#1
Posted: 3/27/07 at 1:18am
I saw Wicked in Chicago (for the 8th time in Chicago, 9th total!) on Saturday March 24th. And I can say I'm very impressed by this cast and by some of the changes I saw. I'm going by memory of names, etc, so bear with me.
Erin Mackey as Glinda is a delight! I've seen my fair share of Glinda's and after your 4th or 5th time of seeing popular, you just kinda smile or chuckle at it (usually). Erin had me cracking up! She had great timing, and her dialogue and songs felt really connected to me. She wasn't going through the motions but actually expressing them. Great Glinda!
Dee Roscioli (probably spelled wrong) as Elphaba. I actually saw Dee during her Kristy Cates u/s days(back in like, Sept 06?) and really enjoyed her performance then. I am happy to say that she has adapted very well to her new Fiyero and her new Glinda and this cast (as a whole as well) has excellent chemistry. I was very happy with her performance.
Derrick Williams as Fiyero: now I saw Derrick waaaay back in the tour days (March of 05) and loved him, but knew he had some problems. I still love him, and he has improved a lot (he does less "soul" singing if you will, takes a little less liberties with the music). Sadly, I do miss Kristoffer (Cusick) who I have had the pleasure of seeing the last 7 of 9 times I've seen the show. You are missed Kris! But I do love me some Derrick.
Heidi Kettenring as Nessa-still one of the best there is, a very consistant performer. Love her. Gene W. as the Wizard-same to be said, he is a lot of fun to watch. Adam Fleming as Boq, I'm such a big fan of Adam's and was estatic when he was cast as Boq (instead of me searching for him in the ensemble!) but I wish he would do more with Boq. His performance really makes me miss Telly Leung. But Adam still does a fine job, but I think he needs a different role to show off his skills properly.
Obviously, the directors (music and regular) have recently come in and tweaked some stuff. Not only did I see this show tighter than it has been in the past few times I've seen it but there were some blocking/ensemble dance changes.
I can't remember all of them, but one of the main noticeable changes was during dancing for life the ensemble members in the back do a thing with books, where they hide behind them, then look at Fiyero. When Fiyero catches their glance they hide again (and so on a so forth). Plus many things that were getting sloppy the last few times I saw it (including the slaps in act 2 between Glinda/Elphaba) were much tighter.
Musically, it sounds like they went over each song as well. I feel like the counts were reinterated and cleaned up.
So anyway...I'd like to report that Wicked in Chicago is still going strong...I believe it's coming up on it's 2 year anniversary (which in my head is early May?) so I'm really glad that it's still alive and well.
GO see it!
Erin Mackey as Glinda is a delight! I've seen my fair share of Glinda's and after your 4th or 5th time of seeing popular, you just kinda smile or chuckle at it (usually). Erin had me cracking up! She had great timing, and her dialogue and songs felt really connected to me. She wasn't going through the motions but actually expressing them. Great Glinda!
Dee Roscioli (probably spelled wrong) as Elphaba. I actually saw Dee during her Kristy Cates u/s days(back in like, Sept 06?) and really enjoyed her performance then. I am happy to say that she has adapted very well to her new Fiyero and her new Glinda and this cast (as a whole as well) has excellent chemistry. I was very happy with her performance.
Derrick Williams as Fiyero: now I saw Derrick waaaay back in the tour days (March of 05) and loved him, but knew he had some problems. I still love him, and he has improved a lot (he does less "soul" singing if you will, takes a little less liberties with the music). Sadly, I do miss Kristoffer (Cusick) who I have had the pleasure of seeing the last 7 of 9 times I've seen the show. You are missed Kris! But I do love me some Derrick.
Heidi Kettenring as Nessa-still one of the best there is, a very consistant performer. Love her. Gene W. as the Wizard-same to be said, he is a lot of fun to watch. Adam Fleming as Boq, I'm such a big fan of Adam's and was estatic when he was cast as Boq (instead of me searching for him in the ensemble!) but I wish he would do more with Boq. His performance really makes me miss Telly Leung. But Adam still does a fine job, but I think he needs a different role to show off his skills properly.
Obviously, the directors (music and regular) have recently come in and tweaked some stuff. Not only did I see this show tighter than it has been in the past few times I've seen it but there were some blocking/ensemble dance changes.
I can't remember all of them, but one of the main noticeable changes was during dancing for life the ensemble members in the back do a thing with books, where they hide behind them, then look at Fiyero. When Fiyero catches their glance they hide again (and so on a so forth). Plus many things that were getting sloppy the last few times I saw it (including the slaps in act 2 between Glinda/Elphaba) were much tighter.
Musically, it sounds like they went over each song as well. I feel like the counts were reinterated and cleaned up.
So anyway...I'd like to report that Wicked in Chicago is still going strong...I believe it's coming up on it's 2 year anniversary (which in my head is early May?) so I'm really glad that it's still alive and well.
GO see it!
and all that I could do because of you was talk of love...
