Queen Latifah, fresh off a tour de force as blues legend Bessie Smith for HBO's "Bessie," will co-star in NBC's holiday production of "The Wiz Live!" as the titular wizard, alongside fellow Jersey music icon Mary J. Blige, who will play Evillene, the Wicked Witch of the West.
The musical, which follows NBC's much-hyped live productions of "The Sound of Music" and "Peter Pan," is based on the 1975 Broadway adaptation of "The Wizard of Oz" featuring an African-American cast, which led to a 1978 film starring Diana Ross as Dorothy and Michael Jackson as the Scarecrow.
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