Before “Hamilton” made musicals cool again, NBC and Fox had been trying for years to do just that.
The two networks have shelled out big bucks and prime-time slots to air five—count ’em, FIVE—live adaptations or remakes of popular musicals: “The Sound of Music Live!”, “Peter Pan Live!”, “Grease Live!”, “The Wiz Live!” and “The Rocky Horror Picture Show: Let’s Do the Time Warp Again.” The sixth, “Hairspray Live!”, is set to take the stage … er, screen … on Wednesday at 7 p.m. on NBC.
Even though the announcement of a new musical adaptation generally causes a groan or an eye roll, and Twitter is flooded with hate-watchers live tweeting during these “events,” it doesn’t look like they or their unnecessary exclamation points are going anywhere soon. In fact, ABC is jumping on the bandwagon, announcing earlier this year that it was planning its own live musical broadcast, which will likely make use of the extensive catalog of Disney, ABC’s parent company.
NBC and Fox keep tweaking the formulas, but for the most part, they keep returning to a few tried and true ingredients to make sure their shows are appealing to (and drawing in) the broadest audiences possible: chart-topping pop singers, stars from popular TV shows, cameos by an actor or actress from a previous adaptation and a Broadway veteran or two to lend the production some stage cred.
Here’s how the six recent TV musicals have checked those boxes and a few more on their way to earning “Live!” status.
THE SOUND OF MUSIC LIVE!
Date: Dec. 5, 2013
Setting: 1938 Austria
Plot: Troublesome nun-to-be Maria is sent to be governess to the seven secretly musically talented children of widower Capt. Von Trapp. Maria and the Captain fall in love, but his position is complicated by the Nazi takeover of Austria.
Network: NBC
Viewership: 18.62 million. The first and most successful so far of these, “The Sound of Music Live!” had the curiosity factor going for it. What’s gonna happen? It’s live! Anything can happen!
‘Glee’ episode: The song “My Favorite Things” is performed in Season 3,
Episode 9. Some of the Gleeks sing this not-really-about-Christmas song as part of a televised Christmas special.
TV actor: Stephen Moyer was still playing vampire Bill on HBO’s “True Blood” when he took on role of hardass-turned-singing softy Captain Von Trapp.
Teen starlet: N/A
Pop singer: N/A
Broadway star: Audra McDonald, who played the Mother Superior, has starred in the Broadway productions of “Carousel,” “Ragtime,” “A Raisin in the Sun,” “Porgy and Bess” and “Shuffle Along,” just to name a few.
Cameo: N/A
Award winner: McDonald has won six Tony Awards, the only person to win in all four acting categories. Oh, she also has two Grammys and an Emmy.
Reality competitor: “American Idol” Season 4 winner Carrie Underwood had already established herself as a chart-topping and Grammy Award-winning country pop singer when she took on the lead role of Maria.
PETER PAN LIVE!
Date: Dec. 4, 2014
Setting: 1900s England, Neverland
Plot: Perpetual boy Peter Pan enchants three human children with the ability to fly and whisks them away to Neverland, where he faces off with his nemesis Captain Hook.
Network: NBC
Viewership: 9.1 million. Though NBC said that did not expect “Peter Pan” to draw as many viewers as “The Sound of Music,” the show drew in less than half the audience of its predecessor.
‘Glee’ episode: The play is featured in Season 5, Episode 19. Kurt helps retired Broadway performers at a retirement home with their production of “Peter Pan.”
TV actor: Allison Williams, who played Peter Pan, is better known to viewers as Marnie from HBO’s “Girls.”
Teen starlet: N/A
Pop singer: N/A
Broadway star: Christian Borle, who played Mr. Darling and Smee,” has starred in the Broadway productions of “Footloose,” “Mary Poppins,” “Legally Blonde,” and “Something Rotten,” among others.
Cameo: N/A
Award winner: Legendary actor Christopher Walken, who has an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for “The Deer Hunter,” took on the role of baddie Captain Hook.
Reality competitor: N/A
THE WIZ LIVE!
Date: Dec. 3, 2015
Setting: Kansas, Oz, Emerald City
Plot: Orphan Dorothy gets trapped in a tornado and is borne away to another land of Munchkins and talking animals. She embarks on a quest to find the Wiz to take her back home and picks up a crew of characters along the way, including a tin man, lion and scarecrow.
Network: NBC
Viewership: 11.5 million. A nice bounce-back from “Peter Pan.”
‘Glee’ episode: The song “Home” is performed in Season 1, Episode 16. April (Kristin Chenoweth) sings it Mr. Schu as a thank you before leaving to launch the first
all-white production of “The Wiz.”
TV actor: Uzo Aduba, aka Suzanne “Crazy Eyes” Warren on “Orange Is the New Black,” played Glinda the Good Witch.
Teen starlet: N/A
Pop singer: While none really fit the label of “pop singer,” Mary J. Blige, Common, Ne-Yo and Queen Latifah headlined a cast that wouldn’t have looked out of place on the Grammy stage.
Broadway star: N/A
Cameo: Stephanie Mills, who played Dorothy in the original Broadway production of “The Wiz,” played Auntie Em in the live TV version.
