The past couple years NBC has missed the boat on their holiday live musical adaptations; the Sound of Music and Peter Pan were both lackadaisical with one or two good music numbers at best. This year though, they hit the witch right on the head (I couldn’t resist and I’m not sorry) with their adaptation of the cult classic, The Wiz.

For anyone who doesn’t know about The Wiz’s origin (as it seemed many did not if you go by twitter and their lack of googling abilities), let me tell you about it. It’s was a very important thing that happened in the 1970’s. Originally this was a theater production in Baltimore in 1974, being a huge success it moved to Broadway in 1975 and was an even bigger hit. As in it won 7 Tony awards including the coveted Best Musical. It too originally had an all-black cast and that was because while the original story of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is beloved by all the motion picture was an all-white cast. The Wiz was created to equal that out so to speak and to also reinvent it into a more urban environment, as it was set in New York City.

The Wiz that was on four days ago also carried on that tradition; even though it again changed the story around somewhat going more the tradition route (which I’m still pouting about). There was also a 1978 movie starring Diana Ross, Richard Pryor and Michael Jackson that had decidedly mixed reviews, but has since become a cult classic.

This time the story follows pretty much the same as The Wizard of Oz motion picture did, with only a few differences thrown in. So while I was still wishing for my introverted school teacher exploring a magical New York City during a snowstorm, I was intrigued enough to keep watching to see what was the same/different.

Before we get into the story, let’s go over the cast that was selected as there were some surprising choices. The Live! Adaptations have always been able to bring in at least one big name to the cast. The Sound of Music had Carrie Underwood and Peter Pan had Christopher Walken. The Wiz has Queen Latifah, Ne-Yo, Mary J Blige, Common-none of whom I should need to tell you who they are. There is also Elijah Kelley (Red Tails, The Butler), Amber Riley (Glee), David Alan Grier (everything, the man has been in everything) and Uzo Aduba (Orange is the New Black). There was also Stephanie Mills playing Auntie Em. It was amazing that she was in this production because she was the original Dorothy in the Broadway version of The Wiz. How wonderful is that to have such a great throwback to the original?

All these huge stars and I haven’t even told you who plays Dorothy now. That honor went to Shanice Williams a newcomer who only has one other credit on her resume. Was she able to stack up with this barrage of talent and stars?

Absolutely. Whoever cast her deserves an award themselves.

Now that we have everything set, let’s go over how I felt watching The Wiz Live!

I was sad about missing it when it first came on television, but was happy to see so many people were excited over what they saw. When I finally had enough free time, I sat down and went to NBC.com and found where you can watch the musical for free with zero commercial interruptions. You can go HERE and watch it too if you like.

As I said before I was a bit sad this wasn’t set in New York City and that Dorothy wasn’t the shy, introverted school teacher I had known before. This time she is more along the lines of the Dorothy we’re used to seeing from The Wizard of Oz movie. They were in Kansas again on a farm. There are differences though that I found refreshing. A rehash of the same story would have been terrible and trite. We all already know the story, so the little differences went a long way for me to stay interested. While Dorothy in the movie was hurt everyone was too busy to pay her any attention except the mean neighbor Miss Gulch. She wanted to put Toto down after he bit her and Dorothy decided to run away from the unfairness of it all.

This Dorothy had a more modern and realistic problems. While her family was busy with chores that needed to be done and yes she was being a lazy teenager who didn’t want to do them, she was also still grieving over the sudden loss of her parents the previous year. She was trying to find home again. There was a great line where Dorothy said, “You can’t run away from home, if you’re not home to start with.” Dorothy thought that if she could get back to where her old life was, it would somehow be better again.

You also are introduced to Dorothy’s uncles playing their human parts to the Scarecrow, Tinman and Cowardly Lion as the film also played up previously. Auntie Em and Dorothy have an argument over Dorothy’s behavior and about responsibility. There is a great number from Auntie Em (Stephanie Mills) about how much she loves Dorothy but she can’t stop her from making her own decisions. I wish we had been able to get another song from Ms. Mills. A tornado hits then and Auntie Em, Dorothy and Toto all try to reach cover. Two of them make it and one of them wakes up in Munchkin Land.

The Munchkins surround a very confused Dorothy and accuse her of murder. She tries denying it, but it’s her house on top of that witch so she has to admit to it. (“There’s a houses sitting on top of her, you do the math!”) The Munchkins soon let her in on the joke though and let her know how happy they are that she killed the evil witch of the west. Then the witch of the north appears, Addapearle (haha get it?), and is also happy her sister is dead. Amber Riley plays up a good, fun loving witch well using her iPad right alongside her magical wand and asking Dorothy if, “You’re awful young to be killin’ witches, do you have a license?”

