Few once-common names have become so identified with fictional characters that there’s practically no other use for them. Mention “Dorothy” and the majority of Western Civilization will picture sparkly red shoes, a yapping terrier and Judy Garland in farm-girl drag. Parents considering naming a child Dorothy should stop and reconsider.
Just as the name Dorothy has been claimed by L. Frank Baum’s creation, the most-remembered and best-loved Dorothy will likely always be Garland, who portrayed her in the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz.
The role has been played by many others, though, in Oz and Oz-adjacent projects.
One of the most famous non-Garland Dorothys is Stephanie Mills, all of 17 at the time, in the surprise smash Broadway hit The Wiz in 1975. A retelling of Wizard with an all African American cast, the show drew new audiences to Broadway with its R&B-inflected score and Tony® winning performances. The 2024 revival of The Wiz comes to Straz’s Morsani Hall Oct. 14-19 with Dana Cimone as Dorothy. For more information, click here.
One of the most famous non-Garland Dorothys, for all the wrong reasons, is Diana Ross. Ross portrayed Dorothy in the 1978 film version of The Wiz at age 33, which was – yes, that’s right! – almost twice as old as Mills was when she took the role. The movie had enough problems that an age-appropriate Dorothy likely wouldn’t have saved it, but it’s a rare blemish on Ross’ resume.
The daughter of Dorothy herself, Liza Minelli, assumed the role – in voice, only – for 1972’s animated Journey Back to Oz. This one tends to be overlooked on the list of Minelli’s 1972 projects, which included the television-special Liza With a ‘Z’ and the film Cabaret.
Garland’s Dorothy was preceded on the big screen by Dorothy Dwan’s Dorothy. Dwan played the little Gale girl in a silent 1925 film called The Wizard of Oz, but featuring a different storyline.
Remember all those box-office smashes Disney was churning out in the mid-1980s? Yeah, right. Return to Oz was one in a long list of 1980s Walt Dis-asters but it did gain some good notices for Fairuza Balk (The Craft), who played Dorothy.
R&B singer Ashanti took on the role of Dorothy in 2005’s TV-movie The Muppets’ Wizard of Oz, which didn’t do much good for Ashanti, The Muppets or the Wizard.
More successful was Shanice Williams, who played Dorothy in The Wiz Live!, a performance of the musical that aired on NBC in 2015.
The Wizard of Oz has been the source or inspiration for creative works for decades – you know about Wicked, right? – but Garland singing “Somewhere Over the Rainbow,” ensures, for us at least, that she’s the Dorothy for all time.