Kenny Leon had some big decisions to make when casting NBC's The Wiz Live!
When he began casting last summer, the objective was to get promotable big name celebrities. But when it came time to find an actress to play the lead role, he chose an unknown.
Some 800 girls and women showed up to audition in New York and Los Angeles. Many made from the trek from Atlanta. In the end, Leon knew he'd found something special when Shanice Williams stepped into the room.
"I was there when Shanice walked in the room," he said. "I saw it in her eyes. She had a sparkle, and a softness in her eyes. I said, wow, and then she opened her voice and the singing was effortless. I said, ‘Wow, it's coming out like a waterfall.'"
The bubbly, fresh faced Shanice Williams is a teenager from New Jersey.
"She looked and sounded the way my mind said Dorothy should look and be," Leon said.
PHOTOS: The Wiz Live! Meet the cast
There were questions: could her voice hold up? Could she act? Could she be flawless live? Could she dance?
"She takes in and she learns ... the first time she worked with Fatima on the choreography she was out dancing everybody," Leon said.
A host of celebrity names filled the rest of the cast. From Queen Latifah to Uzo Aduba -- a trained opera singer -- to fellow Georgian Elijah Kelly and rapper Ne-Yo, who also wrote the new song "We Got It."
"This is our first time working together and I tell you, he's one of the most talented artists I've ever met," Leon said.
Leon himself started as actor, and then directed his first play at the Academy Theater in Atlanta.
"I thought I had turned it out, and the artistic director, no Ken I think you should stick to acting," said Leon.
Four TV movies, eight Broadway plays, and a Tony award later, it's safe to say Leon made the write decision by sticking with directing.
"The only thing I haven't directed -- I'm saying to America, all the producers out there -- what I haven't done, I haven't directed a feature film yet," Leon said. "And I'm asking, why? Why is that?"
In the meantime, he's headed to Broadway again with this production of The Wiz, all the while keeping alive his True Colors theater company in Atlanta.
"When I started that company, the idea was that I would go away and do great things and hopefully have a light shining on me so that I can shine that light on True Colors in Atlanta," he said.
Leon said every two years he'll direct a play for True Colors in Atlanta
But he doesn't know if he'll act again. He said he speaks now through his directing.
