Dorothy Gale from The Wiz Live!
"The Big Three" female characters of early children's literature are Alice, Wendy Darling, and Dorothy Gale. They're in every school, on every bookshelf, part of every imaginative mind. Having been embedded in popular culture for so long, their characterization is quite mutable: just a few little tweaks here and there allows for each new interpretation to remain fresh and relevant. For instance, the motherly homebody of Disney's Wendy Darling is quite different from the adventurous spirit belonging to the Wendy of the 2003 film.
Dorothy Gale stands apart not only because she's an American, but because she's a lot more proactive than her peers (not that Wendy and Alice aren't, but when compared to Dorothy...) She's driven by two internal forces: her desire to return home and her sense of helpfulness – almost responsibility – to those she meets along the way. The Scarecrow, Tin Man and Cowardly Lion are galvanised into action on meeting her, and it's her relentless encouragement that eventually turns them into heroes.
So what does Shanice Williams bring to this Dorothy? As in the MGM film, Dorothy goes from a child to a teenager, making her old enough to understand her disappearance from home will cause distress, and empathetic enough to extend assistance to those she meets on the way. An added layer is that she's still visibly grieving for her deceased parents and struggling to redefine her understanding of home: is it Omaha where she lived with her parents or Kansas where she now lives with her aunt?
It's a big ask to play the Nice Girl, especially in portal fantasies. It's a balancing act between capturing wide-eyed wonder at the strange new surroundings, while still being clever enough to negotiate it successfully. She must be relatable enough for audiences to become invested in her journey, but also a little immature so as to make room for character development.
Shanice Williams manages all of that, encapsulating everything a Dorothy should be: an ordinary girl doing extraordinary things as she just tries to find her way home.
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