Wicked
Happy Rememberance Day! I made sure to wear my poppy on my jacket collar when I went out today. I hope everyone did a little something to show support for our veterans of the First and Second World Wars. My grandfather, who is still alive and as healthy as he can be at age 83, was in WWII and I'm just so proud of him. Today is the day to honour others like him. It makes me sad to think that people don't appreciate what all these men and women did for us and the world we live in today.
Today I ventured out of my house for the first time since my accident for the matinee showing of the musical "Wicked" which is playing at the Canon Theatre here in Toronto. I've had these tickets for awhile, and despite the fact that I was still quite sore, I decided to make the trek to go and see the show anyway. Something like this would cheer me up.
So, here is my review of the play. For those of you on my FList who have seen it, I would love to get some of your feedback.
WICKED
I've never read the novel on which this musical is based, and it originally never peaked my interest. I just thought it was some sort of wizardy teen thing, like "Harry Potter" or something. But in the past year I've really gotten into theatre and I know that this has been one of the best reviewed new shows in a long while, so I decided to give it a shot.
To simplify the plot, it's basically the origin stories of the Good Witch and the Wicked Witch of the West from "The Wizard of Oz". Glinda is pretty and popular and first meets Elphaba at school which she is attending with her sister, Nessarose, who happens to be in a wheelchair. The two are forced to be roommates and get off to a bad start, mostly because Elphaba is a social outcast due to her green skin. Basically, as the story continues, the two come to be friends and take a trip together to the Emerald City to meet the Wizard. The end result sees the two friends on different sides, Glinda with the Wizard and Elphaba on her own with her flying monkeys. The two know they will always remain friends, but they have different goals and are ultimately separated.
The set designs were excellent. I loved the large bubble that Glinda travels in, as well as the mechanical face that the Wizard controls and hides behind. Emerald City is really, really green and shiny, while the darker scenes are appropriately gloomy and full of mist. Even the costumes were all lovely, from Glinda's gowns to the trippy style of the Emerald City citizens. Overall, the look and feel of the sets and costumes were wonderful and very well detailed.
The music, for the most part, was solid. The best song, by far, is "Defying Gravity" which ends the first act. It's a powerful ballad about independence and includes a really incredible scene where Elphaba is lifted high above the audience, with a huge cape trailing behind her. "Popular" and "Dancing Through Life" were also catchy and fun. Yet, I found that some of the other songs were really lacking. Either they weren't catchy enough or just weren't necessary (as in, the characters should have just spoken in dialogue, instead of singing another song). So, overall, the score was decent, but not exceptional. I sometimes found myself prefering the dialogue scenes over the songs themselves.
Shoshana Bean reprised her role as Elphaba, which she first performed on Broadway. She's a lovely actress and really got into her role, particularily the bits where she counted on the sympathy of the audience. She has a natural talent for making her character likable and easy to relate too. Yet, I found that as a singer she wasn't as strong as one would expect of an actress in the lead role. She seemed to have trouble hitting the really high notes and a couple of times I thought I heard her voice crack. I've heard the Original Broadway Cast recording of "Defying Gravity" and Idina Menzel's voice absolutly soared in that song. But Bean's voice was nowhere near as powerful and for a song like this, which requires power, I found she was a bit lacking. But other than her at time shaky singing, she's an excellent actress.
Meghan Hilty also reprised her Broadway role as Glinda. She was an absolute delight to watch. She's got perfect comic timing and has the charm and charisma to make you like her character, despite her vanity. She's definately a natural talent. Plus, she had an incredible singing voice, hitting every note perfectly. If it's possible, I think she may have actually stolen the show from Shoshana Bean. She's especially strong when it comes to her preppy songs like "Popular" and the scenes that place her alongside either Bean or the actor who played Fiyero, her love interest.
The rest of the cast were all strong, but none of them stood out over the two main leads. The show belonged to Bean and Hilty.
Overall, despite the fact that I found the first act to be a bit slow and some of the songs weren't that great, I really liked what was done with the "Wizard of Oz" story. I loved how all these loose ends were tied up and how there were cameo appearances by the Scarcrow and the Tin Man, among others. I thought it was original and clever, and had some really great moments that felt could be real. The sort of things that the audience could relate too. It did a really great job of portraying school pressures and how we all learn about the type of person we are through independance.
