Peter Pan Live! 2014 - Articles Page 23

NBC will have an open casting call for the lead role of Tracy Turnblad in the upcoming holiday special HAIRSPRAY LIVE!. The network has also set an air date for the live broadcast of Wednesday, Dec. 7th!

Producers Norton Herrick of Herrick Entertainment and Charlie Burnell of Threesixty Entertainment are pleased to announce the Los Angeles engagement of PETER PAN 360. Beginning Today, April 6, 2016, Los Angeles audiences will experience Neverland in a whole new way with a spectacular innovative stage production that combines intimate theater-in-the-round, overhead surround CGI projection, actors in dazzling flying sequences forty feet in the air, and whimsical puppets that bring J.M. Barrie's classic tale to fantastical life.

BWW has just learned that Emmy and Academy Award winner Aaron Sorkin, the creator and mastermind behind the beloved NBC drama “The West Wing,” is returning to the network with a live presentation of A FEW GOOD MEN, set to air in early 2017.

Now that we are a full two weeks removed from Fox's first foray into the world of live, televised musicals, I think it is time to look back at the lessons learned from GREASE: LIVE. Though I hailed it as a rousing success in my review, on Broadway Radio's 'This Week on Broadway,' and on BWW's 'Some Like it Pop' podcast, there are a fair number of critics and viewers that had perfectly reasonable hesitations. Whether it was occasional sound issues, too strict a reliance on the film for inspiration, the wonky new song, or uneven performances, I am fine with acknowledging those shortcomings; but to me, there are three things that made GREASE: LIVE the most entertaining and artistically satisfying live musical of this recently reinvigorated phenomenon.

THE WIZ LIVE producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron chatted with BroadwayWorld about the production's recent success at the NAACP Image Awards and more. Check out the full interview here!

Paramount Television's highly-acclaimed, breakthrough hit GREASE: LIVE delivered more than 17 million total viewers worldwide since it originally aired this past Sunday, Jan. 31.

Like greased lightning! CTV's very big January concluded last night with 1.7 million viewers for GREASE: LIVE preliminary overnight data from Numeris reveals, making it the #1 entertainment program Sunday with total viewers and all key demos. The special peaked with 2.37 million viewers, tuning in to Sandy and Danny's dance solo during 'Born To Hand Jive'.

The story of a boy named Peter Pan who refuses to grow up has delighted audiences since Scottish writer J.M. Barrie wrote about the mischievous boy who can fly and have adventures in a mythical island called Neverland. That was more than a century ago, but the appeal has never dimmed. The story has been converted to animation, a dramatic film, a television series and other works.

The first ratings are in for FOX's live broadcast of GREASE: LIVE and from the initial numbers, it appears that viewership was strong.

There's no doubt “Grease” will be the word of the nation tonight, as millions of people worldwide tune into FOX for the legendary GREASE: LIVE musical broadcast.  As previous broadcasts have shown us, everyone loves to live-tweet the big show, and Broadway's best and brightest are certainly no exception! (In most cases, perhaps, they're even more likely to tweet!) 

Like all theatre fans, we here at BroadwayWorld are excited to the max for Fox's broadcast of GREASE: LIVE tonight. Following in the footsteps of NBC's THE SOUND OF MUSIC LIVE!, PETER PAN LIVE!, and THE WIZ LIVE!, Marc Platt and Thomas Kail have filled their cast with stars of both stage and screen. While not every T-Bird, Pink Lady, and denizen of Rydell High has Broadway credits on their resume, nearly all of them have some sort of theatrical related experience under their belts.

It may be sold out, or close to selling out, but if you have chance to see freeFall's take of this Peter Pan prequel, then go. It's one of the best shows of the year.

Grammy-winning singer Ne-Yo and Shanice Williams starred in THE WIZ LIVE! on NBC on December 3rd, and together they conquered Oz and social media.

Producers Norton Herrick of Herrick Entertainment and Charlie Burnell of Threesixty Entertainment are pleased to announce the Los Angeles engagement of PETER PAN 360. Beginning Wednesday, April 6, 2016, Los Angeles audiences will experience Neverland in a whole new way with a spectacular innovative stage production that combines intimate theater-in-the-round, overhead surround CGI projection, actors in dazzling flying sequences forty feet in the air, and whimsical puppets that bring J.M. Barrie's classic tale to fantastical life.

Saturday's episode of NBC's SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE featured a spoof on last week's live broadcat of THE WIZ LIVE! In the sketch, West Oz's Scarecrow (host Ryan Gosling) mistakenly ends up in East Oz with Dorothy (Sasheer Zamata), Cowardly Lion (Kenan Thompson), Tin Man (Jay Pharoah), Scarecrow (Michael Che) and The Wiz (Leslie Jones).

