I don't know, I'm not into Ne-Yo and I can't picture anyone doing Slide Some Oil To Me but Nipsy Russell and I've heard the original Broadway cast soundtrack version. He has a unique voice like other singers like Scatman Crothers & Johnny Mathis

I'm going to watch it. I just hope it doesn't ruin my enjoyment of The Wiz 'cause if it does, I will be PISSED.

It's 3hrs long..8pm-11pm-est...I have no other choice but to DVR it...It's gonna be a HUGE event, probably the most watched LIVE production in years...

It's going to be interesting. you are right MickyDolenz I don't know about Neyo but he might shock us

What about Jamie Foxx for the tin man? I think David Allen Grier is a good choice for the cowardly lion. Yes, three hours, but probably a total of forty minutes of commercials.

When I was younger the following used to scare me..

and Diana Ross's screams were so annoying ...and she was always yelling for that stupid dog.

EXCLUSIVE: The Wiz was a wow — that’s what you read on every bus and Broadway poster back in the mid-1970s (the ubiquitous pitch line came from Marilyn Stasio’s review in the long-gone Cue magazine). An urbane R&B reinterpretation of L. Frank Baum’s tale of Dorothy’s tornado’ed trip to the Land of Oz, her companions the Cowardly Lion, the Scarecrow and the Tinman; her benefactress Glinda and her nemesis, the Wicked Witch of the West, not to mention old flim-flam himself, the Wizard, The Wiz began performance on Christmas Eve, 1974 and ran for 1,672 performances. Along the way it won seven Tony Awards including best musical, and spawned a 1978 box office bomb starring Diana Ross and Michael Jackson (cost: $24M; domestic take: $13M) that nonetheless developed an impassioned fan base.

The Broadway show was star-packed then, and so it is in the latest incarnation as The Wiz Live! The third in NBC’s annual live telecasts of Broadway musicals, it will go up December 3, following last year’s Peter Pan and the prior year’s The Sound of Music. The cast includes the 1975 Dorothy, Stephanie Mills, as Aunt Em, and more boldface names than you can shake a fiery broom at: Queen Latifah as the Wiz; Common as the Gatekeeper, renamed the Bouncer; Uzo Aduba as Glinda; Mary J. Blige as negatory witch Evilene; Amber Riley good witch Addaperle; David Alan Grier as Lion; Ne-Yo as Tin Man; Elijah Kelley as Scarecrow; and an unknown powerhouse triple threat, Shanice Williams, as Dorothy.

At the helm is Kenny Leon, a director of uncommon sensitivity who staged not only a brilliant Broadway revival of A Raisin In The Sun but also the pre-Hamilton rap musical Holler If Ya Hear Me. The show is a co-production of NBC and Cirque du Soleil, which plans to bring it to Broadway next season, possibly with executive producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron, possibly not, they told me during a recent conversation at Grumman Studios in Bethpage, Long Island, where these shows have been mounted on sound stages where jetliners once were minted.

Meron and Zadan, the Oscar producers and old hands at bringing musicals to TV, have had their minds set on The Wiz for a long time, they told Deadline.

Craig Zadan: There’a a deep, deep affection for this show in the African American community and it’s split down the middle as to where the affection comes from. Queen Latifah, for example, said that it was seeing Stephanie Mills sing “Home” in the original Broadway production that made her want to be a performer. Her reverence of The Wizcomes from the show. But when we were doing the Oscars and we were staging “Glory,” Common said he was obsessed with the movie of The Wiz and when we told him were were doing it, he said ‘I’ve got to be in this.’ Everyone wanted to be part of it.

Neil Meron: When we did Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella in 1997 with a multicultural cast [including Brandy, Bernadette Peters, Whitney Houston, Whoopi Goldberg and Jason Alexander], the very next show we planned was The Wiz. This was in 1998, we had a script written, we were casting, we’d hired Robert Iscove, who’d directed Cinderella, the director, as a TV movie for The Wonderful World Of Disney. Paula Abdul was going to do the choreography and we found an unknown at the time to play Dorothy — the unknown was Anika Noni Rose. Anika was ready to sing “Home” for the Upfronts, at the Palace Theatre.

Craig Zadan: For her audition, she walked in off the street and sang “Home,” and we needed an ambulance to pick us up off the floor.

