own identity — in fantasy sense, a lion, a tin man and a scarecrow,” Ken Harper, producer of the original Broadway musical says in a vintage interview unearthed in the documentary. “That’s what we’re all about. We’re searching for our identity.”

Adds Caseen Gaines, author of If Ever a Wiz There Was, in a voiceover: “Ken Harper knew how important it was for Black kids to see themselves in this story.”

“The Wiz was really the first time that a classic American story was adapted for Black performers,” he continues.

Stephanie Mills was 17 when she originated the role of Dorothy in The Wiz on Broadway in 1975. The musical was nominated for eight Tony Awards and won seven of them.

Despite the success of The Wiz on Broadway, Stephanie Mills still had to deal with scathing critiques from reviewers who just weren’t feeling her in the role. The documentary shows her in a 1975 interview explaining how she had to adapt to the pacing of being in a Broadway musical, having never taken dancing, singing or acting classes. Then it switches to a later interview in which Mills discusses the negative reaction to The Wiz (“This is a musical for drug freaks,” Rex Reed wrote in his review) and, in particular, her being cast as Dorothy.

“They hated me. They thought I was too short, ugly, and Judy Garland should have got out of her grave and slapped me,” she told Rosie O’Donnell during an appearance on O’Donnell’s 1996–2002 daytime talk show.

“That’s what they wrote?” O’Donnell asks, incredulous.

“That’s what they wrote,” Mills responds, clearly recovered from any hurt she may have felt at the time.

Diana Ross ended up taking on the role of teenage Dorothy in the 1977 film version of The Wiz, despite being in her early 30s at the time. The film featured an all-star cast (which included Michael Jackson as The Scarecrow), but the movie bombed at the box-office.

Still, the legend lived on. Mills went on to enjoy an incredible run on the pop and R&B charts in the latter part of the ’70s and through the ’80s, with hits like “Never Knew Love Like This Before” and “Home,” a studio recording of The Wiz’s show-stopper number that topped Billboard’s R&B singles chart in 1989. Now 68, she kicked off the ongoing Queens Tour with fellow soul legends Gladys Knight, Patti LaBelle and Chaka Khan in May.

Meanwhile, Judy Garland, who played the screen’s first version of Dorothy, remains the ultimate gay icon. Although she died in 1969 at age 47, her spirit lives and so does the spirit in Dorothy. They live on in every version of The Wizard of Oz that’s been produced over the last 125 years, and in the success of the Oz prequel Wicked, a massive hit both on stage and on screen.

“So long as that book exists somewhere on a shelf,” Fairuza Balk says at the beginning of It’s Dorothy!, “that world lives forever.”

It’s Dorothy! premieres June 7 at the Tribeca Festival.