Producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron have had a good run at NBC doing live broadcasts of great Broadway musicals.
Nearly 20 million people tuned in to see Carrie Underwood teach the von Trapps to sing in “The Sound of Music.” Another 10 million watched Allison Williams fly around with Wendy, Michael and John in “Peter Pan.”
But why “The Wiz,” airing live Dec. 3?
Aside from “Ease on Down the Road” and “Home,” can you name another song from the 1975 musical that critic John Simon called “flimsy”? And then there was the 1978 movie, which had Diana Ross playing Dorothy when she was almost old enough to play Miss Gulch.
Turns out Zadan and Meron have loved the show since they spent their allowance money going to shows in 1970s.
“I went to an early preview and sat in the last row of the Majestic Theatre,” Meron says. “They moved me down because they weren’t selling a lot of tickets then. Somebody described it as ‘unadulterated joy’ — I didn’t know what that meant at the time, but that’s how I felt.”
“It was the first black musical to win the Tony Award, and I saw it several times,” adds Zadan. “I was captivated by Stephanie Mills” — the original Dorothy.
Meron even loved the movie.
“I found out they were filming down at the World Trade Center and I went down to watch,” he says. “It was wonderful.”
They’re not alone in their admiration for “The Wiz.”
When they approached Queen Latifah about playing the Wiz (she’s the first female to play the part), she said, “It’s the first Broadway show I ever saw, and when Stephanie Mills sang ‘Home,’ I knew I was going to be a performer.”
Backstage last year at the Oscars, which Zadan and Meron produced, they met Common. He asked what show they were doing next for NBC. When they said “The Wiz,” he exclaimed: “I grew up with that movie! I have to be in it!” Look for him next Thursday as the Bouncer, the gatekeeper of the entrance to Emerald City.
He’s playing the Gatekeeper to Oz.
The producers aren’t blind to the show’s flaws, which is why they hired Harvey Fierstein to rewrite that “flimsy” script.
“The storytelling is much stronger now,” says Zadan. “It works like gangbusters. It’s emotional and funny.”
They’re using songs from both the stage show and the movie, including “You Can’t Win” for the Scarecrow.
But Meron wants to clear something up about that song:
“We’ve been criticized on the theater chat boards for using ‘You Can’t Win’ because people think it was written for Michael Jackson in the movie. But tell your readers it was written for the Broadway show but was dropped during the tryout in Baltimore.”
Stick that in your ruby slippers, friends of Dorothy!