Alan Mingo Jr. has been involved in some of the biggest musicals of the last 30 years.

He followed Tony winner Billy Porter and Wayne Brady as Lola on Broadway in “Kinky Boots.” He played Tom Collins in “Rent” during its long Broadway run, and Sebastian in “The Little Mermaid” in New York.

On national tours, he’s played Seaweed in “Hairspray,” Donkey in “Shrek the Musical” and Simba in “Disney’s The Lion King.”

But one constant in his theater history is the musical “The Wiz.” Mingo will return to Cleveland on Tuesday as the title character of the musical inspired by “The Wizard of Oz.” It’s the second stop for the revival on a 13-city tour that precedes its Broadway opening next spring.

During a telephone interview earlier this month from Baltimore, where the tour started, Mingo said the 1978 film version starring Diana Ross and Michael Jackson helped shape his career path.

“When I first saw the movie and getting to see people who look like me sing — ‘Oh, I can do this as a profession?'”

At college he was cast as a freshman in “The Wiz.” He played an inanimate object.

“In the play version, there are four people who carry long golden rods as an abstract version of the Yellow Brick Road,” Mingo said. “I got cast as the Yellow Brick Road.”

But the experience exposed him to the audition process and taught him that the film version and the stage version of the same musical seldom are identical. No one was playing the road when he watched the movie.

Later in his career, he was in the ensemble and the understudy for The Wiz (who was played by David Allen Grier) in a production at La Jolla Playhouse that had Broadway aspirations that never materialized. And he played The Wiz in a third staging that also didn’t find the backing to make it to Broadway.

Out-of-town tryouts frequently are the norm for Broadway productions, whether they are new musicals or revivals. This production of “The Wiz,” which will travel its own road for nearly six months before arriving in the Big Apple, is charting a less familiar course.

“I think these producers are a little bit more creative,” Mingo said. “They wanted to create a nice buzz before we go into New York, and they wanted to know what’s working and what’s not working. It’s kind of smart. By the time we roll into New York, it will be old hat.”

Some of those tweaks may be in the works already. Press night for the musical switched from the second performance at the Connor Palace, the traditional night that critics are invited, to the fourth performance of the show’s three-week run.

The Charlie Smalls / William F. Brown musical returning to Broadway isn’t the same one that opened there in 1975, which won seven Tony Awards including best new musical and wins for Geoffrey Holder for director and costume design, the first time an African-American man had been nominated in either category.

Amber Ruffin, who co-wrote the book for the current Broadway musical “Some Like It Hot” and was the first African-American woman to host a late-night network talk show, made some changes to the dialogue and is credited with providing “additional material.” The songs remain the same, but the arrangements have been made more contemporary. And choreographer JaQuel Knight comes from the world of music videos — he was 18 years old when he choreographed Beyonce’s “Single Ladies (Put a Ring On It)” video — and will be making his Broadway debut.

“They pulled it out of the ’70s,” Mingo said. “It’s rare to get into a cast where everybody can sing their faces off, and it’s enjoyable to sit in rehearsal and watch them. And the choreography, having someone new and fresh to this world (is better) rather than an echo version of what came out almost 50 years ago. I think Cleveland is for a big treat and a surprise.”

If you go …

WHAT: “The Wiz”

WHEN: Tuesday through Oct. 22. Show times are 7:30 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, 1:30 and 7:30 p.m. Saturday and 1 and 6:30 p.m. Sunday

WHERE: Connor Palace, Playhouse Square, 1519 Euclid Ave., Cleveland

HOW MUCH: Tickets range from $25 to $115 and are available online at playhousesquare.org and by calling 216-241-6000.