Mark your calendars as NBC's three-hour TV musical "The Wiz Live!" will premiere Dec. 3. The all African-American cast includes actors such as David Alan Grier, Mary J. Blige and Queen Latifah.
Of course, the story of Dorothy (newcomer Shanice Williams) is not complete without her dog Toto. Ten-year-old Cairn terriers Scooter and Ralphie will be playing that role, with the latter assigned as Scooter's understudy.
The stars portraying Toto were adopted from a shelter in Sacramento, Calif., by Bill Berloni, who is renowned for training dogs to star in stage performances.
"In the early summer, NBC called and asked if I'd be interested in training two Cairn terriers for the show. They called me a week later. They'd found two blond boys in Sacramento whose owners could no longer keep them.... They were spry, in good health, giving kisses. So I adopted them," said Berloni, according to the Chicago Tribune.
When asked what the hardest part was for this particular performance, Berloni said that it's the emotional scenes. They do not have the luxury of cutaways and, if a dog gets distracted during an emotional scene and starts scratching its head, it could easily take away the element of drama. He further adds that, if the dogs are able to take the audience to the emotional place needed in a scene, the rest of the show for Toto won't matter, according to the Cleveland Plain Dealer.
Berloni said the dogs trained for seven weeks prior to the show's first rehearsal day and it helps that many of the cast members are dog lovers, reported Our Daily News Online.