They tell Dorothy about The Wiz and how only he can get her home. She is given the dead witches shoes, but unlike being ruby slippers, this time they are sparkly diamond heels. Heck yeah. I have to add that everyone’s shoes are on point this entire musical, as well as the outfits and sets. Plus much of the music is from the original and is still funky and awesome. Dorothy is on her way on the yellow brick road after her own musical number (which Williams did very well on) and soon meets Scarecrow.

Scarecrow is stuck in a field and is being bullied by a bunch of crows. They do a song and dance number that have him telling Dorothy about how he shouldn’t even try to get out of his bad situation. The crows continually bully Scarecrow and make sure to keep him down. I couldn’t help but get the feeling this was a bit of social commentary about not letting others decide your future and how easy it is to have the wrong kind of people around you and keeping you from what you need/want to be doing. Dorothy changes Scarecrows mind by being positive and helpful scaring the crows away (“I already killed a wicked witch this mornin’, and I wasn’t even mad at her!”). She tells him about The Wiz and how he can get the Scarecrow a brain and so off they go together down the yellow brick road. They also sing ‘Ease on down the road’ which is as fun and catchy as it has always been and I still love it.

Next they come upon the Tinman all rusted up. Ne-Yo plays the Tinman and his singing and dancing are some of the smoothest of the cast. Also his oil song felt a bit dirty, but it was enjoyable nonetheless. We find out the Tinman used to be a normal man but the wicked witch turned him into that after he refused her advances. His love soon left him afterwards as he didn’t have the heart to go after her. Dorothy again tells him about The Wiz and so Tinman joins them on their journey.

Finally we get to the Cowardly Lion who much like the movie scares the trio until it’s proven he’s more scared of them than the other way around. He admits to it defeated, but still doesn’t want their pity (“Great now I got little girls pityin’ me!”) but also agrees to go to the Emerald City to find The Wiz and ask for some courage. While they’re still in the woods some dark beings show up and our group has to fight them. Dorothy is distracted by a woman who looks and acts like her deceased mother. Her mother wants her to take off her shoes and give them to her so she can escape. Dorothy wants to, but remembers her promise to Addapearle about not taking them off. You can tell Dorothy’s ‘mama’ doesn’t like this and gets aggravated at her. Scarecrow saves the day by telling her it’s not her mother at all but a trick by the other evil witch. Once that spell is broken they’re all free to go.

I liked this scene because it felt like it had real weight to it. What a nasty trick to turn into Dorothy’s dead mother and try to get her magical shoes. The group also has a problem that Cowardly Lion hid for most of the battle instead of helping. The Tinman especially seems to take affront to it, but Dorothy is able to smooth it over by pointing out that he did help and that they need to stick together. Dorothy and the Cowardly Lion sing a duet and it’s lovely. David Alan Grier holds his own, but again newcomer Williams shines while singing.

Next up our group can see the Emerald City but are stopped in a field of poppies. Some of the poppies turn out to be pretty sexy and start a seductive dance. It seems that Lion has fallen for it, but he soon proves that he is faking them out and actually ties them up so they can go on. You can see Dorothy and the others growing in these short scenes (Scarecrow figuring out the trick, Tinman caring about what could have happened to Dorothy and Lion stepping up to solve their problem). It makes the flow much better when you focus on that and not how short the scenes are.

Finally our group makes it to Emerald City only to be rebuffed by the bouncer out front which was pretty humorous. Also the Cowardly Lion growling is adorable. They get past him by pulling the Dorothy killed the wicked witch card and go into the city. The set was gorgeous and so were the Emerald City citizens’ costumes. They do a song and dance number trying to keep our group away from The Wiz, and there is one single white guy in the bunch. Yes I got the joke and yes I had to pause the show and laugh for a solid five minutes. Well played, well played.

Dorothy’s friends are almost talked out of going to see The Wiz, but she convinces them that they came this far, they have to keep going. Their dreams are about to come true. They go in and find a huge marionette head that talks and is a bit creepy looking. Unlike the Wizard of Oz movie, the Wiz actually comes out on his own. Did I say the outfits were great, because it needs to be said again. The Wiz wants to know what they want, but keeps telling them to be quiet too. (“Why does she keep askin’ us, but then tellin’ us to shut up?” (One at a time!)) The Wiz quickly pushes off Cowardly Lion and Scarecrow. He dresses down Dorothy for not knowing where home is, as she now doesn’t know where she wants to be and only the Tinman seems to make an impression with a heartfelt solo song. The Wiz tells them to kill the evil witch, Evillene and then he’ll grant their wishes.

