NBC’s HAIR LIVE pulled from schedule- Page 2

[degrassifan]

Posted: 2/4/19 at 10:43pm

disneybroadwayfan22 said: "The hard truth is nobody wants live musicals. Period. Theres always complaining. There is always something to bitch about. The musical isnt right. This actor is terrible. The camera work is wrong. Blah blah blah. RENT Live and its ratings are proof: No likes them or wants them. And NBC is getting the message."

Not true. People are going to complain no matter what. Same with film musicals. Just because some people didn't like Mary Poppins Returns doesn't mean they should stop making movie musicals. I welcome these musicals with open arms, and I hope they never stop producing them. Also, as someone else pointed out, The Sound of Music, The Wiz, and Jesus Christ Superstar were all excellent. Going to throw Grease in there as well. I enjoyed Hairspray Live too! 

[BwayLB]

Posted: 2/4/19 at 10:50pm

Grease and Hairsiray were the best and as someone who was a teen when Wicked first took the country by storm, I’m all for musicals both on TV and on the big screen.

[everythingtaboo]

Posted: 2/4/19 at 10:56pm

I think appreciation for these had gradually been taken over by live-tweeting to see who can come up with the best snark. I never expected Hair to actually happen, and after the reaction to Rent, I just knew this was dead in the water. 

[Shannon Bo Dannon]

Posted: 2/4/19 at 11:00pm

It probably would've been terrible, but I was looking forward to it. Oh well. As long as the networks keep doing musicals, I'm good. I'd love to see The Music Man or Annie done some time. 

[MannPhan24601]

Posted: 2/4/19 at 11:04pm

Just fell in love with this show and so dang pissed .

I know the composer passed recently besides Meron. Wonder if that was a reason


Keep wondering who the cast was going to be

[BwayLB]

Posted: 2/4/19 at 11:08pm

It was Zadan not Meron

[sabrelady]

Posted: 2/4/19 at 11:20pm

I'm very relieved.  A show that I care so much about it would have been gutted beyond belief  to comply w Standards and Practices. 

Keep wondering who the cast was going to be.

Exactly- they should have been announcing casting and it's my belief they could not attract any "names" and after the sorry mess that was RENT- I think they never were.

Just saw a live production w a mostly age appropriate cast and there were substantial changes made ( at least to me- Ain't Got No suddenly had a thousand call and response lyrics, the nude scene was just the cast stripping off ON STAGE while Claude sang Where DO I GO?, The Bed was gone - I'd say good except it unconsciously  illustrated the idea that Free Love -was still for the mens among other things)

But it it revived my  goldenmemories of the sit down we had in TO- that I saw three times as a teen and I think I'm going to thank heaven for small mercies that it didn't become dross.

[RippedMan]

Posted: 2/4/19 at 11:21pm

Why not do South Pacific or Matilda? 

So, as of now, there's nothing planned for any network, correct? 

[darreyl102]

Posted: 2/4/19 at 11:34pm

disneybroadwayfan22 said: "The hard truth is nobody wants live musicals. Period. Theres always complaining. There is always something to bitch about. The musical isnt right. This actor is terrible. The camera work is wrong. Blah blah blah. RENT Live and its ratings are proof: No likes them or wants them. And NBC is getting the message."

Umm, that's not my truth, so please don't speak for me with saying "nobody wants live musicals . Period". I want GOOD live TV musicals- hairspray, The wiz, Grease were all great for the most part.

[LuPita2]

Posted: 2/4/19 at 11:55pm

None are scheduled.  Bye Bye Birdie would have been great, but that was shelved indefinitely.

Great article about the "R-rated" musical from awhile ago:

 https://ew.com/tv/2018/05/24/hair-rent-live-tv-musical/

Updated On: 2/4/19 at 11:55 PM

[ChildofEarth]

Posted: 2/5/19 at 1:35am

I truly think TV is where some of the “flop” musicals based on popular entities could shine. Groundhog Day on Groundhog Day? Spongebob? The Little Mermaid?

[RWPrincess]

Posted: 2/5/19 at 2:17am

I would watch Annie: Live in a heartbeat. Add cameos from SJP, Carol Burnett, Ann Reinking, Bernadette Peters and it's golden. 

I wish ABC would try the live musical with some of its now closed shows like Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid, Newsies, Hunchback, etc.