Now that we are a week removed from last Thursday's THE WIZ LIVE!, NBC's third live musical in as many years, we know that the production has predominantly been hailed as a critical and ratings success, vindicating the audacious experiment after two, less than artistically satisfying, outings. Led by a newcomer plucked from an open call, director Kenny Leon and executive producers Neil Meron and Craig Zadan found a star in Shanice Williams and surrounded her with an all-star cast that ranged from serviceable to revelatory. However, as enjoyable as the event was, especially in relationship to past efforts, THE WIZ LIVE! was not a perfect production. There is, after all, a reason why no one did live TV musicals for nearly half a century; they are hard.

NBC aired its colorful holiday production of THE WIZ LIVE! last night, featuring newcomer Shanice Williams as Dorothy alongside Grammy and Golden Globe-winner Queen Latifah as the Wizard, nine-time Grammy-winner Mary J. Blige as Evillene, original Dorothy, Stephanie Mills, as Auntie Em and David Alan Grier as the Cowardly Lion. Whether you missed the special presentation when it aired or just want to re-live the amazing journey through Oz, watch the entire show below!

As BWW reported earlier today, NBC's live broadcast of THE WIZ LIVE! brought in a whopping 11.5 million viewers - a reason to celebrate for the network. Another reason? The introduction of the unforgettable Shanice Williams. Cast member James Brown III caught Williams' re-entry backstage following her powerful performance of the show's finale, 'Home,' last night. Check out a quick video of the cast and crew's standing ovation for 'Dorothy' actress below!

As BWW reported earlier today, NBC's live broadcast of THE WIZ LIVE! brought in a whopping 11.5 million viewers - a reason to celebrate for the network. Executive producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron chatted with the Hollywood Reporter today about the huge success of the show and what is in store for the future.

THE WIZ LIVE! rocked NBC last night will over 11 million viewers and celebrities were among the biggest fans of the night. Last year, the Twittersphere exploded with tens of thousands of viewer responses to NBC's Peter Pan Live! and this year the tweets didn't slow down! 

Thanks to Tony-winner Kenny Leon and a delightfully entertaining cast of characters, 'Home' is most certainly where the heart is this holiday season. Coming into this year's NBC live musical, theatre lovers nationwide were appropriately apprehensive, given the spotty results from THE SOUND OF MUSIC and PETER PAN. However, in THE WIZ LIVE!, we were finally given a production worthy of the show's beloved Broadway legacy. Executive Producers Neil Meron and Craig Zadan still haven't solved the riddle of recreating a stage show's scope and grandeur on screen without an audience, but with a once-in-a-lifetime star, and one of the most acclaimed casts in recent memory, for the first time since this annual experiment began in 2013, there's truly a reason to rejoice!

Today's the day! And a huge one it is for the company of NBC's THE WIZ LIVE! The Long Island soundstage that the cast and crew have been calling home for the past month will be bustling today as finishing touches are placed on the star-studded production. Theatre fans know that this won't be the first time that NBC has pulled off such a massive undertaking. 9.21 million people tuned in for last year's PETER PAN LIVE!, while THE SOUND OF MUSIC, presented in 2013, yielded a whopping 18.62 million live viewers- an unprecedented ratings boom for the network. Few can understand the pressure that comes with this kind of attention, but the casts of THE SOUND OF MUSIC LIVE! and PETER PAN LIVE! have been through all of it before. BroadwayWorld has been in touch with both companies to find out if they have any advice for their successors. Find out what they had to say below! 

In anticipation of NBC's upcoming holiday production of THE WIZ LIVE!, some of the cast stopped by the set of another NBC show- THE VOICE. Watch below as Dorothy (Shanice Williams) shows her friends what she's got!

NBCUniversal today announced that Reddi-wip will partner with NBC's live television production of the hit Broadway musical "The Wiz Live," set for December 3rd (8:00PM EST). The partnership is an extension of Reddi-wip's "Share the Joy" program aiming to help people experience more joy every day, and, in this case, the joy of music. The campaign also will feature contextually relevant branded content that reflects that mission, and is also an example of how NBC uses its unique storytelling capabilities to impact communities through the power of entertainment.

This morning's TODAY chatted with the THE WIZ LIVE! stars Queen Latifah, Mary J. Blige, David Alan Grier, Ne-Yo and Shanice Williams as they prepare for the big night.