Rave Review of Julia Murney's Elphaba in UK paper

[StageLEFT]

Posted: 2/7/07 at 3:38pm

London critic of THE STAGE NEWSPAPER raves about Julia's performance in Wicked:

Interest in transposing stage musicals to the screen again, as was once a Hollywood staple, has never been so high since the success of Chicago five years ago. Mamma Mia! has now been greenlighted, with Meryl Streep announced to play Donna. But surely a screen version of Wicked can’t be long behind. Like Dreamgirls did onstage, Joe Mantello’s production aspires to the conditions of cinema onstage in its constantly unfolding sense of spectacle and storytelling. It may be a little bloated and indigestible overall, but its no surprise that this phenomenal production has become such a phenomenon.

I have now seen it twice in two weeks – last week I saw it again in London when Kerry Ellis replaced Broadway original Idina Menzel as Elphaba, and last night I returned to it on Broadway, too, to see Julia Murney in the role. She is a Broadway-class performer whose sole Broadway credit before this was the short-lived Lennon in 2005, but I’ve been following her for years, ever since she played Queenie in the original off-Broadway production of Andrew Lippa’s version of The Wild Party at Manhattan Theatre Club in 2000 (It went head-to-head that season with another version of the same story on Broadway, composed by Michael John LaChiusa, that starred Toni Collette as Queenie). Murney has the most distinctive and dramatic Broadway voice since Betty Buckley’s, and she is not conventionally pretty which may make her difficult to cast; too, but here – as a woman with outsider status, as Murney must painfully know for herself having looked in on the Broadway arena to which she aspired for so long – she brings the richest emotional colours yet to her intense, soaring ballads like ‘Defying Gravity’, that turn it into the stuff of grand opera. It’s one of the greatest performances on the Broadway stage.


here's the linkto the full article: http://www.thestage.co.uk/shenton/2007/01/when_i_first_saw_you.php
Updated On: 2/7/07 at 03:38 PM

[IAMmyownMUSICAL]

Posted: 2/7/07 at 5:13pm

Yay for Julia...she truly deserves every bit of praise for her work.

[TWSFan4Ever]

Posted: 2/7/07 at 5:27pm

Nice article She deserves it!

[yankee_fan907]

Posted: 2/7/07 at 7:21pm

She is personally my least favorite Elphaba of all time...

[Joshua488]

Posted: 2/7/07 at 7:41pm

I agree with the review. She was absolutely fantastic as Elphaba. She was the fourth actress I've seen play Elphaba and she was the only one that I've seen that actually gave Elphaba some depth and actually make her into a person, rather than just reading the lines and singing the songs. She blew me away.

[pinkyhip]

Posted: 2/8/07 at 7:59pm

that's great that she's getting good reviews because she is amazing!!!!!!
Updated On: 2/8/07 at 07:59 PM

[alliez92092]

Posted: 2/8/07 at 8:11pm

So yeah, I kind of lover her? Not kind of. I do!

[theatregeek2]

Posted: 2/9/07 at 12:03pm

yay!!!!! she's really amazing in this role....check out her playbill interview......really good one and very honest!

[defyingravity11]

Posted: 2/9/07 at 11:42pm

I just saw her for the first time tonight (my 6th time seeing the show) and she was AMAZING!!!! She had a completely new and refreshing take on the character! I loved her!

[theatregeek2]

Posted: 2/9/07 at 11:50pm

^^^ I'm glad you loved her....BUT how can you not??? I saw her on tour and she was amazing (singing and acting-wise!!) She's not like any other Elphaba.....you totally experience Elphaba's journey into womanhood....it's fascinating to watch!