Wicked: A New Musical
Pantages Theatre (6233 Hollywood Boulevard, Hollywood, CA)
Music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz. Book by Winnie Holzman.
This is a musical adapted from Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory McGuire. This was a reimagining of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum from the Wicked Witch’s point of view.
Date of reviewed performance: September 1, 2007
Cast
Pantages Theatre (6233 Hollywood Boulevard, Hollywood, CA)
Music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz. Book by Winnie Holzman.
This is a musical adapted from Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory McGuire. This was a reimagining of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum from the Wicked Witch’s point of view.
Date of reviewed performance: September 1, 2007
Cast
Elphaba - Eden Espinosa
Glinda - Megan Hilty
The Wizard of Oz - John Rubinstein
Madame Morrible - Carol Kane
Fiyero - Kristoffer Cusick
Nessarose - Marci Dodd
Boq / Ensemble - Michael Drolet
Elphaba's Father/Doctor Dillamond - Matthew Stocke
Elphaba's Mother - Gina Starbuck
The Midwife - Linda Kerns
The Chistery - Peter John Chursin
Ensemble also includes:
Angela Ara Brown
Dioni Michelle Collins
Courtney Corey
Melissa Fahn
Amanda Flynn
D.J. Gregory
Zach Hensler
Lindsay Janisse
Adam Lambert
Alexander Selma
Terrance Spencer
Eric Stretch
Brooke Wendle
I will be upfront with you. I have seen Wicked twice previous to this performance, the first time being on Broadway with the original cast and the second time being at the Pantages Theater in Los Angeles the first year it toured (about a year and a half prior to this particular performance). I adored everything about this show the first time I saw it. Unfortunately, the second time I was horribly disappointed and embarrassed to face the friend who’d accompanied me afterward (oh, how I had raved!). For weeks, nay months, I couldn't even listen to the soundtrack. So, why go a third time? One word: redemption. Or at least I was hoping for redemption. Surely there must be something there for me love. I had so cherished it once upon a time. I arrived at the theater with mixed emotions.
Let me take a quick aside to say that Los Angeles seems to love this show; for more than a year now, my commute home has been bogged down by little girls (wearing green and black) leaving the theater. This is both good and bad. Good, because children getting excited about theater is always good. Bad, because of any musical out there today, Wicked is the most commercially Disney-fied, and I think we could all do with a little less of that. The Disney-fication of theater (along with the maddening trend of taking a handful of pop songs and trying to build a coherent story out of them) makes me fear for the direction of theater as an art form. But I digress…
As I took my comfy seat in the theater, I perked up almost immediately when I saw in the program that Megan Hilty would in fact be performing the role of Glinda. The previous time I had seen the touring show, an understudy (whose name I’m not going to even bother trying to find) performed the role with all the skill of someone from MadTV. I had spent both acts wanting only to knock her silly. But this isn’t a review of that performance (I keep telling myself), this is a review of September 1, 2007, in which Megan Hilty played Glinda and did a beautiful job. The thing I appreciate most about Megan’s performance is that she did not merely mimic Kristin Chenoweth’s Glinda (a tempting and crowd-pleasing thing to do), but she really made the character her own, right down to the arguably most popular song in the show, “Popular.” She performed this number with a first-time feel that was 100% genuine, not in any way an ape of the soundtrack and yet every bit as entertaining.
Wicked picks up the story of The Wizard of Oz immediately following the Wicked Witch of the West's untimely desmise via bucket-of-water. The guards at the Witch's mansion are gazing down at all that is left of her - her pointy hat - when Glinda the Good wafts onstage in her bubble to try and bring good cheer to her subjects. It is then the accusations start to fly. Glinda knew the Witch! They were friends!! The Horror!! Glinda does her best to smooth things over and, in a Wayne's World time drift effect, we are sent back to the very beginning: Glinda (then Ga-linda and the Wicked Witch (who we will come to know as Elphaba) as rival schoolmates at Schizz - the Oz version of prep school.
Eden Espinosa was quite pleasing as Elphaba (she is no longer with the show and the role is now being played by Caissie Levy). I only fault her in that she was directly channeling Idina Menzel’s interpretation of the character as opposed to bringing anything new to the role. She certainly has the lungs to pull of “Defying Gravity” right down to the very last “ohhh-oh-oh-oh-ooohhhhhhh!”
