Wicked
Music
and Lyrics Stephen Schwartz
Book
Winnie Holzman
Director
Joe Mantello
Choreographer
Wayne Cilento
Review by Kathi E. B. Ellis.
Entire contents are
copyright © 2012 Kathi E. B. Ellis. All rights reserved.
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| Jeanna de Waal as Glinda and Christine Dwyer as Elphaba in the national tour of Wicked. Photo courtey of PNC Broadway in Louisville. |
I’m
probably in a minority, but, Wicked
underwhelmed me when I saw it – for my first time – on opening night at the
Whitney Hall. I’ve known about it of course; heard “the” song sung in many
contexts; seen images of both Elphaba and Glinda; and learned of its origins in
the book of the same name by Gregory Maguire which, he avers, is a not-prequel
to L. Frank Baum’s classic The Wonderful
Wizard of Oz.
So
why did I feel underwhelmed last Thursday? Certainly, it was a full house, with
energy buzzing as folks settled in with cursory glances at the map of Oz on the
show curtain, occasional glimpses of the spot operators situated on either side
of the proscenium, and the brooding mechanical dragon overseeing all from atop
the proscenium arch. The set by the legendary Eugene Lee is impressive, a
series of interlocking, oversized moving parts reminiscent of late 19th century
science fantasy. Susan Hilferty’s costumes
are bold and quirky, clearly placing us in a parallel quasi-Gothic dystopia.
And,
in this touring production, maybe that is where my problem lay. None of the
performances were outsized enough to top the production values – with the
exception of Madame Morrible (Marilyn Caskey). To be fair to the performers,
neither the score nor the book helps them out much. With themes of difference
and ostracization, power and corruption, finding one’s truth – really big ideas
– it would be powerful to have these ideas articulated in ways more layered
than how these characters are constructed. Certainly, the themes from Mr.
Baum’s books have been debated for more than a hundred years, with his characters
pulled metaphorically into current events across the decades. But there’s not
much metaphor in the musical Wicked. The
tropes here are leaden and obvious. The inevitable adaptations from novel to
musical book may have contributed to a flattening out of more complex themes.
Ms.
de Waal’s Glinda is charming and bubbly (literally) and she hits the
popular-girl notes with assurance, especially in the scene when she attempts a
makeover of Elphaba (‘Popular’). There’s a delightful moment at the beginning
of the second act when Glinda, now working with the Wizard (Paul Kreppel) and
his press secretary Madame Morrible, greets the Citizens of Oz in a tableau
with a wink and a nod to Evita.
Christine Dwyer’s Elphaba is fierce and powerful, but is undercut by indeterminate
staging, which frequently leaves the performer disconnected from setting and
others. She and Dr. Dillamond (Timothy Britten Parker) share one of the show’s
few successfully understated moments, “Something Bad,” lifting what could have
been a merely stereotypical moment of alienation into a poignant exploration of
otherness. Ms. Caskey’s Morrible morphs deliciously from the headmistress who
favors the wealthy and attractive, to the manipulative on-message PR aide. Paul
Kreppel’s Wizard is disarmingly charming, down to the soft shoe shuffle – you
see it coming a mile away, but his charm defuses the predictable moment into a
delighted smile. Fiyore (Billy Harrigan Tighe) is appropriately straw-headed;
Boq (Michael Wartella) is every teen’s nightmare of a rejected crush; and
Nessarose (Catherine Charlebois) is, for me, the least successfully drawn
character, moving predictably from cliché to cliché. Dashi’ Mitchell’s Chistery
was fascinating to watch; the complete commitment to that character’s
physicality frequently drew my attention to this silent character.
The
one take-away number from this production is, of course, “Defying Gravity” –
and I found myself waiting for it during Act One. And yet, when it arrived,
this too was one of the moments in which I was underwhelmed. Ms. De Waal and
Ms. Dwyer were committed to the moment. But I was all too aware of the
limitations of gravity in the way this is staged. With this title, clearly an
audience can anticipate an airborne moment; the broomstick flies on mid-song –
great, this is a good start! Equally clearly, anytime a performer is flown
safety is paramount. However, the clunkiness of the process of getting Elphaba
into the final, impressive moment of the act detracted from the brilliance of
Kenneth Posner’s radiant lighting effect, surrounding Ms. Dwyer’s defiant,
triumphant face centrally-suspended within the proscenium arch.
On
opening night I spent much of the ensemble numbers trying to understand the
lyrics in the moment. The balance between the orchestra – which included nine
local musicians in addition to the regular ensemble that travels with the
production – and the voices was challenging. While understanding the pressures
of a touring production, this is one area that can make or break an audience’s
response to a performance. The opening night’s audience’s response was
overwhelmingly positive, with each number receiving generous applause and a
widespread standing ovation at the end of the performance.
As
a sometime man of the theatre, one wonders how Mr. Baum would have responded to
this theatrical extravaganza, embodying the creation of a parallel world to the
one his original books created for children.
Wicked
September 12- 30, 2012
PNC Broadway in Louisville
The Kentucky Center
501 West Main Street
Louisville, KY, 40202
502-589-7777
I think that this is an unbelievably incorrect review of this performance. Dwyer's vocal performance was unlike any I had ever seen in any stage production in my life. (And I am an avid "theater-goer"). She was ubelievable. Glinda as well was fantastically perfect in her role. I am not sure what performance you were watching because the one I saw kept me so captivated that I didn't notice "bad staging" at all. BRAVO!!!
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