When Broadway calls, if you are in theater, you answer the phone. That is how First Stage Children's Theater has come to develop a new, scaled-down stage version of "The Wiz," the hit musical retelling of "The Wizard of Oz" in an African-American context.

"The Wiz" burst onto Broadway in early 1975, winning seven Tony Awards and running for 1,672 performances. That success led to a 1978 movie starring Michael Jackson, Diana Ross, Richard Pryor and Lena Horne.

With judicious editing -- the original script contains references to some very adult vices -- the show seems to be a natural for children's theater companies. But no kids' version existed until now.

First Stage is currently creating a condensed "The Wiz" in its space at the Milwaukee Youth Arts Center. The musical will receive its world premiere March 5-28 in Todd Wehr Theater at the Marcus Center and then be available for staging by theater companies across the country. First Stage will share in the author royalties for the shorter version of "The Wiz" for five years.

This all started four or five years ago, when the Susan Gurman Agency, a New York theatrical literary firm, proposed to First Stage that the company develop a Theater for Young Audiences (TYA) version of "The Wiz." The TYA format is designed specifically for children to perform, and it limits the length of the show to 90 minutes, including intermission. A range of Broadway hit musicals, from "Les Miserables" to "Into the Woods," are now available in TYA condensations.

The Gurman agency and First Stage have worked together on past shows, according to artistic director Jeff Frank, and he explained why his company is particularly well equipped to create TYA scripts and scores. "We are one of the few children's theaters in the country that do age appropriate casting."

That means kids, not adults, are placed in kid roles. Fully grown actors aren't hired to look and act like children.

"We think that makes for more authentic, genuine theater," Frank continued. "The Gurman agency knows we can take something and really make it sing for family audiences."

First Stage did not immediately leap at the Gurman offer. Frank felt he had to get all of his munchkins lined up in a row to make the project work.

"It has been in my brain for years," he recently said. "I've been thinking, how can we do this?"

Frank has now figured it out with collaborator Richard Carsey, a former artistic director at the Skylight Opera Theatre, who has adapted Charlie Smalls' soft rock score. Carsey has focused on two issues: shrinking the music to fit the shortened format and rewriting some of the orchestrations to accommodate children's voices.

Many of the songs have had their verses pared from three to two, or two to one. "Almost all the songs are truncated in one way, shape or form. They have to be," Carsey said.

He is rewriting some of the orchestrations and transitions, and one musical number was moved to a different place in the show. "Some of the transitions were very clean and easy, and others required a few more (new) chords. There are a few bars of me stuck into places," he added.

Young voices, Carsey noted, don't have the same range as adults. "They (children's voices) are often brighter and purer, but they don't have as much power and you can't split them apart."

Despite all of this work, Carsey gives Frank credit for doing 95 percent of the task of adapting "The Wiz." Frank trimmed about 20 pages from a 90-page script.

The challenge was creating a dramatic arc in 70 minutes of playing time. "And it became a matter of clarity," Carsey said.

Frank explained the process. "I was looking for what can fall away from the story and what needs to fall away to be family friendly. You're always happy to take some bigger bites out of it, but a lot of it came down to a line here and a line there."

It helped that the full length "The Wiz" is shorter than most Broadway musicals.

Frank said the show's original book writer, William F. Brown, liked the new TYA version and made a few contributions to the rewritten script. "He is excited about the possibility of his show reaching a new, wider audience," the First Stage artistic director said.

Carsey and Frank decided to record the score in a Milwaukee studio and use the recording in the First Stage show rather than employ live musicians for performances. "It gives us more consistent quality throughout the production," Frank explained. "The balance between the vocals and instruments can be difficult to achieve in the Todd Wehr Theater, which was not acoustically designed for musicals."

"If you have just two trumpets playing in that space, the audience in some parts of the room hears nothing else," Carsey added.

Future productions of the TYA version of "The Wiz" will have the option of using the First Stage recorded score for an additional fee. Ten musicians will play on the recording.

Frank expects the benefits of creating the TYA adaptation to include raising First Stage's national profile. The company is already one of the largest and most respected children's theaters in the country. He is hoping "The Wiz" may attract some national corporate donations and sponsorships in the future.

A Night at the Opera 

Next Act Theatre doesn't stage operas, but it does like to tell a good story. That explains why it is presenting "This Little Light of Mine," an unusual theater piece written and performed by New York-based soprano Adrienne Danrich. It opens tonight.

The show, which is not a part of Next Act's subscription series, tells the stories of contralto Marian Anderson, who broke racial barriers for African-American artists, and Leontyne Price, who was the first black woman to sing lead roles at the Metropolitan Opera.

Danrich was commissioned by the Cincinnati Opera to write "This Little Light of Mine," and she has performed it about 40 times in concert halls and on college campuses. Her resume includes singing with Opera Pacific, the San Francisco Opera and the San Francisco Symphony. Her appearance with Paul A. Mabon, Sr. in Next Act's "Paul Robeson in Concert" a year ago prompted her return here.

"This Little Light of Mine" is a blend of narration, photos of Anderson and Price, audio excerpts from some of their most famous recordings, and Danrich singing songs and arias they performed during their careers. The show runs through March 7.

Danrich and her accompanist will also conduct workshops and master classes at several schools and Calvary Baptist Church.