topic Re: Anyone watching The Wiz? in Community Chat

Anyone watching The Wiz?

nana59 — Fri, 04 Dec 2015 02:41:04 GMT

Are you enjoying it? I like the sense of humor added here and there......my husband, on the other hand, went into another room to read!!

Re: Anyone watching The Wiz?

Goodie2shoes — Fri, 04 Dec 2015 02:44:12 GMT

I was just about to post the same question. I am loving this performance ! Awesome !!

Re: Anyone watching The Wiz?

MyGirlsMom — Fri, 04 Dec 2015 02:46:08 GMT

David Alan Grier as the Lion is hysterical.

Re: Anyone watching The Wiz?

nana59 — Fri, 04 Dec 2015 02:49:43 GMT

@Goodie2shoes wrote:
I was just about to post the same question. I am loving this performance ! Awesome !!

In this day and age we live in, isn't it great to enjoy such talent........I wonder if they nap during commercials!! I'm exhausted just watching them.........

Re: Anyone watching The Wiz?

Goodie2shoes — Fri, 04 Dec 2015 02:51:07 GMT

Neo as Tin man is pretty good also. But who is playing the scare crow ?

Re: Anyone watching The Wiz?

Lila Belle — Fri, 04 Dec 2015 02:55:38 GMT

@Goodie2shoes wrote:
Neo as Tin man is pretty good also. But who is playing the scare crow ?

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David Alan Grier.

I'm dvr'ing to watch this weekend,

Re: Anyone watching The Wiz?

foo foo shi shi — Fri, 04 Dec 2015 03:01:13 GMT

@nana59 wrote:
Are you enjoying it? I like the sense of humor added here and there......my husband, on the other hand, went into another room to read!!

Yes! I am loving it. Remember seeing it on Broadway when I was a little girl. I know it's been updated but I don't mind. Think they've done a nice job with the music, dancing, costumes, singing...

Re: Anyone watching The Wiz?

BeckiWV — Fri, 04 Dec 2015 03:02:00 GMT

Oh shoot, I meant to watch it but I forgot. It looked pretty amazing. I hope they will repeat it. Or maybe it will show up On Demand.

Re: Anyone watching The Wiz?

foo foo shi shi — Fri, 04 Dec 2015 03:05:00 GMT

@Goodie2shoes wrote:
Neo as Tin man is pretty good also. But who is playing the scare crow ?

Elijah Kelley is the Scarecrow and David Alan Grier is the Lion.

Re: Anyone watching The Wiz?

Goodie2shoes — Fri, 04 Dec 2015 03:07:21 GMT

I looked up the cast, yes, David Allen Grier is the Lion, Elijah Kelly is the scare crow. The entire cast is great ! I can't take my eyes off (except to type) I would watch it again.

Re: Anyone watching The Wiz?

jpie — Fri, 04 Dec 2015 03:07:25 GMT

I am watching it and I love it! I actually didn't have too high of expectations (based on the last few "live" musicals), but this is really great!

Love the costumes and vocally, the talent is strong.

Re: Anyone watching The Wiz?

deja vu — Fri, 04 Dec 2015 03:14:24 GMT

I watched the first 5 mins, then dvr'd it too. Hubby isn't into it..I'll watch it this wk-end !

Re: Anyone watching The Wiz?

nana59 — Fri, 04 Dec 2015 03:18:54 GMT

When my daughter was little, she was a Wizard of Oz fan for a long time. When she got married in 2001, she wore ruby red slippers with her wedding gown......my little girl had walked one of her childhood memories down the aisle.........

Re: Anyone watching The Wiz?

RainyDayGal — Fri, 04 Dec 2015 04:18:12 GMT

It's awful IMO. I turned it off.

Re: Anyone watching The Wiz?

Deb1010again — Fri, 04 Dec 2015 04:37:02 GMT

I watched it and loved it. The costumes were spectacular as was the lead woman at 19 years old playing Dorothy. The entire cast was phenomenal.

Re: Anyone watching The Wiz?

feline groovy — Fri, 04 Dec 2015 05:38:09 GMT

‘The Wiz Live': Toto’s Trainer Reveals How Canine Actors Steal the Show

Bill Berloni isn’t nervous for his two Cairn Terriers at all: “They are much more consistent than the humans,” he tells TheWrap

Nineteen-year-old New Jersey native Shanice Williams aside, the star of “The Wiz Live” will surely be the adorable Toto, played by an 11-year-old rescue named Scooter, who won the job over his understudy, Ralphie.

