The 2015 NBC Live Musical? — Page 5

THE WIZ is not anywhere on the same level of title & brand recognition as THE MUSIC MAN or SOUND OF MUSIC or PETER PAN is. Think bigger, think much much bigger.

Bye Bye Birdie is fun, and everyone loves that. It's family friendly and upbeat.

My thought is do something that someone like Idina Menzel, Kristin Chenoweth or Nathan Lane could star in. They both have musical theatre chops but also have a large following in both the theatre community and the entertainment industry as a whole.

Funny Girl with Taylor Swift. Yes, I'm joking.

These totally crappy and poorly cast live musicals on NBC are just making more people hate musical theater.

STOP THE MADNESS and for the 2015 holidays please

DO NOTHING!!!

A Little Shop of Horrors Halloween Broadcast is exciting. I would watch the hell out of it. And there are lots of ways you could cast it.
I would go with
Seymour: Joseph Gordon Levitt
Mushnick: John C Reilly
Audrey: Megan Hilty
Audrey II Voice: Cee Lo Green
Orin/Others: Micheal C Hall

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That would be cool, but not gonna happen.

Also not gonna happen is my wish that any show picked for 2015 will star only Broadway professionals.

With Reba?

It's already been announced that they are working on The Music Man. I'd love to see Laura Benati or Kelli as Marian. Neil Patrick Harris as Harold Hill. Christian Borle as Marcellus, and Megan Mulally as Mrs. Shinn. And I've said it before and I'll say it again. They need to bring in a new director. Kathleen Marshall or Susan Stroman would be ideal. I wonder if they'll continue to feature adapted teleplays or presenting the original books as written.

Mary poplins with minne driver

If they did R&H Cinderella, and assuming the Carter Beane script because it's the only one that would play a three-hour major broadcast, what big stars (or biggish star-ish type) would they get as Cinderella and Prince? I can tell you right now that Fairy Godmother would be their "legit-singing Broadway Diva" slot, and that Christian Borle would play the revolutionary secondary love interest.

Josh Groban as the Prince might work- he had a recurring role as Andy Bernard's golden-child older brother on "The Office," and he could sing it beautifully. But who as Cinderella? Could they get big enough stars in other (comedic) roles to cast Laura Osnes or another Broadway vocalist? Let's face it- Cinderella in the 2013 version is not Maria or Peter Pan, it's not an "actor who sings" role. It's a semi-legit vocal powerhouse Disney Princess minus the Disney. Not even NBC would say "Well, anyone can sing it."

Which brings up another issue these have: NBC knows that they need superb singers for certain roles, and we get them- that's why there's one or two REAL Broadway people in the vocally demanding character roles. But stars typically aren't Broadway caliber lead vocalists, so they are looking for shows for actors who sing, not for singing actors.

I imagine that if they ended up pursuing Cinderella that the RNH library would insist on the bean adaptation. If I remember correctly Cinderella was actually up against Pan on the table last year.