Wicked is definitely one of the bigger ticket items currently on show at the West End. Its a musical that I’ve been wanting to see ever since I heard that it was being transferred here from Broadway (I think I read somewhere it is the highest grossing show in Broadway history.) Pat was nice enough to give me some tickets for my birthday – the only problem was finding a suitable date for it! When I heard that Idina Menzel, who originally played Elphaba the Wicked Witch in the Broadway production and for which she won a Tony, was not continuing on with the role in the New Year I finally got my act together to arrange to see it tonight.

Wicked, based on the novel by Gregory Maguire, tells the tale of how the Wicked Witch of the West came into being. The story starts way before Dorothy ever stepped onto the golden path to the Emerald City with a little green girl, Elphaba, who grows up to be known as the infamous “Wicked ” witch. Elphaba is a girl with a heart of gold but because of the colour of her skin is ridiculed and generally put down. When she finds herself roomed with the eternally popular Galinda, a girl who has everything, life cannot seem to get any worse. Despite the anomosity between the two they eventually become the best of friends.

The Good

The writing in the play is extremely smart with the key message being basically not a judge a book by its cover, or, a person by their appearance, though there are some political references in there as well. It turns around what you thought might have thought was “good” in The Wizard of Oz into “bad” and the “bad” into “good”. The writing too was very smart in incorporating little satirical references to The Wizard of Oz with almost all of these references being met with laughter by the crowd.

Wicked is currently being hosted by the Apollo Victoria and it is a HUGE venue. The set is truly amazing extending out quite significantly into what is traditionally audience space. Also there is a giant dragon which, although in the end not truly serving a purpose, is pretty cool as a design prop. The individual scenes moved seemlessly into each other and there is some damn good engineering in the very sophisticated set. The lighting was inventive and costumes creative.

Interestingly there seemed to be a lot of subtext in the storyline and although there is a love triangle of sorts with Elphaba and Galinda (later to become Glinda the Good Witch) both falling in love with the same man, Fiyero (played by Australia’s own Adam Garcia), there seemed to be something even stronger between Elphaba and Galinda which is pretty cool.

As for the performers Idina Menzel was brilliant, and moving, as Elphaba bringing the right balance of vulnerability and strength to the character and Helen Dallimore, also an Aussie, as Galinda wasn’t too bad at playing all bubbly and blonde.

The Not So Good

The only truly disappointment to the show is the weakness in the song tunes. The lyrics were brilliant no doubt about it but unfortunately for me some of the songs just weren’t catchy or memorable. Though who am I to judge it considering I think the original cast album won a couple of Grammy awards!

Wicked is a show that must be seen, if not for the spectacle of the show itself (visually stunning), then for the intelligence in the writing and the brilliant performances. Definitely thought-provoking it is the direction that all future musicals should be taking.