Witty 'Wicked' delights a spellbound audience
By Anne Marie WelshUNION-TRIBUNE THEATER CRITIC
July 29, 2006
'It's good to see me, isn't it?” That's Glinda the Good speaking, as she floats down in a cascade of bubbles at the start of the hit musical “Wicked.”
JOAN MARCUS
As Glinda the Good, a sparkling Kendra Kassebaum descends onto the Civic Theatre stage assuming that everyone will be very happy to see her in "Wicked," the hit musical. Legions of word-of-mouth fans who had to wait three years since the Broadway opening for “Wicked” to cast its spell here apparently felt very good to see the perky Glinda and her “evil” counterpart, Elphaba, when the show opened at the Civic Theatre Thursday.
For those who saw the first cast in a smaller theater in New York, well, maybe not so good.
The $14 million show, with slick pop music and lyrics by “Godspell” composer Stephen Schwartz and a witty libretto by TV writer Winnie Holzman, is based on the popular 1995 novel by Gregory Maguire, “Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West.” Both novel and show expand on L. Frank Baum's Oz stories by imagining the psychological and near-tragic back story of the two witches who form the yin and yang to Dorothy's adventures in the iconic MGM film.
Maguire subverts the Baum story by making pea-green Elphaba a bookish and astute misfit, possessed of the moral insight and courage Galinda (later Glinda) lacks. She's much more than Margaret Hamilton's cackling hag of the beloved film.
DATEBOOK
"Wicked" 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, 7 p.m. Wednesday, 7:30 p.m. Aug. 4, 2 and 7:30 p.m. today and Aug. 5, and 1 and 6:30 p.m. Sundays and Aug. 6 Civic Theatre, 201 C St., downtown $29 to $127 sold out, $25 tickets available by lottery (619) 570-1111 or http://www.broadwaysd.com/
Granted, in the musical, you have to sort through a lot of bloat to find that mildly subversive message. But once you factor out the bombastic sound design at the 3,000-seat Civic, the spectacle of designer Eugene Lee's fire-breathing dragon above the proscenium and his golden Sphinx reverberating from the wizard's throne, some clever ironies emerge and entertain.
They derive mostly from Holzman's shrewd book (based only in part on Maguire's novel) that's proven so appealing to girls and their moms. The wonderful witch shtick created by Kristin Chenoweth and Idina Menzel, who, respectively, originated the roles of Galinda and Elphaba, proves just as much fun in this tour cast.
As bubbly Galinda, Kendra Kassebaum nails all those nubile teen gestures – a little flick of the foot, flounce of the skirt and toss of the hair – that contrast with the unadorned directness of the stodgy, principled Elphaba.
Now and again in a show reviled by most critics because of its plastic pop score, there's even a happy conjunction of a Schwartz tune with a sharp lyric.
“Popular,” the first-act number in which Galinda tries to make the green girl over in her own Barbie doll image, deserves all the delighted laughter it gets. Kassebaum's voice is brassy and nasal, with none of the subtle colors and operatic range that made Chenoweth's self-mocking performance so impressive. But that matters little in “Popular.” And what Kassebaum's got – brash vocal confidence and a kind of manic glee – works well enough here. Julia Murney as Elphaba lacks Menzel's passion and vocal warmth, but she deadpans her responses to the makeover to good effect.
In Elphaba's generic ballads and anthems (“The Wizard and I,” “I'm Not That Girl” and “No Good Deed”), Murney shows off a huge belt and the stamina that make these “American Idol” stylings so (apparently) irresistible to pop-loving audiences.
Sebastian Arcello takes the pop over the top in his “Dancing Through Life” as Fiyero, a small and thankless role of airhead prince turned scarecrow lover.
Director Joe Mantello found just the right tone in staging “Popular.” And he wrings more fun from his “Evita” parody for Glinda once she gets the power she craves.
Elphaba, who's been wrongly labeled wicked because of her hostility to totalitarian rule in Oz, has used her magical powers to flee with her broomstick. So Mrs. Morrible (veteran Alma Cuervo), a combination press secretary and Fox news “reporter,” labels her an enemy terrorist and, like recent political operatives, just makes stuff up. Glinda wants to share the wizard's power so badly she goes along with the distortions of recent history, at least while she's dressed like the populist Argentine heroine-saint of “Evita” and waving from behind a huge microphone.
“Wicked” mocks the political language George Orwell so famously wrote of – language “designed to make lies sound truthful.” The show treats us to a jaunty version of what Orwell called that “nightmare world in which the Leader, or some ruling clique, controls not only the future but the past.”
“Wicked” doesn't go very far in its anatomy of political corruption, nor does it follow through on the revolutionary logic of its premise. It's a pop musical after all, not Brecht. If it did push those buttons as Maguire's novel fitfully does, the musical wouldn't be so damn “popular.”
Instead, the show morphs into a conventional love-conquers-all-story in which misfit Elphaba – like outsider Tracy Turnblat of “Hairspray” – gets her man after all. Even sparkling Glinda, lonely at the top, misses her green friend.
Scheduled here for just two weeks – probably by design to pump up ticket demand – “Wicked” earned the kind of delirious response that signals it may return.
