Before The Wiz opened on Broadway in January 1975 we put the show together on a three-city preview tour. The first stop was my home town, Baltimore. My mother and sisters cooked for us at our rowhouse. Hinton had been cast as a member of the chorus – one of the denizens of Emerald City. It was a warm September night and we all spilled out on to the street.
Hinton was the standout in the chorus because, at 15, he was so young but also because his body was like a rubber band. He had this daredevil approach to trying anything that George Faison, the choreographer, would ask. Hinton’s most powerful essence were his eyes. They were huge and sort of popped out of his head – not in a clownish way but a hypnotic way. He had the support of everyone in the company: “Go, kid, go!” That sort of thing.
