I thought the sets were in several cases distractingly busy; I’d like to have seen a plainer background so the choreography was more visible. But I loved the costumes’ and makeup’s over-the-top-ness. The only costumes I didn’t like were the Kansas/Nebraska ones: Dorothy’s plaid skirt was unflattering, and the Wiz’s bathrobe and, later, duster didn’t fit in.
I wondered why the song was unfamiliar. One of my kids did this play in school and you are right
The scarecrow song was in the movie, sung by Michael Jackson. It was familiar to a lot of viewers.
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Here’s some of the changes, which include scarecrow’s song being changed from the musical version’s “I was Born the Day Before Yesterday” to the movie version’s song, “You can’t Win.”
I didn’t watch all of it, but recorded it (don’t tell me how it ends!).
I like the idea as a whole - live broadcast of a musical or a play. I thought the Scarecrow’s acrobatics were pretty neat.
It was the first Broadway show I saw as a kid, I was nine, I remember it very clearly - who I went with, where we sat, I was mesmerized. I had the Broadway soundtrack album and learned all the songs, so for me, this was huge. I started crying when Stephanie Mills started singing the first song about 4 minutes into it and that wasn’t the only time I teared up.
I was not a big fan of the movie version with Diana Ross, MJ, etc.
You can stream it commercial-free on NBC’s web site, which is what I did.
I (we) thought that it was amateur, and lacking in energy…everything. I saw the original cast in Los Angeles many years ago.
Different strokes…