Something 'Wicked' this way comes
By Anne Marie WelshUNION-TRIBUNE THEATER CRITIC
July 23, 2006
Cool! A chance to get some hot seats 'Wicked” was snubbed by most Tony Award voters in favor of “Avenue Q,” which took home the coveted best musical trophy in 2004. But the witches of Oz have been cackling all the way to the bank, for the mildly subversive musical about a misunderstood outsider, who just happens to be green, has been raking in the yellow bricks on Broadway, in a sit-down run in Chicago, and across the country on tour.
In San Diego, where the show based on the popular Gregory Maguire novel opens a two-week stand this week, all 16 performances are virtually sold out, although a dozen or so tickets will be available for each performance in a pre-show lottery.
DATEBOOK
"Wicked" Opens 7:30 p.m. Wednesday. Runs 7:30 Tuesdays, 7 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 2, 7:30 Fridays, 2 and 7:30 Saturdays, 1 and 6:30 Sundays, through Aug. 6, with a 2 p.m. show this Thursday; Civic Theatre, 201 C St., downtown; $29 to $127; (619) 570-1111 or www.broadwaysd.com
The show was dismissed by New York critics when it opened in October of 2003. Still, “Wicked” went on to become a nationwide word-of-mouth phenomenon when the cast CD moved its self-empowerment message set to a bland pop score by Stephen Schwartz into the minds and hearts of teen listeners, the majority of them girls.
In fact, the savvy show deserved better reviews than it got. With a top-flight cast featuring Joel Grey along with co-stars Kristin Chenoweth as Glinda the Good and Idina Menzel as Elphaba the Green, the show raced past the bad reviews on the strengths of their performances, the psychological and moral ideas in Winnie Holzman's book, and the shrewd direction of Joe Mantello. A massive and fanciful set helped, as did the flying scenes.
Six months after opening, “Wicked” was pulling in $1.2 million a week at the Gershwin where it reminded producers (Marc Platt and Universal Pictures) of the glory days of “Phantom of the Opera” and “The Producers.” Two years later, “Wicked” had racked up an impressive $32 million in advance sales, with the combined grosses from Broadway, the Chicago run and the tour topping a quarter of a billion dollars.
Now, 18 months later, with some of the bigger tour venues taking in $2 million a week, the show is moving toward the half-billion mark. In New York, where it took in $1.4 million last week, “Wicked” vies with “Spamalot” as the hottest ticket on “The Great White Way.”
In San Diego, says Willcox, “the speed of ticket sales was faster than any we've ever seen. That may be a symptom of the fact that 'Phantom' and 'The Lion King' were both scheduled for six weeks and 'Wicked' is only for two weeks.” So great was local demand that Broadway/San Diego, which give first dibs to subscribers, had to stop marketing group sales, “in order to be certain we had enough left for single ticket purchase. We stopped groups in February. We were aware that we wouldn't have enough seats left for single sales beginning May 1.”
The night before May 1 outside the Civic, one intrepid group of fans formed a line and camped out. Others arrived at 5 a.m. “Something like 800 people were in line before the box office closed,” Willcox says, including many who paid $127 for what the presenter calls “VIP seats” in 16 rows of the center section of the orchestra area. That's $17 more than the regular top price in new York. So what's the pull?
“Wicked” dramatizes the speculative backstory to the two witches of Oz – before Dorothy and Toto arrive. The tale subverts the usual division of witchery into good and bad. Elphaba, the birth name of the Wicked Witch of the West played by Margaret Hamilton in the mega-popular film, is definitely not bad. She's just green, smart and different. Golden girl Galinda, on the other hand, with her smiling wiles that led to her role as Glinda the Good, isn't so much good as canny and politically astute – and, most of all, popular.
Schwartz's best song, a bubble gum pop number called “Popular,” anatomizes Galinda's shallowness, as she merrily tries to transform the hardheaded, thoughtful Elphaba into an airhead, just like her. That mock tune carries much of the show's appeal – not only for girls, but for their moms who want to encourage their darlings to be something more than bimbotic Barbie dolls, or little Britneys in bud.
“What we started experiencing,” says Willcox, “was primarily moms telling us their daughter was e-mailed a song by someone, so they went out and bought either the book or the CD. When teenagers read this book about the relationship between these two young women, they identify with that pull in society that says if you're a strong woman, you may not be looked kindly upon. If you're not the goody two-shoes who give people what they want like Galinda, you may be labeled something else, like Elphaba. Maguire wrote the book as a political protest.”