[a12la]

Posted: 2/5/19 at 2:23am

sabrelady said: "the nude scene was just the cast stripping off ON STAGE while Claude sang Where DO I GO?."

That's what the nude scene has been in every production of Hair that I've seen, including Broadway. What's wrong with that? Updated On: 2/5/19 at 02:23 AM

[Theatrefan2]

Posted: 2/5/19 at 2:29am

The wrong material and probably the cast the intended was wrong.  If you do things like this you have to cast properly, not half and half pop stars no one relates to and for heaven's sake pick the right show. Annie Get Your Gun, Gigi, Showboat would all bee nostalgicand success.  But primarily cast it correctly

[Niles Silvers]

Posted: 2/5/19 at 2:42am

After Eight said: ""NBC is no longer moving forward with its planned live version of the musical Hair."



Good.

Just what we didn't need: a glorification of that fetid entity known asthe counter-culture."

lol Ancient troll has been waiting since the sixties to make this statement.

[After Eight]

Posted: 2/5/19 at 3:53am

^

I made it then.

[antonijan]

Posted: 2/5/19 at 4:33am

#HairPulled

[perfectliar]

Posted: 2/5/19 at 8:53am

RippedMan said: "Why not do South Pacific or Matilda?"

Because it's a lot more complicated than saying, "I want to do this show. Announce it tomorrow!"

[JennH]

Posted: 2/5/19 at 9:27am

Miles2Go2 said: "Wonder if the was reaction to the poor reception to Fox’s Rent."

You'll never convince me it WASN'T because of this. The PR answer is never the real, behind-the-scenes answer. Hair was always a borderline bad choice for a live broadcast anyway, but then Rent happened. I personally don't mind these not being quite family fare, but for live broadcasts, I know that's what it's going to have to be to keep them afloat. I feel like Rent COULD have worked, but from what I saw (admittedly it wasn't a lot because I couldn't sit through it after a while), it wasn't thought through well. But it's still not family fare. Plus, am I the only one who thought it was super ironic that it was Fox of all networks to do Rent?? But I digress. Thus far, the only TRULY good one on most counts has been Superstar. The rest have ranged from serviceable to terrible for various reasons.

[spiderdj82]

Posted: 2/5/19 at 9:31am

I'm still hoping for "The Music Man" with Seth MacFarlane as Harold Hill.  

[BwayLB]

Posted: 2/5/19 at 9:32am

^ I rather have Neil Patrick Harris

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 2/5/19 at 9:49am

Maybe HBO could pull it off, since they wouldn't have to censor it as much as NBC.

HBO wouldn’t have to censor it as much?  Seriously?  HBO wouldn’t have to censor anything.   HBO shows full frontal nudity, profanity, ejaculation and everything else you can think of.  

[BJR]

Posted: 2/5/19 at 10:06am

disneybroadwayfan22 said: "The hard truth is nobody wants live musicals. Period. Theres always complaining. There is always something to bitch about. The musical isnt right. This actor is terrible. The camera work is wrong. Blah blah blah. RENT Live and its ratings are proof: No likes them or wants them. And NBC is getting the message."

JC SUPERSTAR was a ratings, critical, and award circuit hit. So, no. 

As the release said, NBC got cold feet with a young adult musical that families would not feel comfortable watching together - yes, especially after RENT did so poorly with the same target demo. 

I'm curious about the language "we're in the process of acquiring the rights to a couple of new shows that we're really excited about."

Does this mean "new" as in different from HAIR, or "new" as in written recently?

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 2/5/19 at 10:26am

Does this mean "new" as in different from HAIR, or "new" as in written recently?

”New” as in more new options/choices.   If even with known classics ratings are poor, no network will even consider anything new/original.  HAIRSPRAY: Live! and A CHRISTMAS STORY: Live! were a true rarity as they both were fairly new musicals compared to the others, though both titles have non-musical versions which have their own name recognition.  RENT is over 20 years old so it’s hardly a new musical written recently.  

[ggersten]

Posted: 2/5/19 at 10:33am

BrodyFosse123 said: "Maybe HBO could pull it off, since they wouldn't have to censor it as much as NBC.

HBO wouldn’t have to censor it as much? Seriously? HBO wouldn’t have to censor anything. HBO shows full frontal nudity, profanity, ejaculationand everything else you can think of."

"It's not porn. It's HBO"