FOUR STARS (out of five)
Today I ventured out of my house for the first time since my accident for the matinee showing of the musical "Wicked" which is playing at the Canon Theatre here in Toronto. I've had these tickets for awhile, and despite the fact that I was still quite sore, I decided to make the trek to go and see the show anyway. Something like this would cheer me up.
So, here is my review of the play. For those of you on my FList who have seen it, I would love to get some of your feedback.
WICKED
I've never read the novel on which this musical is based, and it originally never peaked my interest. I just thought it was some sort of wizardy teen thing, like "Harry Potter" or something. But in the past year I've really gotten into theatre and I know that this has been one of the best reviewed new shows in a long while, so I decided to give it a shot.
To simplify the plot, it's basically the origin stories of the Good Witch and the Wicked Witch of the West from "The Wizard of Oz". Glinda is pretty and popular and first meets Elphaba at school which she is attending with her sister, Nessarose, who happens to be in a wheelchair. The two are forced to be roommates and get off to a bad start, mostly because Elphaba is a social outcast due to her green skin. Basically, as the story continues, the two come to be friends and take a trip together to the Emerald City to meet the Wizard. The end result sees the two friends on different sides, Glinda with the Wizard and Elphaba on her own with her flying monkeys. The two know they will always remain friends, but they have different goals and are ultimately separated.
The set designs were excellent. I loved the large bubble that Glinda travels in, as well as the mechanical face that the Wizard controls and hides behind. Emerald City is really, really green and shiny, while the darker scenes are appropriately gloomy and full of mist. Even the costumes were all lovely, from Glinda's gowns to the trippy style of the Emerald City citizens. Overall, the look and feel of the sets and costumes were wonderful and very well detailed.
The music, for the most part, was solid. The best song, by far, is "Defying Gravity" which ends the first act. It's a powerful ballad about independence and includes a really incredible scene where Elphaba is lifted high above the audience, with a huge cape trailing behind her. "Popular" and "Dancing Through Life" were also catchy and fun. Yet, I found that some of the other songs were really lacking. Either they weren't catchy enough or just weren't necessary (as in, the characters should have just spoken in dialogue, instead of singing another song). So, overall, the score was decent, but not exceptional. I sometimes found myself prefering the dialogue scenes over the songs themselves.
Shoshana Bean reprised her role as Elphaba, which she first performed on Broadway. She's a lovely actress and really got into her role, particularily the bits where she counted on the sympathy of the audience. She has a natural talent for making her character likable and easy to relate too. Yet, I found that as a singer she wasn't as strong as one would expect of an actress in the lead role. She seemed to have trouble hitting the really high notes and a couple of times I thought I heard her voice crack. I've heard the Original Broadway Cast recording of "Defying Gravity" and Idina Menzel's voice absolutly soared in that song. But Bean's voice was nowhere near as powerful and for a song like this, which requires power, I found she was a bit lacking. But other than her at time shaky singing, she's an excellent actress.
Meghan Hilty also reprised her Broadway role as Glinda. She was an absolute delight to watch. She's got perfect comic timing and has the charm and charisma to make you like her character, despite her vanity. She's definately a natural talent. Plus, she had an incredible singing voice, hitting every note perfectly. If it's possible, I think she may have actually stolen the show from Shoshana Bean. She's especially strong when it comes to her preppy songs like "Popular" and the scenes that place her alongside either Bean or the actor who played Fiyero, her love interest.
The rest of the cast were all strong, but none of them stood out over the two main leads. The show belonged to Bean and Hilty.
Overall, despite the fact that I found the first act to be a bit slow and some of the songs weren't that great, I really liked what was done with the "Wizard of Oz" story. I loved how all these loose ends were tied up and how there were cameo appearances by the Scarcrow and the Tin Man, among others. I thought it was original and clever, and had some really great moments that felt could be real. The sort of things that the audience could relate too. It did a really great job of portraying school pressures and how we all learn about the type of person we are through independance.
FOUR STARS (out of five)