THE WIZ: 2015 NBC LIVE MUSICAL- Page 10

[silent]

Posted: 6/4/15 at 10:21pm

I was really hoping they would have gone with someone other than Audra for Glinda. Ugh! Oh well.

[DigificWriter]

Posted: 6/5/15 at 1:46am

Brandy wasn't talking about wanting to appear in the NBC television production of this show, but in the Broadway revival that will follow that broadcast.

As far as her age goes, she may be 36, but the age of an actor or actress really doesn't matter all that much in terms of their 'suitability' for a role when it comes to the stage, nor should it.

[jimmycurry01]

Posted: 6/5/15 at 7:40am

"Brandy wasn't talking about wanting to appear in the NBC television production of this show, but in the Broadway revival that will follow that broadcast.
As far as her age goes, she may be 36, but the age of an actor or actress really doesn't matter all that much in terms of their 'suitability' for a role when it comes to the stage, nor should it."

 That's great, so let's cast a 40 year old as Annie. I mean, age doesn't matter much at all, right? 

[Liza's Headband]

Posted: 6/5/15 at 8:30am

As far as her age goes, she may be 36, but the age of an actor or actress really doesn't matter all that much in terms of their 'suitability' for a role when it comes to the stage, nor should it.

Easily one of the most asinine statements ever posted on this Board. 

[jimmycurry01]

Posted: 6/5/15 at 9:14am

"As far as her age goes, she may be 36, but the age of an actor or actress really doesn't matter all that much in terms of their 'suitability' for a role when it comes to the stage, nor should it.
Easily one of the most asinine statements ever posted on this Board. "

 I will agree that age matters less on stage, but to say it doesn't matter much at all is going too far. If the body type and voice are right, you can stretch age on stage more than you can on screen. A 40 year old (or damn near 40) playing a young girl would not work.

[Liza's Headband]

Posted: 6/5/15 at 9:37am

You're repeating yourself, since I was agreeing with your original statement (above mine). It was a dumbass statement. For sure. 

[jimmycurry01]

Posted: 6/5/15 at 10:27am

"You're repeating yourself, since I was agreeing with your original statement (above mine). It was a dumbass statement. For sure. "

 Sorry, I was just qualifying the statement because I realized that I did not leave room for reasonable exceptions. It wasn't so much directed at you. I probably should have just edited my original post instead.

[musicaltheatreman2]

Posted: 6/5/15 at 10:40am

Last night I saw On the 20th Century and Lillias White sat next to me! I asked her if she was going to be back on Broadway soon and she said that she has some exciting projects coming up very soon, but she couldn't say what it was because she has not signed the contracts yet. I am really hoping she will be in the Wiz!!!! #FINGERSCROSSED 

[Liza's Headband]

Posted: 6/5/15 at 10:54am

Is every cryptic tweet and "undisclosed project" mention by a black woman for the next several months going to be rumored as THE WIZ? This is absolutely ridiculous. We have no idea if Lillas and Audra are even being considered for this. We do we keep connecting them, and all other black women, to THE WIZ? 

[Bilbo3]

Posted: 6/5/15 at 11:06am

She mentioned WITCH in her tweet so it's not such a far off hypothesis that she might be referring to The Wiz. You're right, we have no idea who is up for the roles, but It's not like the person who posted the tweet on here said Audra would be playing the witch. He/she ended her sentence in a question mark. So for the love of god, stop freaking out on people. Your shtick is so old. 

Updated On: 6/5/15 at 11:06 AM

[ILOHTFAHA (Aida Man)]

Posted: 6/5/15 at 11:41am

I think Audra is perfect for Glinda in NBC's "The Wiz" because she is versitale in terms of her singing and acting! She can do opera, she can do R&B, she play drama and she can play comedy!

Updated On: 6/5/15 at 11:41 AM

[CarlosAlberto]

Posted: 6/5/15 at 1:21pm

"Brandy wasn't talking about wanting to appear in the NBC television production of this show, but in the Broadway revival that will follow that broadcast.

She's completely wrong FOR BOTH.

...and Audra as "Glinda" would be perfect! I hope her tweet was about THE WIZ, but I'm pretty sure it was.

