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Theatre Review: It’s Not Easy Being Green But It Is Popular For “Wicked”

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“Wicked” tells the story of two unlikely friends, Elphaba (the Wicked Witch of the West) and Glinda, who struggle through opposing personalities and viewpoints, rivalry over the same love-interest, reactions to the Wizard’s corrupt government and, ultimately, Elphaba’s public fall from grace.

There is a proven strategy for turning a hit musical into a long running smash…don’t mess with it! With more than ten years of Wicked being on tour and this being it’s 5th appearance in the Dallas Summer Musical season, it is very clear that the Dallas/Ft.Worth metroplex is still enchanted by the timeless brilliance of this show.

Originally adapted into a musical in 2003 with music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz and book by Winnie Holzerman, “Wicked” graces the DSM stage under the direction of two time Tony award-winner Joe Mantello. In the spotlight as Elphaba and Glinda are Broadway and touring company veterans Emily Koch and Amanda Jane Cooper and by themselves, are worth the price.

The show opens with Glinda (Cooper) announcing to all the Ozians that Elphaba (Koch), the wicked witch of the west is dead. Someone asks Glinda how she knew Elphaba and the story turns to flashback of how they met in college, hated each other, became friends and eventually enemies again through the pettiness of people.

While at school, Elphaba becomes socially aware of things not going right in OZ while Glinda is merely concerned with attaining power and influence and being popular. Interesting side note here, since in the original “Wizard of Oz” books the Wicked Witch never has a name, Wicked author, Gregory Maguire, created the name Elphaba as an homage to the Wizard of OZ author L. Frank Baum. When one of the school’s professors is arrested, Elphaba becomes aware that the government is experimenting on a lion cub. Her anger releases a spell that freezes everyone in the room and her and Fiyero, brilliantly played by Jake Boyd, take the cub and release it into the wild. It is then that she realizes she has feelings for Fiyero that will never be realized because he is too much like Glinda.

For reasons of her own, the headmistress, Madame Morrible (Wendy Worthington), arranges a meeting between Elphaba and the Wizard. Glinda manages to secure an invite for herself to join the conclave and so, they’re off to see the wizard. The meeting does not go well at all as Elphaba is trying to address things the government is doing to the animals and like most politicians, the wizard doesn’t want to answer a real question, especially since he is the one behind the animal oppression. Madame Morrible spins this into a great bruhaha and denounces Elphaba as “The Wicked Witch” and since Glinda is willing to play along to get along, she in turn is proclaimed “Glinda the Good.”

This culminates in the most famous number from the show, “Defying Gravity” which has become the show’s tagline.

The political intrigue continues with Glinda’s (seemingly almost arranged) engagement to Fiyero. Elphaba goes to her sister Nessarose who is now the Governor of Munchkinland for sanctuary. They fight like sisters are known to do and they part ways. Fiyero and Elphaba meet again in the Emerald city, fall in love and try to plan their life together. Since she is still wanted by the government, she takes refuge in Fiyero’s castle in the western part of OZ. Glinda finds her there after a house falls on Nessa. She informs her that the angry mob is on their way and they make amends in the most moving song from the show, “For Good.”

This show went to the Tony’s with 10 nominations and was expected to win big. But for some reason it got stomped in the big categories by a bunch of puppets living on Avenue Q. Still, “Wicked” is selling out its Broadway and National Touring companies thirteen years later so they are doing something right. That something right is simply not messing with the show. A lot of times the touring companies cut back their productions due to inherent restraints of the theatres they play and having to fold everything up every few weeks to put back into the trucks. “Wicked,” thankfully, does very little of paring down the show. What you will see in the Fair Park Music Hall is pretty close to what is playing on Broadway right now. The sets are the essentially the same and the dazzling costumes beautifully designed down to the smallest detail.

