Wicked
Just a brief little review of Wicked; this was the first time I’ve
seen it in more than a year (considering I used to see it at least twice a
year, that’s a big deal). When I saw it on tour in Edinburgh, I was so
disappointed I couldn’t face seeing any version of Wicked again for a while.
But my friend had never seen it and wanted to go, so off we headed to the
Apollo Victoria Theatre on a rainy Saturday night.
Seat/Venue Review: We sat P27-28 in the Circle, and it was £55 (slightly overpriced, imho). The view itself
wasn’t bad; we could see everything except the very front of the stage. It is
VERY far away though, so I could see no details or facial expressions. The AV
itself is a huge theatre, but they clearly don’t plan for crowds as we waiting
for 15 minutes in a line outside the theatre (in the pouring rain) to get our
tickets. Bad planning. There is also a single women’s washroom for the entirety
of the Circle. Within two minutes of the interval starting, the line was down
the stairs into the foyer.
The production itself is obviously in great shape. Lighting design
is spectacular, costumes look beautiful, etc. There were a lot of sound issues
though; Elphaba’s mic went out during Loathing and As Long as You’re Mine, then
she sounded very echoey during the cornfield scene with G(a)linda. It was
weird. Theres really not a whole lot else to say about the show itself I guess.
It really hasn’t changed at all since the first time I saw it (which isn’t
necessarily a good thing; it would be nice to see it updated every once in a
while as it can get a bit stale). So I’ll
just talk briefly about the performances, and call it a day!
Emma Hatton has a stunning, versatile voice, but I felt that she
really overused that versatility. In every song she was jumping between styles
every few words (pop, rock, belting, head voice) and it detracted from her
performance. I couldn’t really appreciate her singing because I was so
distracted by her voice. I also didn’t really see her establish a clear
character for Elphaba; she was sarcastic and dryly humorous, but there wasn’t
really a sensitive side. Ergo, she was much less likeable than many other
Elphabas. Elphaba doesn’t necessarily have to be likeable, but there has to be
a certain amount of empathy or she comes off as too bitter and distant from the
audience.
After being wowed by her performance of Nessa in the UK tour, I was
beyond excited to see Carina Gillespie play G(a)linda. She was quite a good
G(a)linda, but I do think she was a stronger Nessa than G(a)linda. She hit all
of the higher notes beautifully, but looked and sounded a lot more secure when
singing songs like Popular, Loathing, and For Good. Her acting was generally
good; I couldn’t see details unfortunately, but I liked how over the top she
made G(a)linda at the beginning. It was very funny and her character was
instantly likeable, despire being a bit obnoxious. However, I felt that towards
the end, she was playing the more serious scenes just for the laughs. I prefer
to see G(a)linda’s that embrace her character development and the change
between her private persona verses her public persona as she grows and matures,
and that’s what I missed from Carina. All in all, a good G(a)linda (pun not
intended), but there’s definitely room for improvement. The one thing I thought
she did better than any other G(a)linda was her mocking of Mme Morrible at the
end. It was hysterical.
I loved Oliver Savile as Fiyero; he was suave and charismatic, and
you could see why people were drawn to him. Loved the acting, loved the
character development (you could see the character changing and growing just by
the way he moved or spoke; most noticeably, his posture changed from first to
second act, which sounds small, but makes a big impression - especially from so
far back), and especially loved his voice. The first Fiyero that had no
difficulty with the singing (especially in As Long as You’re Mine; many Fiyeros
struggle with that song a lot and it can end up very squeaky). I think Oliver’s
time as Raoul probably helped him in that regard; he just projected a lot more
confidence in the singing than any other Fiyero I’d scene. I also liked that
you could see the spark of intelligence in Fiyero from the beginning; Oliver
didn’t play him as a complete airhead who had an epiphany of some kind during
the lion cub scene. I noticed that Fiyero is one of the only people who ever
bothers to talk to Elphaba, and he treats her just like anyone else, which must’ve
been very important to her. Anyway, Oliver was fabulous. Would love to see him
up close so I could pick up the details of his performance.
Mark Curry (as the Wizard) skipped an entire section of a scene at
one point, but he’s new, so I’ll forgive that. He was fine, nothing
particularly memorable. Katie Rowley Jones (Nessa) was forgettable. I’ve seen
her in the role so many times and she never changes or develops or tries
anything new. It’s very boring. Daniel Hope (Boq) was good, but his incredibly
thick accent was very distracting and at times difficult to understand. It’s
not hard to enunciate Gs, and it’s something he needs to try. Liza Sadovy as
Madame Morrible was also nothing special; she wasn’t as menacing or threatening
as past MMs.
So yeah, a bit of a mixed bag of performances. Wicked is certainly a
show worth seeing and I’m glad I went, but I don’t think I’ll hurry back.
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