An Appealingly Odd Screening of THE WIZARD OF OZ.

Location

My fellow Netflix subscribers and I just received a somewhat unusual promotional invitation:

It being the 70th anniversary of the eternally well-regarded 1939 musical version of The Wizard Of Oz, later this month there will be an outdoor screening of the movie in Central Park, to be preceded by a one-time-only concert produced by ?uestlove of the legendary Roots crew.

?uestlove is known for many things: first for being one of the best drummers in modern music. He’s the co-architect of the sound of The Roots, a band that is so special and invaluable for bringing the live experience to hip-hop music. ?uestlove is also known not only for having the best hair in the music world, but its deepest Rolodex. Dude knows everybody – I have a DIDO album that he and Jon Brion played on. ?uest is also recognizable to my generation as a Dave Chappelle confederate who helped mastermind the amazing Block Party concert. Of course, he and The Roots can now be seen five nights a week making the Jimmy Fallon show work (and doing an NYC residency Friday nights for balance).

Anyway, if you can’t tell, I’m definitely a fan.

So when Netflix dropped an email on me to promise a concert engineered by ?uestlove with a band of his choosing (surely to feature some exciting names), with renditions of the standard Wizard Of Oz songs interpreted by Jennifer Hudson (who we all loved in Dreamgirls) and Julianne Hough (trust me fellas: Google her), I pretty much have to be at least curious. I may go! Seriously. It’s got the potential to be just the right combination of randomness and brilliance.

This thing is happening on Tuesday, September 29th, starting at 7:30pm. It’s free, for the record – now there’s a draw. (No word yet on if Fallon will be donning the red vest and fez to play the role of the winged monkey. But he should.)