B13 Peer Review

NBC will be putting on a production of “The Wiz” as their holiday special this year and there is an open casting call / auditions for the lead role of Dorothy. The talent search for an extraordinary singer to star as Dorothy continues and will be coming to Los Angeles. Last month the show’s casting directors held an open call for singers in New York City , this month, they will be in L.A. on the 20th. Singers who wish to be considered for the lead role may attend the audition in person on the 20th. Appointments are not required. They are specifically looking for an African American singer between the ages of 18 and 27 to play Dorothy. NBC announced back in March that “ The Wiz”   will air on December 3rd. The network has produced a holiday special for the last 2 years and “ The Wiz Live! ”  will be it’s 3rd such special.   “ The Sound of Music Live! ,”  starring Carrie Underwood was their first such special and was a huge success. Last year, they did ...

Warner Bros. has a a Harry Potter spin-off in the works… “ Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find “ One of the main roles in the film is up for grabs and kids in the UK have a chance at starring in the film. The Warner Bros movie will be in production soon and has announced an open casting call for the principal role of Modesty, a girl 8 to 12 years old. Auditions will take place in London this weekend. Warner Bros Pictures announced last year that “ Fantastic Beasts ” will be a trilogy with the 1st film hitting theaters in late 2016. Fantastic Beasts   is based on a set of companion books to British author J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series.  J. K. Rowling  wrote the book under the pseudonym of Newt Scamander.   According to BBC , Rowling will make her screen writing debut on this project.  David Heyman, who produced the Harry Potter films, will be returning as producer for Fantastic Beasts . “ Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them ” takes place...

EXCLUSIVE More drama for Floyd Mayweather last night ... when an SUV in his motorcade crashed into a guy More drama for Floyd Mayweather last night ... when an SUV in his motorcade crashed into a guy on a motorcycle -- as the boxer and his crew were on their way home from a nightclub. Floyd had just made an appearance at One% nightclub in Kansas City ... when one of the 5 vehicles in Mayweather's TMT motorcade collided with the bike around 3AM.   It's unclear if Floyd was riding in the SUV involved in the accident -- but in video obtained by TMZ Sports , you can see Mayweather at the crash scene while people attend to the downed biker. Emergency personnel raced to help -- but the biker's condition is unknown. One witness at the scene told us it appeared as if the motorcycle clipped the back end of the SUV -- and the guy was ejected from his bike. We also obtained pics which showed Floyd in the passenger seat of an SUV earlier in the night ...

Gunplay was asked about running from the law and the night he fought 50 Cent at the 2012 BET Awards.   Gunplay is slated to release his forthcoming album,  Living Legend on July 31 and has been making some press runs recently to promote the album. Sitting down with  Dan LeBatard and Bomani Jones of ESPN's show ,  Highly Questionable  a few days ago, the Maybach Music Group emcee was asked about his rough past with the law and also the night he fought 50 Cent at the BET Awards in 2012. When prompted about the fight, during which he claims he was still on the run from police, Gunplay says 50 was hiding behind people (which have previously rumored to be his bodyguards) and claims that he landed a few blows on Fif. “All I know is I got off," he said when asked about the fight. "I don’t know who he was hiding behind. I got off. I don’t care what happened to me after that, but I got off… Everybody know that. My veins don’t pump no co...

Talib Kweli and Irv Gotti have paid their respects to Hussein Fatal over social media. Hussein Fatal , a member of Tupac’s group Outlawz, was killed in a car accident yesterday (July 11), according to HotNewHipHop . Details surrounding the car accident have yet to become available. Fatal, a Montclair, New Jersey native, was perhaps best known for his appearances on a string of Tupac records including, “Hit ‘Em Up,” “All About U” and “When We Ride.” The news of Fatal’s death came from former Outlawz member Napoleon via Facebook . “From Allah we belong to Allah we return it is confirmed our brother hussein fatal member of the outlawz returned to Allah last night due to a car accident,” Napoleon’s Facebook status says. “Our brother fatal did accept islam and We ask Allah to have mercy on him. He was my old group member and friend for over 20 years and he will be missed. Death comes sudden with out warning and we ask Allah to give us a good ending.” The Outlawz...

Glory Boyz Entertainment rapper, and Chief Keef associate, Capo was reportedley killed in Chicago today. Capo, a Chicago rapper associated with Chief Keef 's Glory Boyz Entertainment and the Glo Gang, was shot and killed Saturday during a tragic drive-by incident that also took the life of a one-year-old boy. Capo was 22. The rapper was shot in the hip and back on Chicago's South Side, and while video exists of bystanders attempting to keep a bleeding Capo conscious until the ambulance arrived, he was pronounced dead shortly after he arrived at the Advocate Christ Medical Center. Sidebar Chief Keef: A Day in the Life »  Twenty minutes after the shooting, while the suspects attempted to flee the scene, their vehicle ran up on the sidewalk and struck and killed a one-year-old boy who was sitting in his stroller. Two men were later apprehended in connection to the incident, a law enforcement source told the  Chicago Tribune . Although pol...

The Broadway musical can seem as oldfangled as the founding fathers. But an audacious hip-hop retelling of the life of the nation’s first Treasury secretary lands on Broadway Monday poised to become the rarest of theatrical phenomena: not only a hit, but a turning point for the art form and a cultural conversation piece. The show, “Hamilton,” arrives with a powerful tailwind. It has already brought in $27.6 million, with just over 200,000 tickets sold — huge numbers for Broadway, and among the biggest pre-opening advances in history. An Off Broadway production of the musical, which ran this year at the Public Theater, was a critical darling that sold out 119 performances, attracted a who’s who of cultural and political figures, and collected a trophy case of awards. And the show’s creator, a 35-year-old New Yorker named Lin-Manuel Miranda, has already won a Tony and a Grammy for an earlier show he had begun while still an undergraduate. Thus far “Hamilton” has ...