The Wiz Was NBCs Best Live Musical Yet
NBC announced that The Wiz would be the network's annual live musical broadcast back in March. But in ways that the network couldn't have known, it was a timely choice. The Wiz is by far NBC's most sophisticated live musical broadcast yet it's also one that felt, movingly, of its time. The past two of NBC's musicals, The Sound of Music and Peter Pan, worked assiduously at feeling like nostalgia acts a viewer who didn't know they were live broadcasts, and who didn't recognize Carrie Underwood as Maria von Trapp or Allison Williams as Peter Pan, might have thought she were watching something from the early days of television. By contrast, The Wiz was adorned with subtle nods to contemporary culture, from the trap music beats playing as the flying monkeys danced to Dorothy beginning a story, slangily, with "What had happened was", These contemporary-feeling moments might be eye-roll-worthy if The Wiz didn't feel quite so necessary. The year that's ending was one in which black people fought, in public, to be recognized as worthy of recognition, respect, and basic rightsto be seen, as it were, as mattering. Against this troubling backdrop, an entirely black cast being granted three hours of airtime on a major network feels meaningful. That this cast's talents, speaking frankly, blew Peter Pan and the majority of The Sound of Music out of the water is gratifying on top of being very good TV. Read next What Made the Original The Wiz Wickedly Amusing'