#1
Posted: 7/15/05 at 11:54am
I don't see this up already -- so I'll post. WICKED reviews in CHICAGO are coming in.
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CHICAGO SUN TIMES:
A great and powerful Oz
July 15, 2005
BY MISHA DAVENPORT Staff Reporter Advertisement
Chicago finally has its own "Wicked," and this production is second to none. Forget about booking a trip to the Big Apple. A better production of this show is playing nightly in your own backyard.
The "Wicked" at the Ford Center/Oriental Theatre offers up a cauldron of powerful mojo thanks to its two leading ladies, "Saturday Night Live" alumna Ana Gasteyer and Broadway up-and-comer Kate Reinders. The two share a chemistry that was missing from the recent touring production.
The show -- which officially began its open run Wednesday -- follows the lives and loves of the witches of Oz, namely the tragic green-skinned Elphaba (Gasteyer; whose character will go on to become the Wicked Witch of the West) and the popular but ditzy Galinda (Reinders, whose character will drop the first "a" in her name later to become Glinda the Good Witch). The pair begin as foes, end up as friends and eventually cross paths with the Wizard of Oz. Elphaba becomes Public Enemy No. 1, while Glinda chooses to work for the guy. Their individual choices fracture their friendship, setting up a rivalry that will spill over into both Frank L. Baum's original book and the MGM musical.
"It's not a lie -- it's just a different way of looking at things" is a bit of dialogue spoken twice in the show, and it serves as its thesis. This is the Oz you know with the camera firmly on the Wicked Witch of the West, not some Kansas farm girl. The intention here isn't to invalidate what you've come to know and love from the Oz myths, but rather expand on it.
An Elphaba you can believe Gasteyer's performance is a triumph, better than the Elphabas in both the original Broadway cast and the touring company. No disrespect to Idina Menzel's Tony-winning turn in the role or to the terrific stage work by Stephanie J. Block (the tour's Elphaba), but both began every song firmly in Ethel Merman belting mode. Such "American Idol" antics might bowl over an audience but do very little in terms of developing a believable character or advancing a plot.
That's not to say Gasteyer can't sing -- she can go note for note with the best. But she starts her songs in a quieter place so the tunes actually build and go somewhere. Whether this is an artistic choice or an actor's desire to preserve the pipes doesn't matter. At the end of Act One, as Gasteyer towers above the audience "Defying Gravity," you believe her character has come into her own because you've witnessed the journey from an awkward and unpopular girl to a powerful force to be reckoned with both visually and vocally.
We also see a glimmer of Elphaba's "wickedness" a little bit earlier as Gasteyer goes toe-to-toe with Reinders in the song "What Is This Feeling?" that has the odd-couple roommates pitted against each other. By the end of the first act, when Gasteyer sings "And nobody in all of Oz/no wizard that there is or was/is ever going to bring me down," we see a Wicked Witch of the West that's congruent with both book and film (though she's gained our sympathy and allegiance in the process).
It's also easy to see why Gasteyer's co-star Reinders, likable and watchable, was signaled out for praise in the recent Broadway flop "Good Vibrations." We're lucky to have her on loan from the Great White Way (where even greater things certainly await her).
Here she has taken a one-dimensional character -- the ditzy, popular blond -- and turned her into something more complex without diminishing the comedic elements of the role. Nowhere is this more apparent than in "Thank Goodness," a second-act song that has the actress spoofing "Evita" for laughs one moment and displaying a caged-bird fragility the next.
As the wizard, Chicago stage veteran Gene Weygandt is charming and sly. On Broadway, the character's Act Two number with Elphaba, "Wonderful," felt disposable, as if it was in the show because original wizard Joel Grey had a contract stipulating two songs. Now things have a purpose as Weygandt seems to be tempting Gasteyer with a Faustian offer of both redemption and fame.
Doing more with Morrible Steppenwolf ensemble member Rondi Reed fares less well as Madame Morrible, the teacher of sorcery turned press secretary, but only because she has less to do. It's a stock character, but Reed approaches the role with all the pomp and bitchy circumstance of Bette Davis as Queen Elizabeth, and it works.
Yes, the plot is confusing at times and the score isn't composer Stephen Schwartz's best work, but make no mistake: There is magic in this "Wicked." You just have to be willing to see it.
