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NBC's Live Broadcast of The Wiz was really good. And by far the best performance of NBC's Live Musical Broadcasts to date. Show stopping performances, and catchy dance numbers.
I was pleasantly surprised. Last year's Peter Pan was unwatchable, and I found Sound of Music amateurish. This was far better than 1978 film, and based on the Tony Award Winning Broadway Musical of the same name, not the film versions, with a few modern updates.
I have to admit - I always preferred The Wiz to The Wizard of Oz, for one thing the songs are a lot better. The Wizard of OZ really only has one memorable song - "Somewhere Over the Rainbow", while the Whiz has about five, "Bring me No Bad News", "Brand New Day", "Ease on Down the Road", "Believe", and
"Home". Also "Mean old Lion". And the plot/metaphors are closer in some respects to political metaphors of the books - with the territorial witches of east, west, north and south fighting for control of OZ.
This round they actually got professional theater and vocal performers as opposed to movie actors - such as Cirque Du Soliel, Mary J. Blige, Amber Riley (Glee), Queen Latifa, Ne-Yo, and David Alan Grier in key roles.
If you haven't caught it? You can watch it online Here
The other notable bit? It was a musical with a completely black cast. No white people. If you consider the last two productions were pretty much just white casts...this is a big and rather wonderful change of pace. The fact that more people watched this presentation than the last two...bodes well for the future of television.
Now, can we hope for a diverse cast for the next presentation? Or preferably color-blind casting?
I think so. In the past ten years, I've noticed more television series have diverse casts. As opposed to token blacks, token women, token Asian, etc. In the 20th Century, for the most part, this was the case. But in the 21st Century - this appears to be changing in a major way. YAY!
I was pleasantly surprised. Last year's Peter Pan was unwatchable, and I found Sound of Music amateurish. This was far better than 1978 film, and based on the Tony Award Winning Broadway Musical of the same name, not the film versions, with a few modern updates.
I have to admit - I always preferred The Wiz to The Wizard of Oz, for one thing the songs are a lot better. The Wizard of OZ really only has one memorable song - "Somewhere Over the Rainbow", while the Whiz has about five, "Bring me No Bad News", "Brand New Day", "Ease on Down the Road", "Believe", and
"Home". Also "Mean old Lion". And the plot/metaphors are closer in some respects to political metaphors of the books - with the territorial witches of east, west, north and south fighting for control of OZ.
This round they actually got professional theater and vocal performers as opposed to movie actors - such as Cirque Du Soliel, Mary J. Blige, Amber Riley (Glee), Queen Latifa, Ne-Yo, and David Alan Grier in key roles.
If you haven't caught it? You can watch it online Here
The other notable bit? It was a musical with a completely black cast. No white people. If you consider the last two productions were pretty much just white casts...this is a big and rather wonderful change of pace. The fact that more people watched this presentation than the last two...bodes well for the future of television.
Now, can we hope for a diverse cast for the next presentation? Or preferably color-blind casting?
I think so. In the past ten years, I've noticed more television series have diverse casts. As opposed to token blacks, token women, token Asian, etc. In the 20th Century, for the most part, this was the case. But in the 21st Century - this appears to be changing in a major way. YAY!