THE Wiz’s re-telling of The Wizard Of Oz as a black American soul musical in 1975 was a radical shift with a political undertow.

That impact has inevitably softened over 36 years, during which the likes of Rent, Spring Awakening and Billy Elliot have carried greater clout.

Director Josette Bushell-Mingo has taken a couple of measures to re-invigorate William F Brown and Charlie Smalls’s musical, firstly by transferring the “home” setting from Kansas to Leeds (or Birmingham when this West Yorkshire Playhouse and Birmingham Repertory Theatre co-production opened in Brum). The intention is to bring the story closer to home, to make it tangible, while retaining the magical world of wizards and witches.

Treyc Cohen’s Dorothy is still more West Midlands than Chapeltown, and the Leeds references only brush the surface but they do bring a sense of ownership to the show. So too does Bushell-Mingo’s second ingredient: the use of a community cast of 16 to bolster the seven professional protagonists on stage.

Their ensemble contributions bulk up the musical setpieces: the focus of a production that is visually striking and musically energetic but lacking the wow factor of its 1975 premiere.

The story is essentially a replay of L Frank Baum’s original tale, this time the truculent Dorothy stirring the tornado by throwing a strop and then finding herself on the road to Oz with the usual suspects: Wayne Robinson’s loose-limbed Scarecrow, Horace Oliver’s angular Tinman and Clive Rowe’s scaredy-cat Lion.

Rosa Maggiora’s design of big walls takes up the brick motif, the brickwork including sporadic flashing, yellow pieces, while the hi-tech modernity of Bushell-Mingo’s show is encapsulated in the contributions of lighting designer Philip Gladwell, sound designer Ed Clarke and projection designer Mic Pool, who gives The Wiz a dramatic opening with the Wicked Witch Of The East growing ever larger on the gauze front piece.

Cohen’s Dorothy appeals to the younger audience members but the performances of Oliver, Melanie la Barrie’s Addaperle and especially Robinson and Rowe are the driving force of a slick but shallow show where songs dominate over dialogue.

The big Motown-pastiche numbers, Ease On Down The Road and Brand New Day, still have dynamic impact, but overall The Wiz feels past its best days, rather like Motown.

The Wiz, West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds, until July 16. Box office: 0113 213 7700 or wyp.org.uk