The Film Experience

MARGARET: Good evening, Kansans and citizens of Oz! Margaret here with Anne Marie, ready and excited to ease on into NBC's The Wiz Live!

ANNE MARIE: Last year Margaret and I re-capped that musical where Christopher Walken kinda sang a little bit, to the joy of few and the dismay of many. HOWEVER, this year The Wiz Live! looks like everything we ever wanted and more! The live-blog begins after the jump!

8:00 MARGARET: I adore this musical, and am entirely jazzed on the prospect of this truly excellent cast taking it on. Roll call, TFE readers! Who else was in a high school production of The Wiz?

8:02 ANNE MARIE: They added the Wizard of Oz prologue! I have to commit I'm only familiar with The Wiz movie, where Dorothy and family are all native New Yorkers. The Kansas City Royals hat is a nice touch!

8:04 MARGARET: Stephanie Mills as Aunt Em is claiming to be "too old for this" but she is looking GOOD. Original Broadway Dorothy passing the torch-- this is so dang sweet.

8:05 ANNE MARIE: I would just like to point out that Stephanie Mills was on Margaret's The Wiz Live! dream cast back when the project was announced. NBC may have only fulfilled this one of Margaret's many fantastic choices, but midway through this song we all know why...

8:07 MARGARET: Shameless flatterer! (Your check is in the mail)

8:08 ANNE MARIE: Whoops! First camera gaff. But check out that projection! And those Cirque dancers! This is straight up stage craft!

8:09 MARGARET: Damn the beautiful blend of Shanice Williams and Stephanie Mills' voices! That's what Anne Marie calls a "how dare they" note.

8:11 ANNE MARIE: DOROTHY'S IN THE AIR!! Think they employed Fly by Foy again?

8:12 MARGARET: These production designers are fire!! This Beverly-Hills-Psychic’s-Office munchkinland set is for real.

8:14 ANNE MARIE: Those silver slippers are some crazy disco-inspired heels. But then again, basically everyone in Oz is rocking fabulous footwear. Well-dressed from head to toe are these munchkins!

8:15 MARGARET: Amber Riley sauntering in and dropping those comic chops on us, then sailing into “He’s the Wiz” with that divine flexible alto is serving mostly to make me deeply angry at Ryan Murphy for doing her dirty for basically all of Glee’s run. #JusticeForMercedes

8:19 ANNE MARIE: Ugh. This musical is nothing but How Dare They notes. I love it. BELT THAT HIGH NOTE AMBER!!

8:24 MARGARET: Methinks we just spotted another technical mishap. There was an explosion and then.. nada?

8:26 ANNE MARIE: What is Munchkin Land made out of? Hookahs? Russian church steeples? The deconstructed sets of failed Cirque shows? Inquiring minds want to know.

8:26 MARGARET: Shanice Williams, our Dorothy for this evening, is a star. Magnetic, lovely, beautiful voi--- sorry, excuse me---SOON AS IIIIIIIII GET HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOME

8:32 ANNE MARIE: Finally figured out what those dancing cyclones from earlier reminded me of:

8:37 MARGARET: Hey everyone, remember Elijah Kelley, aka the best thing about Hairspray? He did NOT come here to play. Them moves! Them pipes! Am I the only one a bit disappointed that they're doing "You Can't Win" (movie song) instead of the original "Born on the Day Before Yesterday"? (Full disclosure: in my high school production of The Wiz I played the scarecrow. I am biased.)

8:41 ANNE MARIE: Is the Yellow Brick Road paved with Mary J Blige's Grammy Awards? She certainly has enough to do it!

8:47 MARGARET: *Ne-Yo starts singing 'Slide Some Oil to Me'*
Anne Marie: "Ahhhh. I'm so glad they fixed the singing problem."
Margaret: "you mean the problem where the whole cast couldn't sing like this?"

Anne Marie: *knowing smile*

8:50 ANNE MARIE: Ne-Yo's dancebreak just proved why they couldn't cast Drake in the role. #HotlineBling #TopicalHumor #SorryForTheHashtagJokes

8:53 ANNE MARIE: Had a minor theater geek-gasm with the transition from the Yellow Brick Road to the forest. Those projections! The flying trees! And even the yellow brick road changes color! Bravo, set designers!

8:57 MARGARET: I am a useless fangirl. There is nothing to snark on??? The cast is adorable and the dancing is adorable and I can't. (Also just to say, here's hoping David Alan Grier's lion costume weighs a good deal less than the 90-pound monstrosity Bert Lahr had to deal with in The Wizard of Oz.)

9:01 ANNE MARIE: StinkyLulu is, as ever, on point:

open tweet to @craigzadan @neilmeron : how about @Lin_Manuel Miranda's #InTheHeights for next year? #TheWiz #TheWizLive #InTheHeightsLIVE
— Brian Herrera (@stinkylulu) December 4, 2015

9:03 ANNE MARIE: "I'm not panicking now, but give me a few minutes!" The Cowardly Lion is my spirit animal. This is my grad school experience in a single punchline.

9:05 MARGARET: Y'all this forest is TERRIFYING.

9:06 ANNE MARIE: THIS DANCE NUMBER IS CATS ON ACID!!

9:08 MARGARET: I don’t know if I’ve ever actively wished for a musical to have more ballads before. Shanice Williams, what is this witchcraft?!?!

9:10 ANNE MARIE: This part of The Wiz always weirded me out. It's honestly no weirder here. Are the Poppy dancers are about to break out in a number from Priscilla Queen of the Desert? I'd be more into that.

9:14 MARGARET: Ah, and naturally there's a plug to see Wicked on Broadway during the commercial break. Synergy!

