– By Cate Marquis –
“Wicked” flies into the Fabulous Fox Theater once again, for a run through May7. This is the seventh time the Broadway hit has appeared here and the show has lost none of its luster. In fact, the Fox Theater says it is it’s most popular show.
“Wicked” tells the story of Oz before Dorothy showed up, told from the viewpoint of the two witches, the green Wicked Witch of the West, whose name is Elphaba, and Glinda, the Good Witch. The two start out as adversaries when they first meet but develop an unlikely friendship, before the people of Oz started calling one “good” and the other “wicked.” This imaginative story puts a twist on L. Frank Baum’s classic children’s novels, giving the backstory that casts Oz is a quite different light from newcomer Dorothy’s view, something much more complicated. This very clever idea, telling the Oz story from the witches’ perspective, made author Gregory Maguire’s novel a bestseller, but the story’s message of looking beneath the surface, and of diversity and tolerance, is part of the reason why this musical has continued to resonant with and enthrall audiences.
With book and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz based on Maguire’s novel and music by Winnie Holzman, “Wicked” still bewitches audiences with it’s story of an unlikely friendship between a talented girl with green skin and a very popular blonde one, set in a fantastical world that is undergoing some dark changes.
“Wicked” is a true big Broadway extravaganza, with big, amazing sets and memorable hits songs, along with a surprisingly good, meaningful story. All that, and you see why this show is so enduringly popular.
There is that fabulous score, with hit songs like “Popular” and “Defying Gravity.” The original Broadway show starred Broadway legends Kristin Chenoweth as Glinda/Galinda and Joel Grey as the Wizard, with Idina Menzel as Elphaba. The role made Idina Menzel a star, even before her golden voice enchanted little girls everywhere when she voiced Elsa in Disney’s animated FROZEN. While the original cast are no longer touring, this cast has taken up the mantle, in a show that still touring with those amazing huge animated sets.
On this production, Lissa deGuzman plays Elphaba, the green girl who will become the “wicked” witch and Jennafer Newberry plays blonde Galinda, who later changes her name and becomes the “good” witch. But what is really good or bad is central to this tale.
The story draws on the elements of “The Wizard of Oz” (including the wizard) but tells the backstory that gives a new viewpoint of events, and even people, in the famous movie version. The story is told in flashback by Glinda the Good Witch (Jennafer Newberry), after the green-skinned Wicked Witch of the West (Lissa deGuzman) has been vanquished, after someone in the crowd asks if it is true the two witches were once friends.
And yes, those amazing animatronic production elements are back too, including the huge dragon with glowing red eyes above the stage and the imposing moving giant Wizard of Oz head, along with all the crazy colorful costumes and imposingly big clock-face backdrops. Unlike most big musicals that have been touring for years, “Wicked” is little changed, still bringing its impressive sets and props to the show, and keeping the magic. The chorus may be a tad smaller and the clock face backdrop for the opening number a bit less elaborate, but all the most impressive pieces are still there, making it the same big-production show you expect, or remember.
The two meet as college students in Oz. Green-skinned Elphaba (Lissa deGuzman), smart, bookish but surprisingly defiant, arrives to begin college in Oz, along with her half-sister Nessarose (Tara Kostmayer). Actually, Elphaba’s stern father is only allowing her to attend college to help Nessarose, who uses a wheelchair. The two sisters are close but their father, a high official, only tolerates Elphaba, who was born with her unusual, startling emerald-green color, because of her sister.
Beautiful, blonde and popular Galinda (Jennafer Newberry) – her name changes to Glinda later – arrives about the same time, fully expecting to be treated like a princess just as she always has been. But the school’s headmistress, Madame Morrible (Natalie Ventia Belcon) has discovered that Elphaba has a hidden gift for magic, a talent so unique and impressive she decides to make the newcomer her sole student for the term and plans to introduce her to the Wonderful Wizard of Oz himself (Timothy Shew), much to Galinda’s shock and disappointment. Worse, Galinda finds she has been assigned to room with Elphaba, which also frustrates Elphaba who expected to room with her sister Nessa.
Other students arrive, including Boq (Kyle McArthur), one of the few Munchkin students, and Fiyero (Christian Thompson) who arrives late after having been kicked out of yet another school. Fiyero is handsome and as popular as Galinda, so naturally they gravitate to each other. Boq is drawn to her too but at her request, asks Nessarose to the dance.
All the characters seem to wind up in Doctor Dillamond’s (Boise Holmes) history class. Doctor Dillamond is a goat but one that sounds and acts like a human, and he tells his students that there were once many animal professors like him on the faculty. Now he is the only one, as all the others have been forced out by a rising tide of prejudice that is excluding talking animals from all public positions. There are even rumors that some animals, after losing their positions, have lost the power of speech.
Elphaba’s unusual appearance and awkwardness make her the object of jokes and pranks, often led by Galinda, but Elphaba is surprisingly defiant. Yet what starts out as mutual dislike between Glinda and Elphaba changes over time to an unexpected friendship, leading the very popular Galinda to set out the make-over her roomie in her hilarious showstopper “Popular,” midway through the first act.
It is a rare musical with something to say, and that message of understanding and inclusion remains timely. There is a lot of humor in the first half of the show and plenty of songs, including one that Madame Morrible and Elphaba sing about the Wizard of Oz, “The Wizard and I.” But there is a foreshadowing of what is to come created by the musical’s opening number, “No One Mourns The Wicked” sung by the ensemble and reprised at the end of the second act. By the end of the first act, things are turning darker and more dramatic, and we get the second memorable showstopper, “Defying Gravity,” with a transformed Elphaba soaring above the stage on jaw-dropping wire work, the moment that gets featured in all the ads.
The cast is good and all have fine voices. Lissa DeGuzman is winning as Elphaba, while Jennafer Newberry gives a particularly energetic and wacky take on Galinda/Glinda. While these two play these leads when the show opened for its run at the Fox, the role of Elphaba will be taken over by Olivia Valli and that of Galinda/Glinda by Celia Hottenstein starting May 2 for the remainder of the run.
Natalie Ventia Belcon’s bombastic Madame Morrible (who is as horrible as her name suggests) is one of the stand-out supporting performances, along with Boise Holmes’ noble, touching Doctor Dillamond and Christian Thompson’s comic-dumb Fiyero.
“Wicked” has lost none of its magic and the message of looking beneath the skin still is timely, maybe even more so.
“Wicked” is on stage at the Fabulous Fox through May 7.
© Cate Marquis
