Wicked (Thursday April 25th, 2013)

WICKED

      On the night of Thursday, April 25th, I found myself seated in the Victoria Apollo Theatre in London, eyeing the glowing map of Oz and waiting with bated breath for the first notes to soar and the first monkeys to make their appearance on the stage. This production of Wicked was directed by Joe Mantello, and the music and lyrics were written by Stephen Schwartz (the original book was written by Winnie Holzman). This production starred Gina Beck, Louise Dearman, and Ben Freeman. 

Wicked is the untold story of the Witches of Oz. Anyone who has seen or read The Wizard of Oz knows of Glinda the Good Witch, and the green Wicked Witch of the West. Wicked delves into the early lives of these characters in a prolonged flashback. We learn that spoiled, popular Galinda (Beck) - as she was once known - and moody, distant Elphaba (Dearman) (who would become the Wicked Witch of the West) become unlikely roommates, and later, the best of friends, at Shiz University in Oz. Elphaba, green and unloved by her father, is noticed by the Head Shiztress, Madame Morrible (Harriet Thorpe), when she exhibits magical powers while trying to keep her disabled sister Nessarose (Katie Rowley Jones) with her. Both girls become enamored with newcomer (and airhead) Fiyero (Freeman), who falls for Galinda’s perkiness, although he is intrigued by  Elphaba’s character. The girls’ world falls apart when, on a trip to the Emerald City to meet the Wizard of Oz (Keith Bartlett), they discover that he is not a real wizard, and only wants to use Elphaba’s powers to tighten his tyrannical grasp on Oz. Elphaba steals the Wizard’s spell book, the Grimmerie, and takes to the sky, stating that “nobody in all of Oz, no Wizard that there is or was, is ever going to bring [her] down!” And thus, Glinda and Elphaba are thrust into their places in life, and become Glinda the Good and the Wicked Witch of the West, respectively. 

Gina Beck (Glinda) and Louise Dearman (Elphaba)

The show was, altogether, the best production of Wicked I have ever seen (and that is saying something, as this was my seventh time seeing it). Wicked has always been my favourite show; in my opinion, it has something for everyone to relate to in it. That’s the reason I can keep coming back to this show; there’s always some new aspect of a character you’ll find with every time you see the show. The script of Wicked is brilliant; the story is told through Glinda’s extended flashback, but she is not narrating the flashbacks, so you don’t get the sense that it is as much of a flashback. It feels more real, which makes the emotions more real. The performance, as well, was wonderful. Each actor was so absolutely in character that, when I saw them after the show, I had trouble remembering that they were people, not characters (it didn’t help that Louise Dearman still had green in her hair). There were no moments while watching this that I doubted what was happening, be it a character’s reaction to a situation, or a situation itself. Everything was utterly believable; a combination of a brilliant script and wonderful performers. Wicked has many serious, dark, and dramatic moments (such as Elphaba’s flight from Oz “Defying Gravity”, her attempt to save Fiyero “No Good Deed”, and the show’s opening song “No One Mourns The Wicked”), and these dark moments are complemented by the occasional burst of humour (Glinda and Elphaba’s fight in the cornfield, Elphaba’s “Well, we can’t all come and go by bubble” line, and Galinda’s song “Popular”). These comedic moments don’t detract from the serious moments at all, another nod towards the brilliance of the script. 

Katie Rowley Jones as Nessarose

Two director’s choices I would like to evaluate are the “Britishizing” of some of the lines, and the blocking during “The Wicked Witch of the East”. Having seen the show so recently on Broadway (and having the ‘North American way’ memorized anyway) made the subtle line changes very noticeable to me. The ones I remember best is the changing of “seminar” to “tutorial” when it came to Madame Morrible’s Sorcery classes. Having so recently been hearing these terms due to impending university decisions, this particularly caught my attention. It was very clever, and while I didn’t think it was entirely necessary, the “Britishisms” did not detract from the performance at all. During “The Wicked Witch of the East” (which is, incidentally, one of my favourite songs, although you won’t find it on the show’s soundtrack), there is a line where Nessarose sings “alone and loveless here, just the girl in the mirror. Just her and me: the Wicked Witch of the East!” During this part, Nessarose turned to the mirror for a brief moment, but faced the audience for the majority of the line. I think this part of the song would have been more powerful if Nessarose had turned towards the mirror at “just the girl in the mirror” and remained staring at her reflection until turning quickly to face the audience at “me”, then singing “The Wicked Witch of the East” to the audience. I think this would have communicated Nessarose’s pain more clearly. The other possibility is that the director could have made the brief glance of the mirror look more like it was brief because she didn’t want to see herself all alone, instead of because she was talking about a mirror, so decided to look at a mirror for a split second. Another Director’s choice I feel worth mentioning is that in this production of Wicked, the acting and character expression came before the singing. That’s not to say that the performers didn’t sound absolutely stunning; they did. It was just that, in all songs save “Popular” and “No Good Deed”, there’s usually very little actual acting. Most of the time, they’re singing, then after the notes are hit, the acting resumes. Or they’re acting and singing, but it’s the same every single time, which gets a bit boring after a while. In this production, I saw more depth in the characters I know so well. I see this as being a director’s decisions because all of the actors were doing this, not just one or two. All in all, I think the director did an excellent job.