9:17 ANNE MARIE & MARGARET: COMMON!!!

Why do I feel like this is Common's actual loungewear #TheWiz pic.twitter.com/i6dSWOZ6vt
— Margaret de Larios (@says_margaret) December 4, 2015

9:18 ANNE MARIE: I could totally rock that jacket.

9:19 MARGARET: SO THE EMERALD CITY IS A DRAG BALL AND EVERYONE IS VOGUING?? Nothing in my life has ever made this much sense tbh

9:20 ANNE MARIE: Vogue along with the citizens of OZ IS BURNING!

9:28 MARGARET: Queen Latifah IS Ziggy Stardust!!!!!!!!!! (What is that forehead-nosebridge makeup?)

9:29 ANNE MARIE: Nevermind. I could totally rock that coat.

9:31 MARGARET: The Wiz is being salty as heeellllll to hir houseguests. If this was truly a present-day production, The Wiz would totally be a subtweeter.

9:39 ANNE MARIE: By the by, Nathaniel is tweeting along even though he's not commenting here. *sniff sniff*

scared that Tim Burton is watching this somewhere, getting ideas for next Johnny Depp vehicle pic.twitter.com/jjZ8eqjZGe
— Nathaniel Rogers (@nathanielr) December 4, 2015

9:41 MARGARET: ....is this speech from The Wiz about Dorothy's house-dropping lowkey a metaphor on gentrification?

9:43 MARGARET: What's this? Might it be an original song mine ears are hearing??

9:45 ANNE MARIE: Okay I was liking the projection until they decided to change the color of the set 500 times for this number. Admittedly the new song isn't the best, but we can rely on Shanice Williams's RAW STAR POWER AND MAGNIFICENT VOICE to carry us through without the not-so-Emerald City projection and the creepy floating masks. I do not like the creepy floating masks.

9:51 ANNE MARIE: LADIES AND GENTLEMAN, THE HEAD WITCH IN CHARGE, EVILLENE HERSELF, MARY J. BLIGE!!!!!!!!

9:52 MARGARET: If the music number goes on just long enough, do you think there'll be time to airlift another Grammy in??

9:56 ANNE MARIE: Like the lady says, "WORK WORK WORRRRRRRRK!"

9:57 MARGARET: So she's definitely about to bust into Defying Gravity, right?

9:59 ANNE MARIE: I am here for all of this Cirque du Soleil performance except the costumes. WHY do the flying monkeys have metal moobs?

10:01 MARGARET: Twitter is coming THROUGH right now

I decided to take the initiative, @NBC... #TheWizLive #TotoGate pic.twitter.com/CmNMJTZmWC
— Steven (@somedayboy) December 4, 2015

10:05 MARGARET: That faint sound you heard right after MJB shouted "This child still thinks I'm playing with her!" was the sound of several thousand reaction gifs being saved. Coming soon to a Buzzfeed listicle near you.

10:09 ANNE MARIE: BRAND NEW DAY DANCE PARTY!!

10:15 ANNE MARIE: Awww we skipped past the voguing Oz citizens. I wanted another dance party.

10:18 MARGARET: Pay no attention to that Queen behind the curtain! Love the awkward feminist twist they threw in there. The Wiz backstory telling right now is making me sort of pine for a version of Oz the Great and Powerful starring Lady Latifah. That is, if there has to be one of those at all. But still. James Franco <<<<<

10:21 ANNE MARIE: Careful, Margaret! Sony Pictures Entertainment might hear you and put another Oz prequel into preproduction.

10:22 MARGARET: Are you telling me that if they greenlit a blockbuster where Queen Latifah got to romance Michelle Williams, Rachel Weisz, and Mila Kunis, that you would be all that mad?

10:23 ANNE MARIE: ...touche. DEAR SONY PICTURES, IF YOU'RE READING THIS, PLEASE MAKE AN OZ PREQUEL STARRING QUEEN LATIFAH.

10:26 MARGARET: When this angel-voiced teenager starts singing "Home" I'll officially be a goner. I know we're several songs away but I will need all my strength. Pre-sobbing imminent.

10:29 ANNE MARIE: Queen Latifah's fairly conservative beige dress has made this earlier tweet by Nathaniel oddly prescient:

Emerald is so 1939. I wish it was Fluorescent Beige City in this version #TheWiz pic.twitter.com/MQPXA1Y6cX
— Nathaniel Rogers (@nathanielr) December 4, 2015

10:30 MARGARET: Damn!! Time for the chorus to get their shine, and they are GO-ING FOR IT. Taking How Dare They notes to a new level.

10:32: ANNE MARIE: LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, UZO ADUBA!!!
Uzo Aduba: "Hello, Dorothy!"
MARGARET and ANNE MARIE: *SQUEALS*

10:35 MARGARET: Golden-gauze eleganza on Uzo. Is this what the Disneyland parks are going to put Princess C-3PO in for their Star Wars tie-in attractions?

10:38 ANNE MARIE: Now Shanice Williams brings us "Home" because it wouldn't be an NBC Live! Broadcast if I didn't cry at least once. Don't mind me. I'll just quietly sob in the corner.

10:41 MARGARET: I'm mixing things up by crying straight up in the open. So beautiful. I feel like a proud mom getting embarrassingly emotional at the recital. Great work, team!! Top to bottom, a dynamite cast and a lovely production.

10:45 ANNE MARIE: Oh my gosh! We're done? We're done! Thank you everyone for joining us on an absolutely incredible trip down the Yellow Brick Road! I hope you had as much fun as we did! Anne Marie OUT!