Fortunately, with Gasteyer and Reinders at the helm, you don't have to try too hard.
http://www.suntimes.com/output/theater/cst-ftr-wicked15.html
____________________________________
CHICAGO SUN TIMES:
A great and powerful Oz
July 15, 2005
BY MISHA DAVENPORT Staff Reporter Advertisement
Chicago finally has its own "Wicked," and this production is second to none. Forget about booking a trip to the Big Apple. A better production of this show is playing nightly in your own backyard.
The "Wicked" at the Ford Center/Oriental Theatre offers up a cauldron of powerful mojo thanks to its two leading ladies, "Saturday Night Live" alumna Ana Gasteyer and Broadway up-and-comer Kate Reinders. The two share a chemistry that was missing from the recent touring production.
The show -- which officially began its open run Wednesday -- follows the lives and loves of the witches of Oz, namely the tragic green-skinned Elphaba (Gasteyer; whose character will go on to become the Wicked Witch of the West) and the popular but ditzy Galinda (Reinders, whose character will drop the first "a" in her name later to become Glinda the Good Witch). The pair begin as foes, end up as friends and eventually cross paths with the Wizard of Oz. Elphaba becomes Public Enemy No. 1, while Glinda chooses to work for the guy. Their individual choices fracture their friendship, setting up a rivalry that will spill over into both Frank L. Baum's original book and the MGM musical.
"It's not a lie -- it's just a different way of looking at things" is a bit of dialogue spoken twice in the show, and it serves as its thesis. This is the Oz you know with the camera firmly on the Wicked Witch of the West, not some Kansas farm girl. The intention here isn't to invalidate what you've come to know and love from the Oz myths, but rather expand on it.
An Elphaba you can believe Gasteyer's performance is a triumph, better than the Elphabas in both the original Broadway cast and the touring company. No disrespect to Idina Menzel's Tony-winning turn in the role or to the terrific stage work by Stephanie J. Block (the tour's Elphaba), but both began every song firmly in Ethel Merman belting mode. Such "American Idol" antics might bowl over an audience but do very little in terms of developing a believable character or advancing a plot.
That's not to say Gasteyer can't sing -- she can go note for note with the best. But she starts her songs in a quieter place so the tunes actually build and go somewhere. Whether this is an artistic choice or an actor's desire to preserve the pipes doesn't matter. At the end of Act One, as Gasteyer towers above the audience "Defying Gravity," you believe her character has come into her own because you've witnessed the journey from an awkward and unpopular girl to a powerful force to be reckoned with both visually and vocally.
We also see a glimmer of Elphaba's "wickedness" a little bit earlier as Gasteyer goes toe-to-toe with Reinders in the song "What Is This Feeling?" that has the odd-couple roommates pitted against each other. By the end of the first act, when Gasteyer sings "And nobody in all of Oz/no wizard that there is or was/is ever going to bring me down," we see a Wicked Witch of the West that's congruent with both book and film (though she's gained our sympathy and allegiance in the process).
It's also easy to see why Gasteyer's co-star Reinders, likable and watchable, was signaled out for praise in the recent Broadway flop "Good Vibrations." We're lucky to have her on loan from the Great White Way (where even greater things certainly await her).
Here she has taken a one-dimensional character -- the ditzy, popular blond -- and turned her into something more complex without diminishing the comedic elements of the role. Nowhere is this more apparent than in "Thank Goodness," a second-act song that has the actress spoofing "Evita" for laughs one moment and displaying a caged-bird fragility the next.
As the wizard, Chicago stage veteran Gene Weygandt is charming and sly. On Broadway, the character's Act Two number with Elphaba, "Wonderful," felt disposable, as if it was in the show because original wizard Joel Grey had a contract stipulating two songs. Now things have a purpose as Weygandt seems to be tempting Gasteyer with a Faustian offer of both redemption and fame.
Doing more with Morrible Steppenwolf ensemble member Rondi Reed fares less well as Madame Morrible, the teacher of sorcery turned press secretary, but only because she has less to do. It's a stock character, but Reed approaches the role with all the pomp and bitchy circumstance of Bette Davis as Queen Elizabeth, and it works.
Yes, the plot is confusing at times and the score isn't composer Stephen Schwartz's best work, but make no mistake: There is magic in this "Wicked." You just have to be willing to see it.
Fortunately, with Gasteyer and Reinders at the helm, you don't have to try too hard.
http://www.suntimes.com/output/theater/cst-ftr-wicked15.html
Updated On: 7/15/05 at 11:54 AM
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