Aug 27 2007
A Wicked Good Musical? My Review Of The Wicked Tour
It’s 8 PM on Friday, August 24th…I’m sitting in the Kimmell Center Theatre Of The Arts in Philadelphia, eagerly awaiting the show: Wicked (the national tour). Above the stage is a monstrous dragon complete with wings and a (mostly) realistic looking head.
As I’m wondering how the dragon fits in with the show, the lights dim, the crowd applauds, and the orchestra starts playing. The massive dragon begins to flap its massive wings (which look kinda like early cloth covered airplane wings)…the dragons’ eyes glow a fiery red, and a billow of smoke gusts from the dragon’s nostrils. The untold story of the witches of Oz is about to be told!
My Review Of Wicked (the tour):
I didn’t really know much about Wicked before I saw the show – I hadn’t read the book, I hadn’t heard the soundtrack much, and I hadn’t seen any clips. I had tried to see Wicked on Broadway earlier this year, but couldn’t get tickets (so I was recited that I could get tickets for the tour.) So I didn’t have any specific expectations other than what I had from the Wizard Of Oz. Those few expectations that I did have were changed pretty quickly - it didn’t take long to realize that Wicked is very different from The Wizard Of Oz.
The Plot: Wicked really changes a lot of what you thought you knew from The Wizard Of Oz. In The Wizard Of Oz, there are pretty much two clearly defined sides. There are the good guys (Dorothy, Glinda The Good, The Munchkins, etc.) then there is the evil (the two wicked witches). In Wicked, though, the plot is much more complex and arguably different. The evil witches turn out to not be so evil after all, and the good guys turn out to be not so good after all. Being a guy who loves to see the good guys beat the bad guys, I’m still not sure exactly what I think of the plot.
The Music was very good. My favorite song was “As Long As You’re Mine” a love song sung by Elphaba and her lover. In the production I saw (the U.S. Tour Cast) Elphaba was played by Victoria Matlock, who did an amazing job. It always seems that in every show I see, one actor will really grab my attention. Well, in this show, it was Elphaba / Victoria Matlock.
There was not a lot of dancing, but the dancing was well done. The special effects, lighting and such were excellent, most notably in Defying Gravity, but also in other scenes. The sets were also fabulous and highly varied. In fact, I think that the technical aspects of the show - the lights, special effects, and set design, were the most -award-worth parts of the show! That’s all I’m gonna say, though. 
If you want to see how great the special effects, lighta and stage sets were, you’ll just have to see it for yourself.
Conclusion: I enjoyed Wicked and would recommend it. Though I haven’t seen the broadway version, the tour was great and I believe it’s pretty much identical. Though it has some great comedy moments, it’s a musical drama/fantasy, not a feel-good song and dance musical like Hairspray or Mamma-Mia. The entire show was very well done. I personally am not 100% sure I like all the aspects of the plot, but the plot didn’t drag, and it had some good surprises, twists, and a good, surprisingly happy conclusion.
Resources:
- Buy Wicked Tour & Broadway Tickets
- Buy Wicked (2003 Original Broadway Cast) CD
- Buy “Wicked: The Grimmerie, A Behind-The-Scenes Look At The Broadway Musical”
I love Wicked! I’m somewhat tired of it because I’ve seen it four times, but I love it! I know someone in the chorus of the Chicago cast. I like the plot. If you wanna see a really good Glinda, go to the Chicago production.
I saw Wicked for the first time this August, http://longlivemusic.blogspot.com/2007/08/musicals-in-london-august-2007-day-5.html and just like you didn’t know anything about it… I simply started to love it, the music, the plot, the show.
I also like the idea of a plot to be twisted as in Wicked
My favorite song is “Defying Gravity”, and then comes “As long as your mine” too.
I also bought the book and started to read it.
Hope to see Wicked again soon!
I LOVE Wicked! I have seen it on Broadway and the national tour in LA. It was amazing both times. I was sad that I wasn’t able to see the orignal cast because I love Kristin Chenoweth.
do you happen to know whether there’s a video recording of Wicked?
I believe there is a trailer on the main website for Wicked that includes some of the musical numbers as well as interviews with some of the original casts. Otherwise there’s always youtube!
By the way, I also bought the book version, but did not care for the style of writing. Great story, just not the book for me. I do love the musical, however! I’ve grown tired of seeing it live because I’ve seen it four times now, but I never get tired of the soundtrack! Plus, I’ll never forget my first time seeing it when all the audience, including me, gasped when the final twist in the plot came. No spoilers though. You’ll have to go see the show for yourself.
Lorenzo, I’m 99% positive that there is no legal full-length video of Wicked available. There are some rumors flying around about making Wicked into a movie within a year or so, but I have no idea if there is any truth to those rumors.
~Adam
I went on the behind the scenes tour (by the way, don’t waste your money on it - there’s not much to it and they don’t even take you backstage) of Wicked and the tour guide said that Wicked was originally going to be a movie and they switched it over to a musical instead. If I remember right the tour guide said there are rumors of it being turned into a film, but nothing is in the making yet and as long as it continues to expand with tours and such (they now play in LA and London and NYC upon other locations and will probably eventually put one in in Las Vegas) and continue to make money off the broadway production there probably won’t be a movie, at least not for a while. I took that tour about a year ago. Anything’s possible. I sure would love for them to make a movie of it. I read that they might make a film of Aidia.
Harmony, yeh I don’t see them making a movie yet, not with all the tours they are doing…
Plus, I’m not sure how it will translate to movie. How do you translate the sets to a movie?
Well, Phantom of the Opera worked ok. I suppose they would have to make Oz a little more like what most people think of OZ looking like. They would have to make it more concrete, but I imagine that it would not be as spectacular as the show because you wouldn’t have all the cool lighting and the flying scene would have to be done differently. I think it would be better if they just made a video of the show itself once it goes off broadway, which at this rate will be a long long time from now.
“I think it would be better if they just made a video of the show itself”
I absolutely agree.
~Adam
I still have my old VHS recordings of Peter Pan (both versions), Joseph and the Amazing Technicolored Coat, and Cats. I still watch them. I hope they’ll do something like that for Wicked some day. I wish they would do it for every show.
Yes I was thinking about something they did for Cats, although they could also a musical movie as they did for the Phantom.
In the meantime I’m enjoying some youtube’s videos on wicked
It might be cool if they did a broadcast of it just one time, nationwide - they’d make a a ton of money off of it, even if they had to lower to price to like $20 or $30. The Metroplolitan Opera has done this a couple of times with live HD broadcasting in movie theatres and that was very successful. They even had a few encore presentations.