Louise Dearman as Elphaba

Two actors that caught my attention were Gina Beck (G(a)linda) and Louise Dearman (Elphaba). They did not catch my attention just because they were the main characters; they caught my attention because both did the most excellent job of playing these characters that I have ever seen. Louise Dearman stood out from past Elphabas because she captured Elphaba’s more vulnerable side. During “I’m Not That Girl”, you could see sadness, instead of the typical bitterness that most Elphabas project. Her movement on stage mirrored the character’s subtle change; it went from abrupt stamping around, to more flowing motion as the character matured. I found it a little distracting that Louise was a good two-to-three inches (at least) shorter than Gina (I’m so used to G(a)linda being small and cute, and for Elphaba being taller and more willowy) but after the initial shock, this didn’t bother me too much. Despite her small size, Louise has a massive stage presence (although the greenness helped a little), which is perfect for Elphaba. Gina Beck was the most fabulous G(a)linda I had ever seen. G(a)linda is my favourite character, and has always been since I first saw the show. Gina, like Louise, captured aspects of the character that I’d never seen before. In my opinion, she is the living embodiment of G(a)linda; she portrayed the character so perfectly that I was left completely speechless by the interval, and even more so by the end of the show. There was one moment that stood out in particular for me; during the opening song “No One Mourns The Wicked”, Glinda is usually smiling and happy along with the crowd. But Gina’s Glinda, when the excited crowd wasn’t looking at her, looked sad and unhappy, and looked as though she was trying to suppress her emotions and not succeeding entirely. This was so subtle, and would have made no sense to someone who didn’t know how the show ended, but it had me crying barely five minutes into the show. From this moment on, I couldn’t take my eyes of Gina. She was the first G(a)linda I had ever seen to fully capture the Galinda to Glinda transformation. Most actors nail the frivolous, spoiled Galinda, but fall short of the more mature, world-weary Glinda. Gina nailed this aspect, showing all of the emotions that I knew Glinda had bottled up inside of her, but that I had never seen onstage before. I cannot praise Gina Beck’s performance enough; in my opinion, she will forever be the most wonderful G(a)linda to ever grace the stage. 

Gina Beck as Glinda

The technical aspects of Wicked were, as usual, flawless. The sets are reasonably simple; usually just a nicely lit background, sometimes with a simple prop or two. This is particularly effective because the characters are doing the communication, as opposed to using props or fancy scenery to show what is going on. The most elaborate set pieces are the Wizard’s giant mask and the Yellow Brick Road set piece, both key because of their significance to the original Wizard of Oz story. The lighting was used to effectively communicate a change in weather or in the mood of the scene. Something I found interesting is that Elphaba’s spotlight is green, not white, to, of course, enhance her greenness and difference from the normal-coloured people. The costumes were those that I know and love; Elphaba is in the same dress for most of the second act, and that dress is just stunning. It glows and shimmers and sparkles; darkly luminescent in every light. G(a)linda’s costumes are more varied, but all are brightly coloured (usually blue, pink, or yellow) and many are also quite sparkly. G(a)linda also has the most wig changes, whereas Elphaba’s hairstyle only changes three times, which is in line with the character’s personal preferences. The big, exuberant ensemble costumes for the Emerald City could easily be obnoxious, but they all blend together beautifully, and communicate the exuberance and outlandishness of The Emerald City without overwhelming the actors or their performances. Some characters are very simply made up, such as G(a)linda, The Wizard, Nessarose, and the Ensemble, but others, like Doctor Dillamond, Chistery, and of course Elphaba are much more sophisticated and complicated. Elphaba is, of course, bright green. In the first act, she is a softer, more delicate green, and in the second act, when Elphaba is now known to be Wicked, the green darkens, and there is more shading in her cheeks and eyes, as well as black lipstick. I think this is an excellent choice; as it aids the actor in communicating the change in Elphaba’s personality. Her personality darkens as the makeup darkens. As well, the green is what has always differentiated her in the past, so the lighter green in the first act looks as though she’s trying to hide it a little, whereas in the second act, she has fully embraced the greenness. 

Gina Beck as Galinda (This is also what I looked
like skipping out of the theatre)

The audience was not as enthusiastic as I would have expected; I thought it was brilliant. Perhaps this is because some of the brilliance was so subtle that only someone who had seen the show multiple times would catch it, or perhaps they just didn’t enjoy the story as much as I did. I personally would highly recommend Wicked. In London or on Broadway, it’s a fantastic show that cannot be missed. I look forward to seeing this show another seven times.