WICKED kinda review in LA... 7-8-05 performance

[eatlasagna]

Posted: 7/9/05 at 3:53am

hello all... i suck at reviews... so whatever... after reading all these posts the past few days i was beginning to wonder which understudy i was going to get.... and to my very much surprise... the entire cast was in... not a single understudy...

Stephanie J. Block.. a very different voice of Elphabas... i've heard Idina, Saycon and Shoshana sing the role and Stephanie has a very smooth low voice... and i liked it... my only complaint was that in Defying Gravity when she sang "i'm flying high defying gravity and soon i'll match them in reknown" she sang "defying gravity" low and didn't hit the high notes.. sounded really odd... but eh.. anyways... Elphaba showed to me the pain she felt being discriminated against and it showed very much during Dancing Through Life when she danced alone... and i like her slow transformation into being a wicked woman... very good...

Kendra Kassabaum... have no clue why some people don't like her.... i found her Glinda to be phenomonal... she had the audience eating out of her hand the ENTIRE night... her voice is different (maybe she's also still sick or something) but she sang the role beautifully... like Stephanie she also sings very low or deep or whatever... oh and she even got entrance applause... hmm... oh the way she kicks her feet cracked me up.. i was laughing hard... she played Glinda as not dumb blonde or ditzy blonde... just naive blonde... if that makes sense... great portrayal

Carol Kane... was good as morrible... not too much to say here...

Steve Rhoades... oops i mean David Garrison... i love Married With Children and it was so cool seeing David up there... he was excellent as the Wizard... sang it much better than Joel Grey on the CD... he made the character of the wizard an actual character... gave him a heart and soul... well for me he did

Derrick Williams... i actually liked his Fiyero... is it me or way off the show.... but he has like a huge lower lip and it bugged the crap out of me... and it's like he has no neck or his shoulders are huge... meh... whatever... his As Long As Your Mine had a very R&B feel to it and i loved it... he was good... nothing to shout about but nothing to really complain about either

Jenna Leigh Green... what a tragic Nessa... beautiful voice... and what an underutilized character... i would love to see Nessa have a larger role in this musical...

Logan Lipton... i liked his Boq... very dorky and sincere... nice voice too


well... after reading reviews for two years or however long the show has been playing... i was not disappointed with it... i actually loved the entire evening... i take in everyone's opinion and look for the bad and the good that people say about this musical and for me the good far outweight the bad... which is enough for me to truly enjoy the show... but i'll say what i wanted to see more of... better character development for everyone besides Elphaba and Glinda... those two are perfect... but the rest are just so so... i would have liked to have seen more

oh and a funny mistake... i sat about 10 rows from the stage so i had a good view... right before ONE SHORT DAY, Stephanie hugs Kendra... and then stephanie's hair gets stuck on Kendra.. so when Stephanie pulls away it kinda pulls Kendra toward her... so Stephanie hugs her again but starts laughing which makes Kendra laugh... all this goes on while Stephanie is saying "come with me to the Emerald city." it was quite hillarious as you can see that they want to try hard not to laugh...

anyways... good night out at the theater... hate that the souvenir book has pictures of the broadway original compnay and not the tour... that sucks

good night
Updated On: 7/9/05 at 03:53 AM

[Popular]

Posted: 7/9/05 at 4:45am

thanks for sharing! :) I'm sorry Steph didn't seem to hit the notes...someone else on the boards told me that happened when they saw her too but she was flawless each time I've seen her so far.

[superstarjpp]

Posted: 7/9/05 at 10:40am

What happened to Derrick Williams as Fiyero? And anyways, Kristoffer Cusick plays Fiyero in Chicago so how did you see him? Updated On: 7/9/05 at 10:40 AM

[ruthiefan_felix]

Posted: 7/9/05 at 12:06pm

yeah.. i was wandering that too... isn't Kris in CHICAGO ?

[eslgr8]

Posted: 7/9/05 at 12:13pm

Wow, not a single understudy! Gives one hope. But I think you must have written this review without the playbill and just had Kristopher K's name in your mind, and in actual fact saw Derrick W. Am I right?

[cindy013]

Posted: 7/9/05 at 1:33pm

Gotta love Steph and Kendra. I heard another time about her not going up on the high note there too, but when I saw it she did. Oh well. Off night? She's still fabulous as Elphaba:)

[Kevo711]

Posted: 7/9/05 at 1:41pm

thanks for the review! glad you enjoyed it for the most part!