Neil Meron: And then ABC found there was a problem with Universal, which owned the film rights, and it all just fell apart. But The Wiz has always been on our list of projects. What we didn’t know this time was that Cirque was planning to do it on Broadway and they had hired Kenny. It was kind of a perfect marriage.

Craig Zadan: One of the key elements for us was Fatima [choreographer Fatima Robinson], who did the “Happy” number with Pharrell Williams for the Oscars; we were blown away by how she choreographed and her professionalism. She choreographed the movie of Dreamgirls and Bill Condon had raved to us about how great she was to work with.

Another key choice was Harvey Mason Jr., who produced the soundtrack for Dreamgirls and worked with Justin Timberlake and Usher. We thought, with Fatima we’re going to get non-Broadway, very authentic African-American choreography. With Harvey Mason Jr. we’re going to get authentic Black R&B music and it’s not going to sound like Broadway pit band music. The influence comes with the way music is produced for R&B albums, which starts with rhythm tracks. And that’s what he specializes in.

Neil Meron: Of course, The Wiz was never a traditional Broadway score to begin with; it had an R&B vibe.

Craig Zadan: And you won’t hear distortion of the original score, but it breathes new life into the songs. And the other part is Stephen Oremus, who did Kinky Bootsand so many other things, he has a foot in Broadway and a foot in contemporary music and he’s able to bring the string charts and the rest from the Broadway arena. The combination of Stephen and Harvey together makes for a freshness that we find exciting.

Neil Meron: And let’s not forget our other Harvey, Harvey Fierstein, who’s added depth and clarity and his brand of humor.

Craig Zadan: It’s a bit funnier, and it’s a bit more emotional.

Last year, Meron and Zadan signed a co-production deal with the Shubert Organization, and they’ve been looking at plays and musicals, having homed in on a few they want to develop. Meanwhile, as soon as the curtain comes down on the Wizbroadcast, they return full-time to work on Bombshell for NBC.

Craig Zadan: Bombshell will get our full, undivided attention after The Wiz, and we’ve been given the option of producing The Wiz with Cirque on Broadway if we want to.

That will likely depend on the results from Thursday night’s telecast — and the audience verdict on whether or not, 40 years on, The Wiz remains a wow.

Our family can't wait, we're thinking of having a watch party tomorrow and inviting some of our kid's friends!

I didn't see the beginning. I turned on where the 4 are singing Ease On Down The Road. Dorothy & the Lion just finished Be A Lion.

Looks like they replaced the disco from the movie with some house music and voguing

Latifah's hair reminds me of Paul McCartney in Give My Regards To Broad Street

Uzo's song was always one of my favorites, which was sung by Lena Horne in the movie.

RosesRred said:

Where's Toto???

He just showed up

Good job!

Even Neyo was good.

CynicKill said:

Good job!

Even Neyo was good.

I liked the part that I saw

Just tuned in. Stephanie Mills is still great. Loved the landing in Oz.

The voguing Emerald City gave me life!

MickyDolenz said:

RosesRred said:

"Twitter explodes with angry debate over The Wiz Live's all-b lack cast"-Daily Mail Really??? Are they serious???

Hunh?!

Ya'll know internet people act like they were born yesterday!

Excellent. This is a throw back to 50's, 60's and early 70's live programming, I hope NBC and other do this more often. I would have liked if a sponser would have cut a check for limited ( if any) commercials. Apple or Samsung can afforded it... Still it was a joy to watch.

I loved the sets and everyone did an excellent job.

CynicKill said:

Ya'll know internet people act like they were born yesterday!

This generation are culturally deprived, I'm serious. This is what happens when you think Arts and art education are expendable... you get a lot of people who are no nothings.

RosesRred said:

I didn't know David Allen Grier could sing. They are all doing a .great job and the song You can't Win by the scarecrow just kept making me picture MJ singing that part Where's Toto???

David is clasically trained in theater from Yale school of drama. HE did a lot of singing on In Living Color.

RosesRred said:

"Twitter explodes with angry debate over The Wiz Live's all-b lack cast"-Daily Mail Really??? Are they serious???

They probably have nothing to say about John Wayne playing a Chinese man who really existed

LittleBLUECorvette said:

I enjoyed the Wiz. I wish the networks would put on more of these. Not even PBS does many anymore. Mary J. Blige was great as Evillene.

I DVR'ed it. I will probably get around to watching it during the week of Christmas. I did, however, get to see Stephanie Mills sing during the first few minutes of the show, which is really the only part I cared about anyway. She sounded as amazing as ever!