Award winner: Blige, who played the Wicked Witch of the West, is a nine-time Grammy Award winner. She also has a record 30 Grammy noms.
Reality competitor: N/A
GREASE LIVE!
Date: Jan. 31, 2016
Setting: 1950s American high school
Plot: Perpetually cool Danny’s bad boy rep is threatened when his summer fling Sandy turns up at his high school. He and his friends deal with the usual: teen pregnancy scares, trying out for various sports and, of course, a nationally televised dance competition.
Network: Fox
Viewership: 12.2 million. That number was nothing to scoff at in the age of Netflix, and “Grease” brought back the entertainment and fun that critics felt was generally lacking in “Peter Pan Live!”
‘Glee’ episode: The musical is featured in Season 4, Episode 6, which is titled “Glease.” The Glee Club stages “Grease” as the school musical in this episode-long tribute.
TV actor: N/A
Teen starlet: Vanessa Hudgens of “High School Musical” fame returned to high school in “Grease,” albeit in the less squeaky-clean role of the tough-talking Rizzo, who has a pregnancy scare.
Pop singer: Carly Rae Jepsen played Frenchy. Jessie J performed the intro song “Grease is the Word.” Joe Jonas and bandmates DNCE played Johnny Casino and the Gamblers, the live band at the dance.
Broadway star: Aaron Tveit, who played Danny, had starred in the Broadway productions of “Hairspray,” “Wicked,” “Next to Normal” and “Catch Me if You Can.”
Cameo: Didi Conn, Frenchy in the 1978 film, played a waitress at the Frosty Palace. Barry Pearl, Doody in the film, played a producer of the dance competition.
Award winner: Boyz II Men, who ruled R&B and soul categories at music award shows in the early to mid-’90s, crooned “Beauty School Dropout” to Frenchy in the role of Teen Angel.
Reality competitor: Julianne Hough, who won “Dancing with the Stars” twice and is now a judge on the dancing competition, played the lead role of Sandy.
THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW: LET’S DO THE TIME WARP AGAIN
Date: Oct. 20, 2016
Setting: Isolated mansion
Plot: Recently engaged, innocent couple Brad and Janet end up at the mansion of Dr. Frank-N-Furter, a gender-fluid mad scientist with a cult of weird and wacky followers, after their car breaks down. Bizarre shenanigans ensue.
Network: Fox
Viewership: 4.95 million. “Rocky Horror” is the odd one out of this group, as it was not live, and the musical is more cult than fan favorite, but the numbers were still disappointing compared with “Grease.”
‘Glee’ episode: The musical is featured in Season 2, Episode 5, which is titled “The Rocky Horror Glee Show.” The Glee Club stages “RHPS” as the school musical in this episode-long tribute.
TV actor: Laverne Cox, who plays Sophia Burset on “Orange Is the New Black,” took on the lead role of Dr. Frank-N-Furter.
Teen starlet: Victoria Justice, who played Janet, got her start on the Jamie Lynn Spears’-starring “Zoey 101,” and starred as the lead on Nickelodeon’s “Victorious.”
Pop singer: Christina Milian played Magenta, the wacky maid who’s also the sister of creepy butler Riff Raff.
Broadway star: N/A
Cameo: Tim Curry, who played Frank-N-Furter in the 1975 movie, was also in the remake as the narrator.
Award winner: N/A
Reality competitor: Adam Lambert, who played Eddie, was the runner-up on Season 8 of “American Idol.” He most recently toured worldwide with Queen.
HAIRSPRAY LIVE!
Date: Dec. 7, 2016
Setting: 1962 Baltimore
Plot: Plump Tracy Turnblad’s dreams come true when she wins a role dancing on “The Corny Collins Show.” She embarks on a mission to integrate the all-white
TV show.
Network: NBC
Viewership: ??
‘Glee’ episode: The song “You Can’t Stop the Beat” is performed in Season 3, Episode 1. Most of the main Gleeks are featured in the performance.
TV actor: Sean Hayes, best known as Jack McFarland on “Will & Grace,” will play Mr. Pinky.
Teen starlet: Ariana Grande, who will play Penny, got her start on Nickelodeon’s “Victorious” as Cat Valentine, and got her own spinoff, “Sam & Cat.”
Pop singer: Grande’s first two albums debuted at No. 1 on the U.S. charts, with her third and most recent debuting at No. 2. A few of her songs were probably stuck in your head in the summer of 2014.
Broadway star: Kristin Chenoweth, who will play Velma Von Tussle, has been in the Broadway productions of “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown” and “Wicked,” among others.
Cameo: In what’s more than a cameo, Harvey Fierstein, who starred as Edna Turnblad in the original Broadway production of “Hairspray” in 2002, will reprise the role in the live TV version.
Award winner: Fierstein has won Tonies for Best Actor in “Torch Song Trilogy” and Best Book of a Musical for “La Cage aux Folles.” He also wrote the book for “Kinky Boots,” which won the Tony for Best Musical.
Reality competitor: Jennifer Hudson (Motormouth Maybelle) came in seventh on Season 3 of “American Idol.” And then won an Oscar. Derek Hough (Corny Collins) has won “Dancing with the Stars” six times.
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