Willcox says that the core audience here will be those mother-daughter duos, but she thinks that the show, which includes major plotlines about animals fighting for their civil rights, “has so many layers that my 8-year-old will have a fabulous time and there's plenty there for my husband as well.”
Some of the negative criticism directed at the show found its message a throwback to the worst days of the culture wars over political correctness. The winners, like Galinda and L. Frank Baum, used to get to write Oz history, and now the losers, like Maguire and Elphaba, get to rewrite it.
But as Willcox points out, both women in “Wicked” pay a price for the way social labels define and thwart them. It's a far heavier price in the novel than in the show, needless to say, as writer Holzman gives Elphaba pretty much everything that her heart desires – but she must enjoy her rewards out of the limelight that Galinda-turned-Glinda hogs.
It's that conflict between insider and outsider that even the show's casting tapped. Chenoweth, playing peppy Galinda, was already an insider beloved by drama queens and extolled for showing a sharp new comic sense in “Wicked.” The Variety critic praised “her voice shifting between operetta-ish trills and Broadway brass, her posture melting between prom-queen vampiness and martial arts moves . . . (as) she evokes everyone from Jeanette MacDonald to Cameron Diaz, from Mary Martin to Madonna.”
Menzel, on the other hand, playing the thoughtful loner Elphaba, was mostly known for originating the role of bisexual Maureen in “Rent,” but that was back in 1996.
When it came time for Broadway parodist Gerard Alessandrini to create a “Wicked” number for the eighth installment of his satire “Forbidden Broadway,” he played up the competition of outsider Menzel (Elphaba) and insider Chenoweth (Galinda) for the best actress in a musical Tony. To the strains of “Popular” the two belters – Chenoweth, the consummate, beloved star and Menzel, the dark horse who emerged with the bohemians of “Rent” – duke it out. Galinda must hear herself called “a cute obnoxious phoney” while misfit Elphaba becomes “a vulgar one-trick pony.”
In real life, as in “Forbidden Broadway,” Menzel, the green underdog, won the Tony and the hearts of the masses who've made “Wicked” the latest critic-proof mega-hit to sell out the Civic.
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/features/20060723-9999-1a23wicked.html
July 23, 2006
Cool! A chance to get some hot seats 'Wicked” was snubbed by most Tony Award voters in favor of “Avenue Q,” which took home the coveted best musical trophy in 2004. But the witches of Oz have been cackling all the way to the bank, for the mildly subversive musical about a misunderstood outsider, who just happens to be green, has been raking in the yellow bricks on Broadway, in a sit-down run in Chicago, and across the country on tour.
In San Diego, where the show based on the popular Gregory Maguire novel opens a two-week stand this week, all 16 performances are virtually sold out, although a dozen or so tickets will be available for each performance in a pre-show lottery.
DATEBOOK
"Wicked" Opens 7:30 p.m. Wednesday. Runs 7:30 Tuesdays, 7 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 2, 7:30 Fridays, 2 and 7:30 Saturdays, 1 and 6:30 Sundays, through Aug. 6, with a 2 p.m. show this Thursday; Civic Theatre, 201 C St., downtown; $29 to $127; (619) 570-1111 or www.broadwaysd.com
The show was dismissed by New York critics when it opened in October of 2003. Still, “Wicked” went on to become a nationwide word-of-mouth phenomenon when the cast CD moved its self-empowerment message set to a bland pop score by Stephen Schwartz into the minds and hearts of teen listeners, the majority of them girls.
In fact, the savvy show deserved better reviews than it got. With a top-flight cast featuring Joel Grey along with co-stars Kristin Chenoweth as Glinda the Good and Idina Menzel as Elphaba the Green, the show raced past the bad reviews on the strengths of their performances, the psychological and moral ideas in Winnie Holzman's book, and the shrewd direction of Joe Mantello. A massive and fanciful set helped, as did the flying scenes.
Six months after opening, “Wicked” was pulling in $1.2 million a week at the Gershwin where it reminded producers (Marc Platt and Universal Pictures) of the glory days of “Phantom of the Opera” and “The Producers.” Two years later, “Wicked” had racked up an impressive $32 million in advance sales, with the combined grosses from Broadway, the Chicago run and the tour topping a quarter of a billion dollars.