In her less Star Search-worthy numbers, "The Wizard and I" and "I'm Not That Girl," she was completely charming and an entirely sympathetic social outcast.
Much was being made of John Rubinstein’s appearance as the Wizard. I realize he has won a Tony and was the original Pippin and blah, blah, blah. In this performance, however, he was utterly forgettable. I actually have fonder memories of David Garrison’s (of Married…With Children fame) version of the Wizard, which was a product of that terrible previous show that I am not reviewing here. The Wizard of this production is a much darker sort than the classic movie's affable version. This one has affairs with women, uses magic he knows nothing about to keep the dim Ozzians under his thumb and has a propaganda machine to control and spin all news coming out of the Emerald City.
Other characters include Madame Morrible, who serves the multiple functions of Headmistress of Schizz, talent scout for the Wizard as well as the Wizard's official spewer of lies and propaganda. Carol Kane (from Taxi) played this part at this performance (though the role now belongs to JoAnne Worley), who was fun in the part, but had lost of the sparkle I had seen from her in earlier performances. The actor Kristoffer Cusick did what he could with Fiyero, awkward role as it is. Fiyero is the cute, popular boy in school who is THE ONE in the eyes of both Glinda and Elphaba. Oy vey, even in Oz.....
The main problem with Fiyero (and it's the character's problem and not the actor's) is that he has one big song that is his own and that song is terrible. I know that Stephen Schwartz is capable of writing great songs for men, but he did not do so at any point in Wicked. Fiyero’s "Dancing Through Life" and the Wizard’s "Sentimental Man" and "Wonderful" are all sort of painful songs that you have to endure in order to get to the fun stuff. This reflects why neither of these characters are ever particularly memorable despite what actor they’ve cast to play them. …So, maybe it’s not all your fault Mr. Rubinstein.
As for the spectacle of the show, it’s all here. With attempts not to spoil (so avert your eyes if you know nothing about what happens in this show), I always look forward to the appearance of the Tin Man and this performance did not disappoint in its timing and ability to awe. The arrival of the winged monkeys was just as exciting and heartbreaking as the first time I saw it and Elphaba’s first time to take flight was just as dramatic.
Overall, the show was enjoyable and passable, if not great. The dancing by the ensemble seemed perpetually off and the Time Dragon (whose presence I have a vague memory of enjoying once upon a time) was pointlessly distracting. Also, in the touring version they seem to have cut a line foreshadowing the big twist in the story that I distinctly remember being in the Broadway version. I would assume it was a line simply dropped by the actor, except that it has been missing from both versions of the touring show that I’ve seen. Perhaps someone felt it was too much to the point, but it was a great line.
But all in all, I left the theater smiling and humming "Changed For Good." I think I can walk away from Wicked now, without feeling ambivalent. I can listen to the soundtrack without cringing. Redemption, indeed.
I will be upfront with you. I have seen Wicked twice previous to this performance, the first time being on Broadway with the original cast and the second time being at the Pantages Theater in Los Angeles the first year it toured (about a year and a half prior to this particular performance). I adored everything about this show the first time I saw it. Unfortunately, the second time I was horribly disappointed and embarrassed to face the friend who’d accompanied me afterward (oh, how I had raved!). For weeks, nay months, I couldn't even listen to the soundtrack. So, why go a third time? One word: redemption. Or at least I was hoping for redemption. Surely there must be something there for me love. I had so cherished it once upon a time. I arrived at the theater with mixed emotions.
Let me take a quick aside to say that Los Angeles seems to love this show; for more than a year now, my commute home has been bogged down by little girls (wearing green and black) leaving the theater. This is both good and bad. Good, because children getting excited about theater is always good. Bad, because of any musical out there today, Wicked is the most commercially Disney-fied, and I think we could all do with a little less of that. The Disney-fication of theater (along with the maddening trend of taking a handful of pop songs and trying to build a coherent story out of them) makes me fear for the direction of theater as an art form. But I digress…
As I took my comfy seat in the theater, I perked up almost immediately when I saw in the program that Megan Hilty would in fact be performing the role of Glinda. The previous time I had seen the touring show, an understudy (whose name I’m not going to even bother trying to find) performed the role with all the skill of someone from MadTV. I had spent both acts wanting only to knock her silly. But this isn’t a review of that performance (I keep telling myself), this is a review of September 1, 2007, in which Megan Hilty played Glinda and did a beautiful job. The thing I appreciate most about Megan’s performance is that she did not merely mimic Kristin Chenoweth’s Glinda (a tempting and crowd-pleasing thing to do), but she really made the character her own, right down to the arguably most popular song in the show, “Popular.” She performed this number with a first-time feel that was 100% genuine, not in any way an ape of the soundtrack and yet every bit as entertaining.