[eatlasagna]

Posted: 7/9/05 at 2:06pm

oh big OOPS... it was Derrick Williams... i don't know how the hell i put Kristofer Cussick on there... i think it's because i was just reading the cast list of Chicago Wicked and i put his name on there... but it was Derrick Williams

[LilMiZBroADwaY23]

Posted: 7/9/05 at 2:13pm

Glad you liked Stephanie, and she usally doesn't hit the E I believe it is... atleast she didn't for my performance. Probably saving her voice for the bigger, longer belts to come.


Also glad you liked Garrison. He seemed like such a Father figure, and he did have some kind of affection for Elphaba. He gave him a heart and I loved him in the role.

Glad you got to see this magnificent casdt. Updated On: 7/9/05 at 02:13 PM

[MouseInfo]

Posted: 7/9/05 at 2:33pm

I was there last night as well. I am just going to copy my review that I posted on another message board.

eatlasanga...there wigs got stuck together twice last night! During Popular, when they were both on the bed, they couldn't get apart and started cracking up. I loved it. Kendra's..la..laaaa..laaaa laaaa had me in stitches.

Overall, the show was good.

Stephanie J. Block - She is a great singer and a very different sound, but def. did not have the full range for all the songs. I loved hearing her sing "As Long as Your Mine" and "No Good Deed", but her Wizard and I and especially Defying Gravity fell a bit short for me. Her acting was fabulous.

Kendra K. - As an actress, she was very funny. She plays the part different than Cheno. She was a bit more over the top with her comedy, which became annoying once or twice...especially when she would not stop hitting people in the butt with her purse. I was ale to look past that though...her Popular had me in stitches. Her voice is def. not up to par with other Galinda's, but I think her comedic timing somewhat makes up for that.

Logan Lipton - I loved the original boq so much and I thought Logan was a bit weak with his singing. His acting was pretty good though and he was very cute.

Jenna Leigh Green - Jenna played Nessa and did an amazing job. Her acting, singing, beauty...all amazing. She def. deserved the role and I would love to see her as Elphaba. I am dying to her this girl belt those notes.

Ensemble - Overall, great dancers...the singing was a bit off at times..you could hear one female several times singing over everyone else..it was a bit distracting. My Fiance also felt that that males in particular were weak. I didn't notice that as much.

David Garrison - He was great! I could not believe how wonderful he was. I saw Joel Grey in NYC and thought he was great because it was Joel Grey after all. However, seeing the Wizard performed with more spunk and better acting/singing really made me happy.

There are some def. technical/staging changes from NYC. For the most part they did not bother me. There were two things that changed that I thought were not pulled off so well. These are spoilers, so I won't include them.

Fiyero - I heard terrible things about him and I have to agree. While he is a great dancer, singer...he was not believable in this role. There was NO chemistry between he and Elphaba...I was kind of disappointed with that. At least he could hit the notes.

OVerall, great production, I can't wait to see it again. I am hoping I get to see Elphaba (Jenna Leigh Green) and Galinda (Katie Adams) understudies since I heard they were great.

[whiskedaway]

Posted: 7/9/05 at 2:41pm

really? you thought that derrick and stephanie didn't have good chemistry? I thought it was great! especially during 'as long as you mine'

[MouseInfo]

Posted: 7/9/05 at 5:50pm

Nope...it looked rather fake to me. I didn't like his portrayal of the character in general. I also thought Stephanie did great in As Long as Your Mine, but didn't get much in return.

[eatlasagna]

Posted: 7/9/05 at 7:04pm

mouseinfo... what was different? PM if you'd like...

anyways... were there mistakes? i guess... SPOILERS....

because right when the set for COULDN'T BE HAPPIER came out, it looked like Kendra was surprised because her body jerked forward like the set just stopped moving...

and during Wicked Witch of the East, the stage looked kinda empty... and i thought the sets moved out too late... it was odd to me that Elphaba just walked out from the wings... i thought from a video i have that Elphaba appeared from behind the wardrobe...

[Popular]

Posted: 7/9/05 at 7:19pm

yeah she is supposed to come out from the wardrobe...so if it wasn't there - how did they manage to change Boq?

[MLE]

Posted: 7/9/05 at 7:57pm

Thanks for the review! Steph is amazing, she does have a very different sounding voice than the others, but I absolutely love it and what adds to her character. She hit all the notes both times I saw her, but I suppose we all have our off nights!
Jenna is great, she plays Nessa so well. Her "Wicked Witch of the East" is so heartbreaking! I would LOVE to see her as Elphie, although I'd miss Steph in the role at the same time, haha. I really hope to see JLG with bigger parts in a lot more shows in the future!
I've never seen Kendra, both times I went we had Katie Adams, who I think is fabulous!!!

Glad you had a good time!