For me, having listened to the cast album for years, I was thrilled to hear the live orchestra because there were many fresh and exciting variations in the orchestrations that made this show that much more invigorating. There are actually only five musicians that travel with this show, the other twelve are hired locally and that is probably keeps the music fresh. With shows where the actors are performing the same roles over long periods of time, it sometimes seems like the performers phone-it-in. Nothing could be further from the truth with this cast or the orchestra.

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The cast, all in all were perfect, and I don’t say that lightly. The leads were spectacular both individually and as a whole. The ensemble of this particular production is the single best ensemble I have ever seen in any show, period. The ensemble in a show can range from “okay” to “backup dancers” to glorified set dressing. In this production the ensemble was thoroughly engaged in all action on the stage, adding richness and depth to every scene and not distracting from any. If ever there was a case study in what an ensemble should be, this version of Wicked is it.

Emily Koch was the understudy for Elphaba on Broadway before joining this tour. Her voice filled the Music Hall with the telltale power that this role deserves. Idina Menzel set the bar very high when she created this role in 2003. Koch clears that bar fluidly with her soprano variations of what is very definitely an alto voiced part. During “Defying Gravity” and again with her second-act beltfest, “No Good Deed,” she devastated the audience with power, clarity and emotion and received as smattering of standing O’s for the effort. My only complaint would be that her, Ms. Cooper and Mr. Boyd seemed out of breath and spoke some of what they were supposed to be singing. That may simply be because the surprisingly scheduled first matinee they performed Thursday afternoon took a bit of wind from their sails. That being said, it was such a minor distraction it didn’t affect the overall performance.

Amanda Jane Cooper took a role that has been done by several different actresses and made it her own while keeping the integrity of the original Kristen Chenoweth bubbly comedy. Her version of “Popular” was riddled with physicality, asides and flat out funny faces that kept me laughing continuously throughout the entire song. I was literally wiping my eyes trying to recover during her last few more somber lines of the song.

Jake Boyd wins my performance of the night award. Yes, Fiyero is supposed to go from the disinterested prince to loving concerned individual but so many times I see this transition as more like a light switch than a gradual, moving change of morals. Boyd plays the subtlety of this emotional growth with great care and patience so we can see all the layers that make up the man (well, scarecrow) that he becomes by the end of the show. Bravo Mr. Boyd, bravo.

Much like “Herod’s Song” in “Jesus Christ Superstar,” the Wizard’s song in the second act, “Wonderful,” is a misplaced show stopper that could completely destroy the emotion built up in the scenes directly prior. We go from Elphaba’s heavy duty drama to a tap sequence. The juxtaposition is not lost on me it just seems unnecessary. Thankfully, Stuart Zagnit as the Wonderful Wizard of OZ, doesn’t go completely over the top with this number, still I was missing the tap dance.

So I must say this was one of my most enjoyable evenings at the theatre in quite a while. Yes, this is the 5th time in the past few years that “Wicked” stops in Dallas but when a show is this good, you don’t mind seeing it over and over again and besides, its still very “Popular.”

Single tickets for “Wicked” range from $40 – $179 (pricing subject to change), and are now on sale at DallasSummerMusicals.org, by phone at 1.800.514.ETIX (3849) and at The Box Office, 5959 Royal Lane, Suite 542, Dallas, TX. Groups of 15 or more receive a 10% discount (on weekday evening performances and Sunday nights as well as Thursday, April 21st matinee), VIP handling, and many more benefits. Please call 214.426.GROUP (4768) or email Groups@DallasSummerMusicals.org

They did have a “night-of” lottery for $25 tickets on Thursday. I am not sure if they will do that for every performance so check the DallasSummerMusicals.org website for more information on that.

Dallas Summer Musicals’ 2016 Season will continue with “Ragtime,” May 24 – June 5; “Bullets Over Broadway,” June 14-26; and closing the season will be “42nd Street,” June 28 – July 10.

“Wicked” is playing at the Music Hall at Fair Park thru May 22nd

 
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