The Wiz Live!

Pulsing with life and fun, sparked by energetic dances and colorful costumes, and driven by Charles Smalls's still sturdy score, NBC's The Wiz Live! Thursday night was charmed from start to finish. And were that not enough, viewers got to witness the launch of a scintillating new performer in Shanice Williams.

While it may not be enough to renew every musical-lover’s faith in live-to-TV performances, The Wiz Live! certainly proves that musicals have a place on television right now – and not just in late-night monologue jokes.

Newcomer Shanice Williams--all of 19--had to capture a butterfly by the name of Dorothy. And if the butterfly occasionally eluded her grasp, her voice did not.... Leon, a veteran Broadway and TV director, decided we all needed a little dose of happiness instead. We do. He and the terrific cast of The Wiz Live! delivered.

Great casting, terrific costumes, even a worthy new original song made it a spirited night.

Unlike NBC's previous musical experiments, it's likely that The Wiz Live! will actually live on in replays and on DVD as audiences try to notice new details, re-experience adored numbers and not have to pause every five minutes for commercials.

The musical profited from great casting, with newcomer Shanice Williams (outstanding on all her solos) as Dorothy and a rich supporting ensemble including Stephanie Mills (Dorothy on Broadway) as Aunt Em.... The Wiz Live! (its script updated with humorous touches by Harvey Fierstein) seemed contemporary and relevant, a musical for a time when issues of race and diversity are at the forefront of our culture.

The Wiz is by far NBC’s most sophisticated live musical broadcast yet; it’s also one that felt, movingly, of its time.

It was well-cast. The costumes were beautiful, and the set design vibrant. And the music was excellent.

Aside from a couple of odd pop-culture references (characters played by Amber Riley and the Common busted out glittering iPads at different points in the show) NBC's The Wiz Live! was far tighter and far more fun to watch than last year's awkward production of "Peter Pan" and 2013's high-rated but wooden "The Sound of Music."

The costumes, sets, choreography and makeup were incredible. And newcomer Shanice Williams as Dorothy? Outstanding. The only problem? The show was so packed with commercials the actors barely sang a song and it was time to cut to five or six ads. As a result, the story (what little there was) was impossible to track.

In the end, those hate-watchers had little to complain about other than occasional uneven camera angles, a missing Toto (he disappeared after the first scene) and the long three-hour running time; strong performances, fun dialogue and dazzling numbers rounded out an overall solid outing this time around.

Whenever Mr. Grier was around and feeling on, it became something more complex.

The Wiz Live! was certainly not transcendent, or even anything that I’d ever want to watch again. But it was Citizen Kane compared to the twin rancid garbage pile that were Sound of Music and Peter Pan.

For a story that begins with a house falling out of the sky, this third attempt to ease Broadway into primetime was again marked by a sense that, in this format, it’s very difficult to completely bring the house down.