 

Updated On: 6/5/15 at 01:21 PM

[Replacement Cast]

Posted: 6/5/15 at 3:21pm

"Last night I saw On the 20th Century and Lillias White sat next to me! I asked her if she was going to be back on Broadway soon and she said that she has some exciting projects coming up very soon, but she couldn't say what it was because she has not signed the contracts yet. I am really hoping she will be in the Wiz!!!! #FINGERSCROSSED "

 Lillias led the road tour in the early 80s (as Dorothy.)  She would be a great Addeperle in the NBC version.

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 6/5/15 at 9:04pm

Anyone else think they might swap out "Born on the Day Before Yesterday" with "You Can't Win?" I hope they don't do that but they used "Something Good" for their Sound of Music which was a similar case of a song from the film replacing the song from the stage version.

I think it would be interesting if they include songs like "Who Do You Think You Are?" and "A Rested Body" since those songs were cut from the movie and not included on the original Broadway cast recording. I'm wondering if they're even trying on making this more like the Broadway show and less like the movie or if Zadan and Maron are planning to make drastic changes in some kind of misguided effort to appease fans of the stage version and the movie. 

[uncageg]

Posted: 6/6/15 at 8:50pm

Just looked at the audition photos for Dorothy. What age range were they asking for? 

[Showface]

Posted: 6/6/15 at 9:18pm

^18+

 

They really should have put a full age range on, because in the photos, a lot of the aspiring Dorothys seemed to be 30+--must have been thinking of the film, and not the stage show.

Craig Zadan even had to tweet: "Clarification: #TheWizLive casting. We're doing the stage version-- not the movie version. So Dorothy needs to look like she's 18 years old."

 

 

[uncageg]

Posted: 6/6/15 at 9:24pm

Dorothy did not look 18 when I saw it with Ms. Mills.

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 6/7/15 at 1:12am

Wasn't she 18 when she started? How long did she play Dorothy for?

[QueenAlice]

Posted: 6/7/15 at 1:28am

At the time, some sources claimed Stephanie Mills was only 15 when she created the role. The internet makes it more difficult to slide by with shaving off a couple of years.

Perhaps uncap is speaking of the 1984 revival which also featured Ms. Mills. She also did a tour in the early 90s. But I've honestly never heard of anyone else claiming she looked too old for the role in any of the productions.

[uncageg]

Posted: 6/7/15 at 3:49pm

I am actually speaking of the original run. I saw it shortly after it opened and then two more times after it moved to The Broadway Theater. I met her at The Broadway and she was not 18. I think Queen is right, she was about 15 when she started. Maybe 14. I remember all of the talk about how young she was. Wikipedia has her listed as being 58 now which doesn't seem right. If it is then she was older than she would have been 18 when she started the show.

Updated On: 6/7/15 at 03:49 PM

[AEA AGMA SM]

Posted: 6/7/15 at 4:10pm

Her birthdate seems to be pretty consistently listed as March of 1957, which means she would have been just a few months shy of her 18th birthday when the show opened in January of 1975 (if that date is correct).  She really is a tiny thing height-wise and I could see the publicists at the time shaving a few years off of her age to make her starring turn even more remarkable.

[DramaTeach]

Posted: 6/17/15 at 9:09pm

Maybe now that Janet Jackson is back in the limelight with her new album and tour, she'll play a part in the musical.  Obviously she knows the show because of her brother.  She posted on Twitter a while back about supporting her friends Craig and Neil (the producers of Wiz) in their production of Peter Pan and stated how important it is to keep musicals alive.

[joshtheblopper]

Posted: 6/19/15 at 10:54am

I would love to see Lillias as Addaperle or Evilene. I think she wold be great in either role

[missthemountains]

Posted: 6/20/15 at 1:29am

Call me crazy but I'd actually love to see Brandy as Evilene or Glinda. As amazingly talented as she is, she is too old to play Dorothy. But I would love to see her slay "No Bad News" - she has the belt for it.

[jimmycurry01]

Posted: 6/20/15 at 8:09pm

Considering that this is being co-produced by Cirque, is it at all likely that they may cast any of the leads or supporting characters from their already existing talent pool? We have been looking to Broadway and the recording industry with possible suggestions and not really taking any of the past or present Cirque casts into consideration.