“Jesus Christ Superstar Live” carried NBC to a win in the Nielsen overnight ratings on Easter Sunday.
A conceptual and artistic triumph, NBC’s live telecast of “Jesus Christ Superstar” on Easter Sunday may have finally justified the recent live musical fad on network TV. Some technical flubs and one mixed-bag lead performance aside, the production was genuinely thrilling, taking chances with the staging of a classic but controversial Broadway show, much more daring than previous live musical broadcasts like “The Sound of Music” or “Peter Pan.”
Craig and Neil recently produced the musical number at The Oscars for Mary J. Blige’s “Mighty River”:
Fox 2000 emerged from a bidding battle that resulted in a substantial seven-figure deal for an untitled original musical fantasy about Hans Christian Andersen. It’s the first original musical from composter/lyricist Stephen Schwartz since Wicked, and it will be scripted by David Magee, the Life of Pi scribe whose latest is the Rob Marshall-directed Mary Poppins Returns which Disney releases Christmas Day. The film will be produced by Craig Zadan and Neil Meron, the team behind Chicago and the upcoming Jesus Christ Superstar Live! which they are producing with Marc Platt. Schwartz will also be producer. Magee is exec producer with Mark Nicholson, who runs development and production for Zadan/Meron Productions.
Jordan Peele’s Get Out and James Ivory’s Call Me By Your Name won the marquee film awards tonight at the 70th annual WGA Awards, in concurrent shows in New York and Los Angeles. It puts both screenplays on the frontrunner list for the Oscars.
The winners of the 49th 
When shooting began for Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “Cinderella” in July of 1997, the closest Disney had come to showcasing a black princess were the muses from “Hercules.” In fact, it would be another 12 years before an (animated) black girl got the lead in “The Princess and the Frog.” But megastar Whitney Houston didn’t want to wait. Instead, the Grammy and Emmy Award-winning artist set out to make a diverse, multicultural “Cinderella,” starring a young Brandy Norwood — who would become Disney’s first black princess.
In a competitive situation, ABC has landed The Real Fairy Godmother, a single-camera comedy starring Kristin Chenoweth and executive produced by Craig Zadan and Neil Meron, which has received a put pilot commitment.
In a competitive situation, Amazon has landed for development a drama series project from John Stamos and producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron (Hairspray Live), which chronicles the fame and excess of daytime soaps in the 1980s. Universal TV, where Zadan and Meron are under a deal for series and live events, is the studio.
Written by NCIS: LA co-executive producer Joe Wilson and Abdul Williams, who penned BET’s highly-rated The New Edition Story, Take It From The Top is inspired by Robinson’s life as a dancer-turned-choreographer and is set in 1990s Los Angeles just as hip-hop dance begins to dominate pop culture. From the streets and clubs that gave birth to hip-hop dance, the show follows Fatima and her crew as she rises in this exploding new world set against her stifling family obligations and personal life.Alec Baldwin should remain in the zeitgeist for at least a little longer.
Fresh off his two Emmy nominations for his defining turn as President Donald Trump on Saturday Night Live, Baldwin is set to star in another NBC production: a live staging of Aaron Sorkin’s A Few Good Men, with Sorkin writing and the net’s go-to event producers Neil Meron and Craig Zadan attached to executive produce. Baldwin will play Col. Nathan Jessep, a role made famous by Jack Nicholson in the beloved 1992 film, which also starred Tom Cruise along with Demi Moore and Kevin Bacon.
HBO is developing a biopic of pioneering African-American filmmaker Oscar Micheaux that has Tyler Perry on board to star.
