From: dsbarr@mindspring.com   
      
   https://www.broadway.com/buzz/203727/hinton-battle-three-time-to   
   y-award-winner-and-original-scarecrow-in-the-wiz-dies-at-67/   
   Hinton Battle, Three-Time Tony Award Winner and Original Scarecrow in   
   The Wiz, Dies at 67   
   OBIT   
   by Darryn King • Jan 30, 2024   
      
   Hinton Battle, the three-time Tony Award-winning singer, dancer,   
   choreographer, producer and director, who   
   fortuitously landed the role of the Scarecrow in the original production   
   of The Wiz, died on January 29. No   
   reason was given for the death, which was confirmed by his friend Debbie   
   Allen. He was 67.   
      
   The son of a U.S. army officer, Battle was born on November 29, 1956 in   
   a military community in Neubrücke,   
   Hoppstädten-Weiersbach, West Germany, and was raised in Washington, D.C.   
   and New York City. A lover of movie   
   musicals as a child, he received a scholarship to The School of American   
   Ballet, studying under George   
   Balanchine.   
      
   Battle was just 15 when he made his Broadway debut in The Wiz, having   
   landed the role of the Scarecrow quite   
   unexpectedly. “While the show was on a promotional tour—before it   
   actually hit Broadway—one of the leads left   
   abruptly during intermission and I was called out of the chorus and cast   
   as the Scarecrow for the second act,”   
   he told The Hype Magazine in 2014. “I had no idea what to do, but I knew   
   I could dance. So Stephanie Mills, who   
   was playing Dorothy, said to me, ‘When I pull your straw, that’s when   
   you have a line.’ So every time Stephanie   
   would pull my straw, I would jump in the air, do a split and a pirouette   
   turn, and say whatever came out of my   
   mouth! Being that I was the Scarecrow who had no brain, it worked and   
   the crowd loved it.” The next day, Battle   
   was offered the role full-time.   
      
   Battle went on to Tony Award-winning roles in Sophisticated Ladies, The   
   Tap Dance Kid and Miss Saigon, as well   
   as roles in Fosse’s Dancin’, Dreamgirls (which led to a cameo in the   
   movie), Chicago (as Billy Flynn) and   
   Ragtime.   
      
   As a choreographer, Battle’s credits include ballets for Baltimore   
   School of the Arts, Washington Reflections   
   Dance Company, Jones Haywood School of Dance and Philadanco. He also   
   choreographed Idlewild (2006), a musical   
   starring André 3000 and Big Boi of the hip hop duo Outkast, and Evil   
   Dead the Musical off-Broadway.   
      
   In 2001, Battle starred in the “Once More With Feeling” musical episode   
   of Buffy the Vampire Slayer as Sweet   
   the jazz demon. He co-founded the Hinton Battle Dance Academy (HBDA)   
   with Yoshimoto Kogyo in 2017.   
      
   “Today I honor Hinton Battle, my dear friend who left us to dance and   
   sing in God’s Ensemble last night,” Allen   
   wrote on X. “He fought this battle to live and be creative impacting   
   audiences and young people across the   
   globe. Let us forever speak his name.”   
      
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