Again Dorothy’s friends try to ditch her because they’re scared, but she talks them around. She reminds them of responsibility to each other and that you can’t get something for nothing. Much like what her Auntie Em was telling her at the beginning of the musical. The group sings a song together and they all harmonize very well. Then they’re off to kill the evil witch, too bad they almost immediately get captured by the witches winged warriors.

We finally get to meet the evil witch, Evillene played by Mary J. Blige. Her outfit might be the best one of all, but it’s a toss-up between her and the other witches. The evil witch has a lively conversation with her henchman (“You some kind of Eddie Murphy or something?”) and telling the others to, ‘werk!’ We also establish the famous scene of her not liking water. Later we find that the evil witch has separated our group for an untold amount of time. Dorothy and the Cowardly Lion soon meet up though and don’t want to part from each other again. The witch takes offense to this and when Dorothy points out that she’s being well evil, Evillene says, “Don’t throw shade on me!” (lil’ girl who killed my sister, took her shoes and gathered her squad and put a hit out on me!) and then tells her that she’s going to make the Tinman into a pot, burn Scarecrow as she pulls a switchblade out on Dorothy.

Dorothy picks up a bucket and dumps it on the witch and of course she melts. Everyone is happy she’s dead and all her minions sing a big number about it. I felt this was a bit of a shortcoming of the musical. Such a big lead up to getting to the Emerald City and then to get rid of the wicked witch was only a couple scenes. I also really wanted another song from her.
Our group heads back and find out their forbidden from going back into the Emerald City. They have to trick the bouncer to get him away from the door (“There’s nothing like greed to turn a wise man into a fool” Scarecrow is a genius) and sneak in. They go back to The Wiz’s and only he won’t come out. They go behind the giant marionette and find the secret behind the Wiz.

As the Tinman puts it, “The wiz is a fraud! And a woman!”
To which the Wiz asks, “What’s wrong with being a woman?”
He replies with, “Nothing wrong with being a woman!” and looks put in his place. I loved that scene. They find out The Wiz used to be a magician’s assistant that lived in the same place Dorothy was from. Like her, the Wiz became tired of her situation and ran away and ended up here. She liked it so much that she’s stayed hidden away ever since.

They ask if it means she can’t grant their wishes and The Wiz tells them that they don’t need her to, that the Cowardly Lion, “Being scared of scary stuff is smart, but still taking care of business-that’s courage!” For Scarecrow he realizes, “Knowing that I know nothing, means I know something?” and Tinman says, “I know I have a heart because thinking of Dorothy leave is breakin’ it.”

Dorothy is left out though as she still has no way of getting home. The Wiz decides it’s time she go back as well and so Dorothy is going to hitch a ride with her on The Wiz’s hot air balloon. At the last moment though, Dorothy backs out and The Wiz ends up leaving without her. It’s then that Addapearle shows up again and she calls her sister, Glenda the good witch. Glenda explains that Dorothy had the power to get home this entire time with her magical shoes. A great line from her too is, “That’s the power of love baby, you’re never alone.“ Glenda then sings and while it took the actress a minute to warm up, once she did it was a very good number.

The goodbye between Dorothy and her new friends is emotional and heartfelt with her promising to find a way back to them one day. Then she clicks her heels and is suddenly back in Kansas and Auntie Em runs up to her and hugs her, glad to have her back and okay from the storm.

They end the musical this way and I ended up liking it quite a bit. Did it have its problems? Yes the story was a bit clunky and there were a couple technical issues (seeing wires and seeing some tires on one of the stage props). The songs were sung well though, there was some fun dialogue and most of all I felt like this production had some real heart behind it and that’s one of the most important factors by me. The main cast – Shanice Williams, Elijah Kelley, David Alan Grier and Ne-Yo did an amazing job and the supporting cast was great as well. I’ll give credit again to the amazing costumes and sets. Overall I think NBC finally had a hit.

Did you not get to see it or would like to watch it again? You can do so by CLICKING HERE and watching it commercial free. You don’t even have to download an app if you don’t want to. I encourage everyone to give it a try. If you have seen it, what did you think of it? Did you have a favorite character or part? Tell me in the comments below or on my twitter @quietlikeastorm or our group twitter @thenerdygirlexp.

By far my favorite was Scarecrow played by Elijah Kelley. I will be watching out for that talented man in the future as well as Shanice Williams. What an amazing debut for her!

Here are a few one liners that I didn’t fit into the article, but deserve a mention:
– Sometimes the most dangerous things are the most beautiful.

– I’m saving my cents to buy some sense!

– I’m not getting hysterical now, but give me a few minutes!

– Yeah it’s coming from over there. (what should we do) Go over there! (points in opposite direction)

– You clever, scary as hell, but clever (nervous laughter)

– It’s not enough to know where you’re going, but to know where you’re comin’ from.