NBC keeps adding to its list of new adaptations of popular musicals and debuting them in the small screen. They just updated the soul musical classic, The Wiz, and it has a very star-studded African-American cast.
Leading the pack is Queen Latifah, who plays the role of The Wiz. This role, originally a male lead, gets a new twist which has a female empowerment factor in the story. According to Hollywood Reporter, they added a backstory to The Wiz. "She didn’t have the greatest relationship with her husband and that’s how she ended up here. All of the women in this story, they make their own decisions in collaboration with men, but the men are not speaking for them, and that’s the way it should be anyway," said one of the directors, Kenny Leon.
Another female lead, Dorothy, was played by newcomer Shanice Williams. Writer Harvey Fierstein also gave Dorothy a little twist in the story. "In the movie, her dog gets in trouble by going in the garden, remember? So she wants to go somewhere where there isn't any trouble. That's not really a journey, not the kind of journey that the other characters have. I felt, why shouldn't she have as important a journey? And she's living with her aunt and uncle, and nobody ever asks why. Where are your parents?," said the writer.
Stephanie Mills, the actress who originally played Dorothy in the 1974 production of "The Wiz" in Broadway, is also included in the new cast as Auntie Em.
The other cast members include Common as The Bouncer, Mary J. Blige as Evillene, Amber Riley as Addapearle, Uzo Aduba as Glinda, Ne-Yo as Tin-Man, Elijah Kelley as Scarecrow, and David Alan Grier as The Cowardly Lion.
NBC's "The Wiz: Live" will be premiering on Dec. 3, 2015.