Now, 18 months later, with some of the bigger tour venues taking in $2 million a week, the show is moving toward the half-billion mark. In New York, where it took in $1.4 million last week, “Wicked” vies with “Spamalot” as the hottest ticket on “The Great White Way.”
In San Diego, says Willcox, “the speed of ticket sales was faster than any we've ever seen. That may be a symptom of the fact that 'Phantom' and 'The Lion King' were both scheduled for six weeks and 'Wicked' is only for two weeks.” So great was local demand that Broadway/San Diego, which give first dibs to subscribers, had to stop marketing group sales, “in order to be certain we had enough left for single ticket purchase. We stopped groups in February. We were aware that we wouldn't have enough seats left for single sales beginning May 1.”
The night before May 1 outside the Civic, one intrepid group of fans formed a line and camped out. Others arrived at 5 a.m. “Something like 800 people were in line before the box office closed,” Willcox says, including many who paid $127 for what the presenter calls “VIP seats” in 16 rows of the center section of the orchestra area. That's $17 more than the regular top price in new York. So what's the pull?
“Wicked” dramatizes the speculative backstory to the two witches of Oz – before Dorothy and Toto arrive. The tale subverts the usual division of witchery into good and bad. Elphaba, the birth name of the Wicked Witch of the West played by Margaret Hamilton in the mega-popular film, is definitely not bad. She's just green, smart and different. Golden girl Galinda, on the other hand, with her smiling wiles that led to her role as Glinda the Good, isn't so much good as canny and politically astute – and, most of all, popular.
Schwartz's best song, a bubble gum pop number called “Popular,” anatomizes Galinda's shallowness, as she merrily tries to transform the hardheaded, thoughtful Elphaba into an airhead, just like her. That mock tune carries much of the show's appeal – not only for girls, but for their moms who want to encourage their darlings to be something more than bimbotic Barbie dolls, or little Britneys in bud.
“What we started experiencing,” says Willcox, “was primarily moms telling us their daughter was e-mailed a song by someone, so they went out and bought either the book or the CD. When teenagers read this book about the relationship between these two young women, they identify with that pull in society that says if you're a strong woman, you may not be looked kindly upon. If you're not the goody two-shoes who give people what they want like Galinda, you may be labeled something else, like Elphaba. Maguire wrote the book as a political protest.”
Willcox says that the core audience here will be those mother-daughter duos, but she thinks that the show, which includes major plotlines about animals fighting for their civil rights, “has so many layers that my 8-year-old will have a fabulous time and there's plenty there for my husband as well.”
Some of the negative criticism directed at the show found its message a throwback to the worst days of the culture wars over political correctness. The winners, like Galinda and L. Frank Baum, used to get to write Oz history, and now the losers, like Maguire and Elphaba, get to rewrite it.
But as Willcox points out, both women in “Wicked” pay a price for the way social labels define and thwart them. It's a far heavier price in the novel than in the show, needless to say, as writer Holzman gives Elphaba pretty much everything that her heart desires – but she must enjoy her rewards out of the limelight that Galinda-turned-Glinda hogs.
It's that conflict between insider and outsider that even the show's casting tapped. Chenoweth, playing peppy Galinda, was already an insider beloved by drama queens and extolled for showing a sharp new comic sense in “Wicked.” The Variety critic praised “her voice shifting between operetta-ish trills and Broadway brass, her posture melting between prom-queen vampiness and martial arts moves . . . (as) she evokes everyone from Jeanette MacDonald to Cameron Diaz, from Mary Martin to Madonna.”
Menzel, on the other hand, playing the thoughtful loner Elphaba, was mostly known for originating the role of bisexual Maureen in “Rent,” but that was back in 1996.
When it came time for Broadway parodist Gerard Alessandrini to create a “Wicked” number for the eighth installment of his satire “Forbidden Broadway,” he played up the competition of outsider Menzel (Elphaba) and insider Chenoweth (Galinda) for the best actress in a musical Tony. To the strains of “Popular” the two belters – Chenoweth, the consummate, beloved star and Menzel, the dark horse who emerged with the bohemians of “Rent” – duke it out. Galinda must hear herself called “a cute obnoxious phoney” while misfit Elphaba becomes “a vulgar one-trick pony.”
In real life, as in “Forbidden Broadway,” Menzel, the green underdog, won the Tony and the hearts of the masses who've made “Wicked” the latest critic-proof mega-hit to sell out the Civic.
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/features/20060723-9999-1a23wicked.html
