All tagged The Wiz Live

Hairspray Live!: What We Want to See

Hairspray Live!: What We Want to See

Mark Robinson
Music That Makes Me Dance, Tube Tied

This week we will finally get to see the next live musical on television: Hairspray. Since its announcement earlier this year, I have been eager with anticipation for three reasons. First, I think it is a good choice for the live television treatment since it is a vibrant, energetic and family-friendly piece with a lot of messages that are particularly pertinent right now. Second, the film version starring John Travolta left me feeling unsatisfied, as if the fun had been drained from the piece. Finally, and perhaps foremost, I think Harvey Fierstein's indelible performance as the blossoming Edna Turnblad needs to be preserved for posterity.

Hairspray, Huh? … Interesting Choice

Hairspray, Huh? … Interesting Choice

Mark Robinson
Music That Makes Me Dance, Tube Tied

The Wiz was an unqualified hit for NBC and what has become their annual holiday LIVE! musical. In fact, it was so much better than its predecessors The Sound of Music and Peter Pan that it has injected a little more life into this teetering series that is always on the brink of extinction, dependent on ratings and an assured audience made up of musical theatre enthusiasts (are we a dying breed?). Let’s face it: if they make a musical, we will come. Those of us who love musicals in any format will show up and give it a try, but live musical television counts on a much larger crowd getting on the bandwagon.

The Wiz Live! – A Review

The Wiz Live! – A Review

Mark Robinson
Stage To Screen, Tube Tied

Like the tornado that lifted Dorothy to the Land of Oz, NBC’s presentation of The Wiz Live! blew me away to places I have never been where made-for-TV musicals are concerned. Skeptics be damned! The Wiz and its marvelous score are NOT dated properties and this version of the L. Frank Baum tale makes the best case yet for the musical to be revived on Broadway. In any case, at least it has washed away the stain of the misbegotten 1978 film version that, despite an all-star cast, was bleak and overwrought. This Wiz is magical.