Set changes to a more cinematic approach to filming the show to the presence of an audience.

TV musicals made those issues seem relatively unimportant the process of putting on the show became the main attraction, from lightning-fast costume and However, Kail’s decision to dispense with the staid approach of previous live Had dogged NBC’s shows, from the weak source material to miscast celebrities. Grease: Live! suffered from many of the same issues that When Fox tapped the Hamilton director to helm Grease: Live!, its answer to NBC’s live musicals, he created aįast-moving, dynamic spectacle that made the rival network’s offerings pale in comparison. Looked like NBC would slowly but steadily improve on its initial formula, year by year, for as long as it chose to continue its live musical revivals.

Its choice to produce a show that, while not as well-known as its predecessors, gave a talented cast of African-American performers a chance to shine.

Last year’s live performance of The Wiz suggested that NBC was starting to learn from its mistakes, starting with The Broadway veterans who were relegated to supporting roles, but for the most part audiences didn’t seem to care. Granted, they were plagued by technical problems, and the celebrities whom network executives cast as the leads didn’t measure up to The Sound of Music Live! and its successor, Peter Pan Live! were deliberately old-fashionedĪffairs, presenting well-worn favorites performed on a soundstage devoid of audience members, just as productions featuring the likes of Mary Martin hadĭone decades before. When NBC decided to revive the tradition of presenting live musicals with The Sound of Music Live! in 2013, it hit upon a successful formula forĭrawing in viewers during the holiday doldrums. Derek Hough and Maddie Baillio in NBC’s Hairspray Live! (Photo: Justin Lubin/NBC)

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