Broadway Rewind: Shanice Williams Takes Center Stage for THE WIZ LIVE!

Hello, I'm Richard Ridge for Broadway World. NBC continues their holiday tradition with a live

production of The Wiz, the groundbreaking Tony Award-winning musical that brought the vivid world

of Oz to the streets of New York. The Wiz Live will take place on Thursday evening, December 3rd

and I am here at the NBC Experience Store, where I caught up with 18-year-old Shanice Williams

who has won the coveted role of Dorothy. Okay, so how excited are you? Super excited. I'm so excited

So take me back to the whole audition process. I mean, how did you tell yourself, I want to go for this

I want to maybe try to be Dorothy. Okay, it was more of my mom saying, you need to get out the house if you're going to come home for the summer and do something

And I didn't want like a regular job. I wanted to go audition for things

So when I saw this, I'm like, this is huge. So I'll just do this for the audition experience

And little did I know that I was going to be playing Dorothy

So what was the audition process like? I mean, how many times did you have to audition

Was your call back like I started at the open call I think I was number 554 And I went into like a little room and then he gave me my headshot back So that meant I could sing in front of like Kenny and

Bernie and Abby. And they were like, do you want to come back Wednesday? And I'm like, yes, I do

So after that, there were a few more callbacks. And then the last one, I auditioned for the head

of NBC and they told me, Kenny told me that you were going to be playing Dorothy. You're going to

be directed by Kenny Leon and he told you you got the role. He's an amazing man. He's an amazing

director. Was this a movie you knew growing up? I mean what was your background with The Wiz

So I've definitely seen the movie The Wiz and then like me and my dad we would listen to the

soundtrack in the car all the time. I was in it in seventh grade and I played Atta Pearl because

I was too nervous to audition for Dorothy. So my grandmother was like why didn't you audition

But now, this is for grandma, now that I'm playing Dorothy. Is it all surreal for you

I mean, look what's happening to you. I feel like I wanted to do this for so long It like God is finally like here you go And now you doing it So it not like I not like super like oh my gosh I like

finally, thank you that I have this opportunity. Sure. And the cast already that's been announced, I mean, Stephanie Mills is playing Aunt Em

Yeah. I look up to her so much because she's the original and she's so iconic

I feel like there's so much I can learn from her. I'm ready. There's Queen Latifah

There's Mary J. Blige. I mean, David Allen Greer. I mean, what's going through your mind

I just feel like if they could just teach me some of the things that they know and, like, working together, it's going to be so fun

They're so funny. And, like, as far as I know, it's going to be great to work with them

I mean, you've already started. You're from New Jersey. I mean, how young were you when you started

When I started performing? I've been performing, okay, in my grandma's kitchen, like, since forever ago

But in high school, I was like, at the very beginning of high school, I realized, like, this is a career choice for me

I believe in myself that I can actually do this Okay And this score this is such an iconic score of The Wiz What are your favorites so far what have you been working on I can pick a favorite I been working on home and be a lion right now trying to master them they

amazing songs I can't pick a favorite because they're all super cool um me no

lion I love to have that one I repeat they're just so they're also great I

can't pick a favorite and um would you sing a little bit for me sure there is a

There's a place we'll go where there is mostly quiet flowers and butterflies

A rainbow lives beside it. I have goosebumps just standing here in the NBC store

I mean, what are you looking forward to the most? December 3rd. I mean, live on TV

I mean, just the whole excitement of doing something live on TV, what that means to you

Just that rush of what happens when I'm performing. I'm looking forward to that. I'm looking forward to meeting the cast, working with the whole creative team, the producer, the director

It's going to be a great experience for me. So I'm ready