Wicked picks up the story of The Wizard of Oz immediately following the Wicked Witch of the West's untimely desmise via bucket-of-water. The guards at the Witch's mansion are gazing down at all that is left of her - her pointy hat - when Glinda the Good wafts onstage in her bubble to try and bring good cheer to her subjects. It is then the accusations start to fly. Glinda knew the Witch! They were friends!! The Horror!! Glinda does her best to smooth things over and, in a Wayne's World time drift effect, we are sent back to the very beginning: Glinda (then Ga-linda and the Wicked Witch (who we will come to know as Elphaba) as rival schoolmates at Schizz - the Oz version of prep school.
Eden Espinosa was quite pleasing as Elphaba (she is no longer with the show and the role is now being played by Caissie Levy). I only fault her in that she was directly channeling Idina Menzel’s interpretation of the character as opposed to bringing anything new to the role. She certainly has the lungs to pull of “Defying Gravity” right down to the very last “ohhh-oh-oh-oh-ooohhhhhhh!”
In her less Star Search-worthy numbers, "The Wizard and I" and "I'm Not That Girl," she was completely charming and an entirely sympathetic social outcast.
Much was being made of John Rubinstein’s appearance as the Wizard. I realize he has won a Tony and was the original Pippin and blah, blah, blah. In this performance, however, he was utterly forgettable. I actually have fonder memories of David Garrison’s (of Married…With Children fame) version of the Wizard, which was a product of that terrible previous show that I am not reviewing here. The Wizard of this production is a much darker sort than the classic movie's affable version. This one has affairs with women, uses magic he knows nothing about to keep the dim Ozzians under his thumb and has a propaganda machine to control and spin all news coming out of the Emerald City.
Other characters include Madame Morrible, who serves the multiple functions of Headmistress of Schizz, talent scout for the Wizard as well as the Wizard's official spewer of lies and propaganda. Carol Kane (from Taxi) played this part at this performance (though the role now belongs to JoAnne Worley), who was fun in the part, but had lost of the sparkle I had seen from her in earlier performances. The actor Kristoffer Cusick did what he could with Fiyero, awkward role as it is. Fiyero is the cute, popular boy in school who is THE ONE in the eyes of both Glinda and Elphaba. Oy vey, even in Oz.....
The main problem with Fiyero (and it's the character's problem and not the actor's) is that he has one big song that is his own and that song is terrible. I know that Stephen Schwartz is capable of writing great songs for men, but he did not do so at any point in Wicked. Fiyero’s "Dancing Through Life" and the Wizard’s "Sentimental Man" and "Wonderful" are all sort of painful songs that you have to endure in order to get to the fun stuff. This reflects why neither of these characters are ever particularly memorable despite what actor they’ve cast to play them. …So, maybe it’s not all your fault Mr. Rubinstein.
As for the spectacle of the show, it’s all here. With attempts not to spoil (so avert your eyes if you know nothing about what happens in this show), I always look forward to the appearance of the Tin Man and this performance did not disappoint in its timing and ability to awe. The arrival of the winged monkeys was just as exciting and heartbreaking as the first time I saw it and Elphaba’s first time to take flight was just as dramatic.
Overall, the show was enjoyable and passable, if not great. The dancing by the ensemble seemed perpetually off and the Time Dragon (whose presence I have a vague memory of enjoying once upon a time) was pointlessly distracting. Also, in the touring version they seem to have cut a line foreshadowing the big twist in the story that I distinctly remember being in the Broadway version. I would assume it was a line simply dropped by the actor, except that it has been missing from both versions of the touring show that I’ve seen. Perhaps someone felt it was too much to the point, but it was a great line.
But all in all, I left the theater smiling and humming "Changed For Good." I think I can walk away from Wicked now, without feeling ambivalent. I can listen to the soundtrack without cringing. Redemption, indeed.
Wicked:
