Charles LaPointe has been a hard man to get a hold of, and when we do finally — after a couple of interview reschedulings — it sounds like the tide has turned for the in-demand wig designer of a new Broadway-bound North American tour of the musical “The Wiz.”
“Because I came into the project so late and was traveling basically through the entire build section of this, we were a little bit behind when we got in,” LaPointe says recently from Baltimore, as the show is approaching its start date.
“We ended up with an amazing crew and pumped it out, and we’re feeling much better,” he adds with a laugh, “because it’s all made it on stage.”
In 1975, “The Wiz” — a take on L. Frank Baum’s novel “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” that’s infused with Black culture, featuring a book by William F. Brown and music by Charlie Smalls — debuted on Broadway (after starting in Baltimore) and earned seven Tony Awards, including Best Musical.
With a cast that includes newcomer Nichelle Lewis as Dorothy, Alan Mingo Jr. (“Kinky Boots,” “Doom Patrol”) as the Wiz, recording artist Deborah Cox as Glinda and Melody A. Betts as Aunt Em and Evillene, this new interpretation is embarking on a 13-city tour, which will be followed by a Broadway run when the tour concludes in 2024. Cleveland is the second stop on the tour, “The Wiz” launching Playhouse Square’s 2023-2024 KeyBank Broadway Series with a run from Oct. 3 through 22 at the Connor Palace.
The man in charge of all its hair didn’t set out to be a wig designer, but he was interested in the performing arts world from a fairly early age, growing up in Massachusetts and upstate New York.
“I ended up getting involved in theater in Massachusetts when I was around 17 — performing,” LaPointe says. “I was kind of a natural dancer. I’d never really been trained but just had this ability to do the hard stuff — it was the basics that I would always struggle with.”
He even went on tour with a production of “A Chorus Line,” followed by a stab at trying to make it as a performer in New York City.
“I really was not cut out for that lifestyle,” he says. “Thought I wanted something more stable, so I went into this technical theater.”
While working on a play featuring actor Mark Rylance, he encountered wig designer Tom Watson, who, LaPointe says, taught him the craft. The two ended up sharing a studio for many years and bouncing ideas off each other.
In other words, LaPointe didn’t go to school for this.
“I am not a hairstylist or a cosmetologist — any of that,” he says. “I basically taught myself everything which is in some ways great because you’re not bound by all the rules. And in other ways, it’s very insecurity-inducing because you have no rules — there’s no foundation for you really to jump off. So, you know it’s been … it’s been really fun.”
He works closely with a show’s costume designer; in the case of “The Wiz,” that’s the Academy Award-nominated Sharen Davis (“Ray,” “Dreamgirls”).
“That’s the initial introduction to any project,” he says. “There are several costume designers who I work with consistently, and then new ones come along.”
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They will go over design ideas, which is followed by a fitting process.
“We bring in the actors, we do head wraps on them, which is basically taking the mold of their head — and from that mold, we can build anything,” LaPointe says.
And he has to be flexible.
“I may have an idea, and then I meet the actor, and let’s say they have locks down to their butt and we have to get them under a wig,” he says. “Well, that style I thought of isn’t going to work. So now what are we gonna do that’s going to accommodate this as well as still look in some way what I wanted.”
So he’s not allowed to just shave a head whenever it suits him?
“If I could, that would be ideal,” he says with a laugh. “But, funnily enough, we have four men in the show that are bald, so all the wigs that we put on them look like their hair because you’re actually seeing their scalp go through.”
LaPointe has a lengthy and impressive resume boasting shows that include “The Color Purple,” “Jersey Boys,” “A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder,” “Newsies,” “In the Heights” and “Hamilton.” At least some of those would seem like very fun projects for a wig designer, but he says the goal is roughly the same on any show.
“I specialize in natural-looking hair,” he says. “(The hope is) someone’s looking at the stage and they’re not thinking about the hair.”
He characterizes “The Wiz” as a “big show,” one with “lots of moving pieces in it,” but he calls the wig count “not huge” — at about 70.
“It’s big,” he says, “but we’ve done bigger. I did ‘Motown,’ which had 350 wigs in it. Everything seems small in it after that.”
He won’t be on tour with “The Wiz,” instead turning his attention to a launch of a London production of “MJ the Musical” and then a new Broadway show, “How to Dance in Ohio,” based on the 2015 documentary of the same name that followed a few young autistic adults in Columbus in the time leading up to a formal dance. The seven principal characters are portrayed by autistic actors, LaPointe says.
“I’m so looking forward to it,” he says. “We did a photoshoot. I met these kids. I was given all these parameters (on) how to deal with them, but, really, they’re just kids that are excited. They’re there for their Broadway debut, and it was so lovely to work with them.
“I have a (sister with Down syndrome),” he continues. “It’s not the same thing, but, you know, I have experience working with people who might have what is perceived as a disability, and you come to realize that they’re just wanting to do what everybody else does — everybody’s trying to get their dream going.”
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As for “The Wiz,” this is the first revival that will be on Broadway — something LaPointe says that’s been talked about for years. (He thought a production he worked on at San Diego’s La Jolla Playhouse would make the transition, but it didn’t happen.
Nonetheless, “The Wiz” is one of those shows that keeps coming back, thanks to its music, story and themes.
“Like all the best pieces, it’s universal,” LaPointe says. “The themes are universal. This is about fear. It’s about discovery of yourself.
And, he says, it’s coming back at the right time.
“I think it’s timely now with everything that’s gone down politically and socially in the country,” he says. “It’s a show of healing and acceptance, and I think that’s really important right now.”
‘The Wiz’
Where: Playhouse Square’s Connor Palace, 1615 Euclid Ave., Cleveland.
When: Oct. 3 through 22.
Tickets: $25 to $115.
Info: PlayhouseSquare.org or 216-241-6000.