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/features/20060729-9999-1c29civic.html
July 29, 2006
'It's good to see me, isn't it?” That's Glinda the Good speaking, as she floats down in a cascade of bubbles at the start of the hit musical “Wicked.”
JOAN MARCUS
As Glinda the Good, a sparkling Kendra Kassebaum descends onto the Civic Theatre stage assuming that everyone will be very happy to see her in "Wicked," the hit musical. Legions of word-of-mouth fans who had to wait three years since the Broadway opening for “Wicked” to cast its spell here apparently felt very good to see the perky Glinda and her “evil” counterpart, Elphaba, when the show opened at the Civic Theatre Thursday.
For those who saw the first cast in a smaller theater in New York, well, maybe not so good.
The $14 million show, with slick pop music and lyrics by “Godspell” composer Stephen Schwartz and a witty libretto by TV writer Winnie Holzman, is based on the popular 1995 novel by Gregory Maguire, “Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West.” Both novel and show expand on L. Frank Baum's Oz stories by imagining the psychological and near-tragic back story of the two witches who form the yin and yang to Dorothy's adventures in the iconic MGM film.
Maguire subverts the Baum story by making pea-green Elphaba a bookish and astute misfit, possessed of the moral insight and courage Galinda (later Glinda) lacks. She's much more than Margaret Hamilton's cackling hag of the beloved film.
DATEBOOK
"Wicked" 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, 7 p.m. Wednesday, 7:30 p.m. Aug. 4, 2 and 7:30 p.m. today and Aug. 5, and 1 and 6:30 p.m. Sundays and Aug. 6 Civic Theatre, 201 C St., downtown $29 to $127 sold out, $25 tickets available by lottery (619) 570-1111 or http://www.broadwaysd.com/
Granted, in the musical, you have to sort through a lot of bloat to find that mildly subversive message. But once you factor out the bombastic sound design at the 3,000-seat Civic, the spectacle of designer Eugene Lee's fire-breathing dragon above the proscenium and his golden Sphinx reverberating from the wizard's throne, some clever ironies emerge and entertain.
They derive mostly from Holzman's shrewd book (based only in part on Maguire's novel) that's proven so appealing to girls and their moms. The wonderful witch shtick created by Kristin Chenoweth and Idina Menzel, who, respectively, originated the roles of Galinda and Elphaba, proves just as much fun in this tour cast.
As bubbly Galinda, Kendra Kassebaum nails all those nubile teen gestures – a little flick of the foot, flounce of the skirt and toss of the hair – that contrast with the unadorned directness of the stodgy, principled Elphaba.
Now and again in a show reviled by most critics because of its plastic pop score, there's even a happy conjunction of a Schwartz tune with a sharp lyric.
“Popular,” the first-act number in which Galinda tries to make the green girl over in her own Barbie doll image, deserves all the delighted laughter it gets. Kassebaum's voice is brassy and nasal, with none of the subtle colors and operatic range that made Chenoweth's self-mocking performance so impressive. But that matters little in “Popular.” And what Kassebaum's got – brash vocal confidence and a kind of manic glee – works well enough here. Julia Murney as Elphaba lacks Menzel's passion and vocal warmth, but she deadpans her responses to the makeover to good effect.
In Elphaba's generic ballads and anthems (“The Wizard and I,” “I'm Not That Girl” and “No Good Deed”), Murney shows off a huge belt and the stamina that make these “American Idol” stylings so (apparently) irresistible to pop-loving audiences.
Sebastian Arcello takes the pop over the top in his “Dancing Through Life” as Fiyero, a small and thankless role of airhead prince turned scarecrow lover.
Director Joe Mantello found just the right tone in staging “Popular.” And he wrings more fun from his “Evita” parody for Glinda once she gets the power she craves.
Elphaba, who's been wrongly labeled wicked because of her hostility to totalitarian rule in Oz, has used her magical powers to flee with her broomstick. So Mrs. Morrible (veteran Alma Cuervo), a combination press secretary and Fox news “reporter,” labels her an enemy terrorist and, like recent political operatives, just makes stuff up. Glinda wants to share the wizard's power so badly she goes along with the distortions of recent history, at least while she's dressed like the populist Argentine heroine-saint of “Evita” and waving from behind a huge microphone.
“Wicked” mocks the political language George Orwell so famously wrote of – language “designed to make lies sound truthful.” The show treats us to a jaunty version of what Orwell called that “nightmare world in which the Leader, or some ruling clique, controls not only the future but the past.”
“Wicked” doesn't go very far in its anatomy of political corruption, nor does it follow through on the revolutionary logic of its premise. It's a pop musical after all, not Brecht. If it did push those buttons as Maguire's novel fitfully does, the musical wouldn't be so damn “popular.”
Instead, the show morphs into a conventional love-conquers-all-story in which misfit Elphaba – like outsider Tracy Turnblat of “Hairspray” – gets her man after all. Even sparkling Glinda, lonely at the top, misses her green friend.
Scheduled here for just two weeks – probably by design to pump up ticket demand – “Wicked” earned the kind of delirious response that signals it may return.
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/features/20060729-9999-1c29civic.html
