Wicked Tickets

Wicked Reviews

Millions of people have experienced the wonders of Wicked the Musical! Check out what some of the critics and fans like you had to say about the peformances!

 

A Curtain Up Review: Wicked

Before I begin, here's what NOT to expect from the new musical Wicked: This is not a variation of the beloved Frank Baum novel and its movie adaptation. No Dorothy! No Toto! No yellow brick road reverberating with catchy tunes like We're Off to See the Wizard, If I Only Had a Heart and Over the Rainbow to indelibly imprint themselves into your ear. (Well, actually there is a glimpse of the Yellow Brick Road though as a side road -- as there are amusingly inserted glimpses of the Tin Woodman, the Scarecrow and the Cowardly Lion's tail to show those lovable characters' evolution.)

While Wicked could not exist without Baum's classic tale this new musical's real inspirational source is Gregory Maguire's cleverly conceived and executed novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West. Maguire borrowed the Wicked Witch and other Oz characters and used Baum's Land of Oz as background, much as Tom Stoppard used Hamlet as the backdrop for his brilliant Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead. Elyse Sommer, CurtainUp.com, 2005.

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A Pair of New Witches, Still in Search of the Right Spell

July 15, 2005 - ''The Lion King'' received better reviews. ''The Producers'' won more Tony Awards. And ''Avenue Q'' and ''Spamalot'' probably made more headlines. But measured by the standard of box-office receipts -- these are Broadway musicals, after all -- the reigning king of the commercial theater is, inarguably, ''Wicked.'' Last week it led all Broadway shows with $1.3 million in ticket sales.

Its popularity among teenage girls borders on the religious; I once met a young fan who could recite every word, gasp and pause in the Tony Award acceptance speech of Idina Menzel, who originated the role of Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West. After running for over 20 months (and spawning two other productions around the country), its soaring ticket sales and strong bond with its audience have overshadowed what's actually going on lately inside the Gershwin Theater, which, I can report, is far more ordinary.

Those witches in this behind-the-scenes story of ''The Wizard of Oz'' are still defying gravity, but now -- double, double, toil and trouble -- they seem to be coasting. ''Wicked'' has been playing long enough for its first- (and second-) string stars to have moved on, but not long enough for audiences to have forgotten them. The current cast is a patchwork of wildly uneven talents; Elphaba isn't the only one who looks green.

''Wicked'' always seemed like an unusual marriage of styles and sensibilities -- knowing irony and earnest sentiment, self-serious politics and silly frivolity, an intimate teenage drama and a $14 million special-effects blockbuster. Still, for its hordes of fans, the musical worked largely because of the engaging central relationship between the blond, bubbly Glinda (the future Good witch) and the outcast Elphaba.

It also looked terrific, as if every cent had been spent in the right place. Susan Hilferty's Seussian costumes and Eugene Lee's high-tech gothic sets still create a rich series of stage pictures, arranged with flair by Joe Mantello, the King Midas of New York directors. The mostly new cast is also very attractive, but what's missing is the one element that won over even the musical's detractors: personality.

Even if you thought that Steven Schwartz's pop score was undistinguished, the original performances of Kristin Chenoweth as Glinda and Ms. Menzel as Elphaba brought a wit, style and eccentricity into the show that was all its own. The current stars, Megan Hilty and Shoshana Bean, seem tentative onstage, devoid of the kind of idiosyncrasies that make a star fun to watch.

Ms. Hilty adds a bit of a goofy charm to the perfect Glinda, but she can't seem to locate the jokes in her lines or find the lift in the bouncy tune ''Popular.'' Ms. Bean, who has a precise and impressive singing voice, is more believable as an outcast than the statuesque Ms. Menzel, but her characterization is generic, which also could be said of David Ayers, who plays the love interest of both witches, Fiyero. He is the kind of square-jawed and blow-dried leading man always in demand in musicals, even if he fades into the background.

True believers will not mind, of course. ''Wicked'' -- which is a prequel and a sequel to ''Oz,'' both rarities in the theater despite their ubiquity in Hollywood -- remains perfectly pitched to teenagers. For that, much credit goes to the book writer, Winnie Holzman, who created the cult 1990's television series ''My So-Called Life,'' an unlikely predecessor for ''Wicked'' that also tapped into a certain kind of teenage angst that seemed refreshingly authentic at the time. - Jason Zinoman, New York Times

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Witty 'Wicked' delights a spellbound audience

January 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.”

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. - Anne Marie Welsh, Union-Tribune Theater Critic

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