OMG! So I heard that NBC has chosen The Wiz as it’s next LIVE musical and Cirque de Soleil is in talks to revise the musical for Broadway!!!! I.CANNOT.EVEN! My first reaction:
Now I won’t get into why NBC chose The Wiz over The Music Man, but I’ll just throw out these buzzwords: Empire, Empire, Empire…Diversity. Whatever the reason, I DON’T EVEN CARE!!! I am here for The Wiz. Also too, Cirque de Soleil can just go ahead and take my money right now! Cause if The Wiz on going back to Broadway, then I will be there!
So everybody is now talking about who they would cast as the principal characters in The Wiz. If you know me, then you’ll remember that I mentioned my dream Wiz cast before. It was ’bout the time when it was first announced that NBC was deciding between The Music Man and The Wiz. My money has always been on The Wiz, cause…hello, I love that movie!
So without further adieu, here is my “dream” cast for The Wiz:
First off, here is the original Broadway principal cast: Tiger Haynes (Tin Man), Ted Ross (Lion), Stephanie Mills (Dorothy) and Hinton Battle (Scarecrow).
Dorothy – Zendaya Coleman 
This was a tough one. Dorothy should be a young girl. Not too young, but def not quite as old as Diana Ross appeared to be. Coleman is the right age, but I’m not too sure about her true singing ability. I can see a woman in their 30’s getting the part, but they have to be young-looking and should be able to sing the hell out of “Home”!
Honorable Mention: Keke Palmer, again, I don’t know if Keke can handle singing “Home”. Then again, who can ever beat the original Broadway Dorothy…Ms Stephanie Mills!
Seriously NBC whoever plays Dorothy betta be able to handle “Home” like a young Stephanie Mills. Here she is singing when she was playing Dorothy on Broadway.
Scarecrow: Jussie Smollett 
Ok, so my first choice has always been Chris Brown, but thanks to Breezy being Breezy, ain’t no way he’ll ever get close to this type of project. And in reading, I came across someone to play the Scarecrow that I didn’t even think about!! Jussie Smolett (Jamal from Empire)!!! I can TOTALLY see him singing and dancing to “You Can’t Win”
Honorable Mention: Usher or maybe Ne-Yo, although I’m not too sure if Ne-Yo can handle the loose bones that MJs iconic Scarecrow had. But I can def see Usher, but I have other plans for him.
Tin Man – Usher Raymond 
Come on now, this is PERFECT casting. Usher can sing, he can dance and he can pop and lock like nobody’s bidness. I can totally hear him saying “ta hee, ta hee”…lol Also totally seeing him dancing and singing to
Honorable Mention: Bruno Mars. He would kill it as Tin Man. He could certainly sing and dance he way into our hearts.
Cowardly Lion – Cedric The Entertainer
“Ceddy” would be totally awesome. He has the look, let’s be honest, he has the girth and I can totally see him in the Lion costume singing “Mean Ole Lion”
Honorable Mention: Anthony Anderson (not sure about the singing part) and Cee-Lo (same as with Breezy, he’s got some “bad behaviour” trouble)
The next group of characters are “minor” but have major song and scenes, but are not in the “primary” cast:
Evilene – Queen Latifah
After seeing Queen in Chicago as Mama Morton, and hearing her jazz albums, I have always thought that Queen Latifah would totally KILL IT as Evilene. Can’t you just see her stumping her way through “No Bad News” singing it or rapping it. The Queen would be perfect.
Glinda the Good Witch – Audra McDonald 
Honestly, to my mind, only Audra McD could do the Queen Miss Lena Horne justice. Can you imagine her singing “Believe In Yourself”!! I’ve got chills already.
The Wiz(ard) – Now this is a tough one. I’ve heard any number of names banded about…Jamie Foxx, Mike Epps, Kevin Hart. Of course in the film he was played by Richard Pryor. It’s honestly anyone’s guest who could play the Wizard. But if NBC wants to go the parallel route and since the Wizard has no real singing parts, they could just go with an edgy comedian and play it for laughs…so whynot see if Dave Chappelle would do it? Whoever is chosen, I’m need them to make sure who ever sings “He’s The Wizard” does Thelma Carpenter’s version justice!
So there you have it. My choices for who’d I’d love to see cast for the NBC LIVE Musical: The Wiz.
Whomever they chose better be worthy and good. ALOT of folk love the movie and the Broadway musical it was bases on. NBC doesn’t wanna fuck this up. And as long as they don’t have Carrie Underwood or Taylor Swift in a wig, I think they’ll be alright. The biggest snag of course would be whether or not they attempt to keep the cast “all Black”. I hope so. If not they better make DAMN sure they keep the primary cast the same and maybe to blind cast the rest?
So that’s it. Alright, do you agree with my choices? If not who would you pick for the cast? Do you love The Wiz as much as I do? And do you find yourself always tapping your feet to “Brand New Day”? Hit me up on twitter or Facebook, or here in comments, or whatever blog I frequent.
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