The man who is responsible for Toto hitting his mark on live TV is also his owner, dog trainer Bill Berloni.

Berloni told TheWrap that he’s not nervous at all about Scooter’s high-profile small-screen gig — even though their family only adopted the 11-year-old participating pooches a few months ago.

“I learned live TV is a lot easier than live theater,” Berloni told TheWrap of lessons taken from his last NBC outing, “Peter Pan Live,” admitting, “[But], the stakes are higher.”

Adding to the calm man’s confidence is that Berloni and his wife only had “Peter Pan Live’s” “Nana” for four months before that undertaking, and their sheepdog performed flawlessly. (And no, Bill did not make his new stars watch “Peter Pan Live” for pointers. Yes, we asked.)

Even if his new hounds don’t have experience with this sort of thing, Berloni has plenty.

Berloni’s pups have been a big hit on the stage since 1977. The dog lover made his coaching debut with the original Broadway “Annie” that year, which saw “Sandy” essentially playing the first actual dog character in a live performance.

Before then, dogs were basically used as props, not trusted to be an intricate part of driving the action. But it really wasn’t so hard to get them there, Berloni told us, explaining that his whole system boils down to “positive reinforcement.” Someone just had to try, and be patient.

“It’s actually very simple … in fact, they don’t like screwing up. When they’re confused, they get stressed out,” he said. “Because they don’t have cognitive thought process, you set up a pattern and they go from Point A to Point B to Point C.” “They want to go to the theater, they understand the pattern, they’re happy, and so they do it every night,” Berloni continued.

“They are much more consistent than the humans. It’s only when the humans don’t give them the right cue, or distract them from what they’re doing, that they make a mistake.”

Stupid humans.

And if it’s not the actors or director ruining things for the furry thespians, it’s the audience. “We do a dress rehearsal, and everything goes perfectly, then the audience comes in and screws it up,” Berloni said, recalling challenges of the traditional stage.

So he’s not nervous for this little TV event, and neither are his dogs — regardless of how many millions of eyeballs are fixated upon the cute Cairn Terriers. As Berloni put it: “They don’t know what an audience is, they don’t know what TV is — all they know is who feeds them, who loves them and, ‘What do I have to do to get a cookie?'”

And cookies the two senior dogs shall get this Thursday. The reason there are two Totos, by the way, is because that’s an insurance requirement, just in case of injuries. Scooter won the part over Ralphie simply because Williams, who plays Dorothy, gravitated towards him more — the real key relationship for success tomorrow night.

Berloni, who has 30 dogs on his Connecticut farm and is the subject of Discovery Family reality show “Wags to Riches,” said he essentially makes the human actor or actress a mini-trainer themselves, which he’s done with Williams.

It’s important that the human stars be dog people, which she is. Williams spends the requisite and all-important trailer time “rubbing up on” the dogs, Berloni said — a relationship that is necessary to pull this whole thing off.

That said, the “whole thing” won’t be all that much work, this time — at least not to Berloni. Because the original “Wiz” on Broadway didn’t have a particularly great dog trainer, Toto does not go to Oz with Dorothy in this version, Berloni explained — the little guy is only in Kansas and in the final scene.

However, in the touring version of the MGM film, Berloni’s working actor dogs (he has six Totos, in addition to four Sandys and the two “Legally Blonde” dogs) do head to Oz, which provides the pros with some much heavier lifting.

Therefore, “This is a piece of cake,” the calm Berloni assured us. Or, you know, a Milk-Bone.

Re: Anyone watching The Wiz?

nana59 — Fri, 04 Dec 2015 05:39:27 GMT

@Deb1010again wrote:
I watched it and loved it. The costumes were spectacular as was the lead woman at 19 years old playing Dorothy. The entire cast was phenomenal.

I agree....was wondering how the heck they remember all their lines....I forget what I want to say mid-sentence!!

Re: Anyone watching The Wiz?

GingerPeach — Fri, 04 Dec 2015 09:52:43 GMT

I watched about 95% of it (didn't always get back in time after tuning away during commercials). So where was Toto? He was there only in the beginning and at the very end. And at the end he couldn't wait to get off her lap fast enough.

I was not familiary with The Wiz (just Wizard of Oz) and I missed not having a Miss Gulch character. Overall, however, it was worth watching. Great costuming and staging.

Re: Anyone watching The Wiz?

jackthebear — Fri, 04 Dec 2015 12:01:33 GMT

Not a big Oz fan, but I think David Alan Grier is a big talent.

For those who missed it, they reran the last one a few times, so check your cable I think it will be on this weekend.