Queen Latifah and Mary J. Blige will be part of “The Wiz Live!” – the song and dance retelling of “The Wizard of Oz” slated for NBC on Dec. 3.

Like Carrie Underwood and Allison Williams before them, the Grammy-winning recording artists will be part of a live musical extravaganza. The Emmy- and Oscar-nominated “Bessie” star will play the all-powerful Wiz, and Blige will play baddie Evillene, the Wicked Witch of the West, the network announced Tuesday.

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There are a lot of unusual paths from page to stage, but here’s one of the more meta: the imaginary show-within-a-show at the heart of a star-crossed television series is now being adapted for possible real world production.

NBC Entertainment and Universal Pictures on Monday said that they would begin an effort to develop “Bombshell,” the Marilyn Monroe bio-musical featured in “Smash,” from a collection of songs into a full-blown show.

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NBC has rounded out its creative team for The Wiz Live!, which airs December 3. Fatima Robinson has signed on as choreographer, Grammy winner Harvey Mason Jr is set as music producer, and Tony and Grammy winner Stephen Oremus will serve as music director, orchestrator and music co-producer.

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Additional casting was announced today by producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron for the concert presentation of the musical created within the NBC TV series “Smash,” created by Theresa Rebeck, Bombshell, with music by Marc Shaiman, lyrics by Marc Shaimanand Scott Wittman, directed by Joshua Bergasse and Scott Wittman with choreography by Joshua Bergasse and music direction by Marc Shaiman. The one-night only landmark event benefitting The Actors Fund takes place on Monday evening, June 8, 2015 at The Minskoff Theatre (1515 Broadway).
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BWW has confirmed today that Fatima Robinson (“The Voice,” “Dreamgirls” film, “VH1 Hip Hop Honors”) will serve as choreographer for the highly anticipated THE WIZ LIVE on NBC.

Robinson’s work as a choreographer and video director for the Black Eyed Peas has earned her several MTV VMA nominations, including a win for Best Hip Hop Video for “My Humps” and Best Choreography in a Music Video for “Hey Mama.” She is also the director and choreographer behind the popular commercial campaigns for Nair and Old Navy, as well as Fergie’s “Fergalicious” which won “Best International Video” at the 2007 Much Music Awards.

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Surprising no one who’s been following the Kickstarter campaign, it was announced today by producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron that the upcoming concert presentation of the musical Bombshell from the TV series “Smash,” created by Theresa Rebeck with music by Marc Shaiman, lyrics by Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman, co-directed by Joshua Bergasse and Scott Wittman with choreography by Joshua Bergasse, is SOLD OUT! The response for the one-night only landmark event benefitting The Actors Fund, which sold out in just over one hour and to be held Monday evening, June 8, 2015 at The Minskoff Theatre (1515 Broadway) has been overwhelming helping to raise much needed funds for the non-profit organization.

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NBC’s next live television production will be an update of hit Broadway musical The Wiz, debuting December 3, but this time the network has partnered with Cirque du Soleil to co-produce the live event. It will then become a Broadway revival for the 2016-17 season.

Once again Craig Zadan and Neil Meron will exec produce. Tony Award-winning director Kenny Leon will stage both the television production and Broadway revival, in collaboration with Tony winner and Broadway icon Harvey Fierstein, who will contribute new material to the original Broadway book by William F. Brown.

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After three consecutive years as the producers of the Oscars, Neil Meron and Craig Zadan have decided not to return for a fourth. Now the search is on for who will oversee next year’s telecast.

The choice was theirs, sources close to the pair confirm, ending a three-year deal with ABC and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The two, who’ve produced films such as Chicago and The Bucket List, in addition to TV projects such as the live NBC productions of Peter Pan and The Sound of Music, were credited with bringing new playfulness to the ceremony and trimmed back some of the pageantry to make room for more music and entertainment amid the envelope-opening.

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It was a fictional musical in a failed television show. But now, at least for one starry night, it is coming to life.

“Bombshell,” the play-within-a-play whose development propelled the much-loathed but also loved-by-many NBC series “Smash,” will be produced before a live audience to raise money for charity in a staged concert in June.

The event is the latest, and largest, effort by fans of the television series – or at least admirers of its component parts – to breathe new life into material created for the show, much of which was written and performed by respected Broadway artists.

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NBC’s entertainment chairman Robert Greenblatt has just revealed that the network’s next live musical broadcast will be either 1957’s THE MUSIC MAN or an updated version of 1978’s THE WIZ. The network has reportedly optioned the rights to both musicals and is currently considering casting options for THE MUSIC MAN.

BroadwayWorld.com has exclusively learned that one of the two shows will be their 2015 musical, and the other will air in 2016. Both will be produced again by Craig Zadan and Neil Meron along with Bob Greenblatt and NBC. NBC made television and ratings history in 2013 with a live broadcast of the classic Rodgers and Hammerstein musical THE SOUND OF MUSIC and followed up with last year’s PETER PAN LIVE airing in November.

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NBC’s broadcast of “Peter Pan Live” Thursday drew a huge social-media following — well above the Peacock’s “Sound of Music” broadcast last year and topping other recent TV events.

According to Nielsen, 5.3 million people saw at least one of the 475,000 tweets about Thursday’s “Peter Pan Live” on NBC. More than 147,000 unique authors sent tweets, which were seen a total of 106.9 million times.

That’s compared with AMC’s “The Walking Dead” Nov. 30 midseason finale — which garnered 37.4 million Twitter impressions — and NBC’s “Sound of Music” in 2013, for which 68.7 million tweets were viewed.

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Sound of Music and upcoming Peter Pan producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron have signed a three-year development and production deal with Broadway powerhouse The Shubert Organization, they all announced today. Here’s the release:

 BROADWAY’S SHUBERT ORGANIZATION ANNOUNCES A DEVELOPMENT/PRODUCTION AGREEMENT WITH PRODUCERS CRAIG ZADAN & NEIL MERON

NEW YORK (October 23, 2014) — The Shubert Organization has signed a three-year development/production deal with producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron, it was announced today by Shubert Chairman, Philip J. Smith, and Shubert President, Robert E. Wankel.

Under the agreement, Shubert will partner with Zadan and Meron in the development/production of original plays and musicals, as well as revivals.

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Neil Patrick Harris has been selected to host the 87th annual Oscars. The news just broke on Twitter (see it below) via Neil Meron, who is back to co-produce for a third consecutive year with Craig Zadan. The Academy Awards will air live on ABC on Sunday, February 22, at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood.

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ABC has closed a deal for Men In Shorts, a single-camera comedy inspired by the life of professional soccer player Robbie Rogers, who became the first openly gay man to compete in a top North American professional sports league. The project hails from writer Claudia Lonow and producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron, whose Storyline Entertainment, along with Universal Television, optioned Rogers’ story rights for a comedy series in July.

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