Shanice for sure had pitch problems throughout but she has a beautiful gorgeous voice. She slayed Home as far as I'm concerned. She's not a robot she's human. Every singer sings a few off notes here and there.
Pretty nice write up of "The Wiz: Live!" by Mr. Eric Deggans over at NPR.
When NBC first considered bringing The Wiz Live! to television, the network couldn't have known how much America would need to see this.
At a time when the country is reeling from mass shootings, protests over police killing black teens, and presidential candidates railing against immigrants and refugees, there is no better time to experience a soothing, expertly executed celebration of family, friendship and black culture.
broadwayboy223 said: "Shanice for sure had pitch problems throughout"
Thank you. Now, people can choose to not care, or to be forgiving, but it was too much for my taste. I did not like the intonations and the way she started words with that "bouncing ball" sound either.
Dave19, I respectfully disagree with your assessment of Shanice Williams' performance in "The Wiz: Live", for this being her first professional acting and singing role she really held her own. Were her vocals perfect? No. But she redeemed herself quite nicely and her performance of "Home" was really, really beautiful.
I don't think that you quite understand that the casting of "The Wiz" with African Americans is quite intentional. That is how the show was conceived back in 1975. It is very much an alternative version of L. Frank Baum's "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz".
For someone who says that they are in "the business" I am surprised you wouldn't already know that. "The Wiz" is a very well known property, it's not some obscure, unknown musical.
I write all of this not with the intention of trying to sway you from your opinions, opinions that you are surely entitled but they do not reflect the majority and are very much in the minority.
My absolute favorite insane comment on the Internet (buried on a review site) about the Broadcast was that Queen Latifah and Mary J. Blige were awful and she hated the others in it too. Then she said (get ready) ... "Black people just can't do The Wiz."
LOL
Racist ignorance at its finest.
"Jaws is the Citizen Kane of movies."
blocked: logan2, Diamonds3, Hamilton22
best12bars said: "My absolute favorite insane comment on the Internet (buried on a review site) about the Broadcast was that Queen Latifah and Mary J. Blige were awful and she hated the others in it too. Then she said (get ready) ... "Black people just can't do The Wiz."
LOL
Racist ignorance at its finest.
Yes. Many of these comments were truly baffling and born out of pure ignorance of the show.
Minor quibbles aside in regards to the truncated Emerald City Ballet, Tornado sequence and the exclusions of "Born on The Day Before Yesterday" "Rested Body..." and "Who Do You Think You Are?" I feel this version of "The Wiz" brought back the joy and fun to the piece. The Lumet film version sucked all the joy of the piece. It was just too dark.
I don't get all the outrage about an "all black cast", I thought I saw a couple of white (cough...cough...token..cough..cough) dancers in some numbers.
If the reverse was done in another show, all main cast White with token black dancers no one would bat an eye.
"when I’m on stage I see the abyss and have to overcome it by telling myself it’s only a play." - Helen Mirren
skies said: "I don't get all the outrage about an "all black cast", I thought I saw a couple of white (cough...cough...token..cough..cough) dancers in some numbers.
If the reverse was done in another show, all main cast White with token black dancers no one would bat an eye."
Even if they didn't have those so-called "token" dancers in the ensemble this "outrage" is unwarranted. "The Wiz" was conceived as a show with an African-American cast. It's "The Wizard of Oz" re-envisioned through an African American sensibility. I fail to understand why anyone would have a problem with that. No one was shouting "racism" or up in arms about it when the show premiered forty years ago. You would think we as a society would have PROGRESSED. That doesn't seem to be the case. This country, this society seems to have REGRESSED.
Sidenote, the SNL skit was pretty funny ... If you didn't see it live it looks like BWW has the video up. It also looked like they were wearing the actual costumes. Gosling actually looked quite a bit like Ray Bolger.
SNL was able to get the actual costumes. I was on call to recreate the Tin Man's jacket if they were not able to get them. They managed to get the costumes for Peter Pan last year as well.
Those Blocked: SueStorm. N2N Nate. Good riddence to stupid! Rad-Z, shill begone!
SNAFU said: "SNL was able to get the actual costumes. I was on call to recreate the Tin Man's jacket if they were not able to get them. They managed to get the costumes for Peter Pan last year as well."
I was wondering why the costumes were so "on the mark"!