"wicked" touring production - first show in chicago- Page 2

Posted: 5/4/05 at 3:06pm

Got-a-Light, dont' be discouraged by these reviews-- the official reviews of the Chicago show will hit tomorrow & friday and I'm anticipating they will be raves.

[metoog]

Posted: 5/4/05 at 3:26pm

Definately do not take me the wrong way! With the exception of Derrick (Fiyero) this show is excellent! The cast is perfect, the sound incredible, sets and lighting were great. And this is coming from someone who saw it on Broadway, two times, with the OBC. Quality wise – this equals the Broadway show. It is the grandest traveling show I have ever seen. Well worth the wait and price!

[Derek]

Posted: 5/4/05 at 3:30pm

i actually liked derrick lol

[Fosse76]

Posted: 5/4/05 at 3:51pm

I wouldn't say the reviews will be raves. Chicago critics are extremely harsh, sometimes moreso than Broadway critics. Though I do expect them to be better than the Broadway reviews, if only because of the upcoming "sit-down" that will supposedly bring much longer runs of other shows to Chicago. But I digress.

[sassypanz]

Posted: 5/4/05 at 4:20pm

Kendras voice is too shaky for me and her higher notes hurt my ears! Sorry.

[StephanietheStar]

Posted: 5/4/05 at 4:47pm

Hopefully I wil have an opinion on this tomorrow...PLEASE WIN THE LOTTERY!!!

[SimpleJoysHaveSimpleVoice]

Posted: 5/4/05 at 6:31pm

Keep the reviews coming, especially about Derrick Williams, it is interesting how many opinions differ about his performance. More details.

[CurtainPullDowner]

Posted: 5/5/05 at 1:32am

Nessa is the FAB Jenna Leigh GREEN
go to her site
and run when She goes on as Elphie.

[Theatreboy49]

Posted: 5/5/05 at 10:38am

I saw it on the 30th and I loved it. Block wasnt Idina but she blew me away. Now I have to start controversy (and I have room to talk since I saw Cheno many many times in the role) but I actually liked Kendra Kassebaum more. Id be very intrested to see Jenna Leigh Green as Elphaba though.

[broadwaybelter]

Posted: 5/5/05 at 1:38pm

go to my jenna leigh green fansite
http://broadwaybelter.tripod.com/jennagreen

[sabrelady]

Posted: 5/6/05 at 10:52am

Derrick improved greatly while in Toronto but still never won me over the way Norb did from the moment he arrived. Lttle things but Norb built a character with them while Derrick- IS very pretty. he def is better w Stefanie that w Kirsty. VERY curious re the critics.

[uncageg]

Posted: 5/6/05 at 11:04am

Question....Does Kendra do the hair flip and the "baton" twirling thing?

[brdlwyr]

Posted: 5/6/05 at 11:07am

Yes, and she is vey funny.

[uncageg]

Posted: 5/6/05 at 11:17am

Cool. Kristin had me absolutely on the floor with the hair flip and I thought I was going to split my side with the "baton" twirling thing. Thanks.

[WindyCityActor]

Posted: 5/6/05 at 11:19am

Hmmm....and Hedy is usually a push-over....

'Wicked' stew thick with plot lines, jingoism

May 6, 2005

BY HEDY WEISS Theater Critic

Here -- as deduced from the national touring company production that opened Wednesday night at the Ford Center Oriental Theatre -- is the recipe for that exceedingly lumpy musical brew that calls itself "Wicked":

In a large cauldron mix together a good 100 story elements. Begin, of course, with The Wizard of Oz, L. Frank Baum's polychrome fantasy with its never-fully-deciphered political subtext. Stir in a good pinch (but not much more) of the hard-wired connection audiences have with the 1939 MGM film. Do not include the rainbow.

Then, after dropping in a nice helping of Harry Potter powder, move on to Gregory Maguire's novel -- the major inspiration for the show -- which conjured life in Oz long before Dorothy and her little dog ever landed there courtesy of a tornado ride from Kansas. Only now is it time to let Winnie Holzman craft the book for this hugely overstuffed show -- a scenario with more plot lines than any single musical can reasonably sustain.






THEATER REVIEW

'WICKED'

SOMEWHAT RECOMMENDED


When: To June 12 (new cast begins June 24)



Where: Ford Center for the Performing Arts/Oriental Theatre, 24 W. Randolph



Tickets: $25-$85




Call: [phone]





Don't, at any cost, forget to mix in a large quantity of political jingoism -- everything from George Orwell (and his warnings about the corruption of speech and thought), to a nod to People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. And if you can insert a man with a haircut resembling Hitler's, why not? And by the way, are the Munchkins, in their blue-and-white striped uniforms, supposed to be inmates of a concentration camp?

Of course the main ingredient here is the cutthroat rivalry between in-group and out-group adolescent girls. Fair enough; there's nothing easier to understand than the bitter battle between the girl who drives up to a boarding school in her parents' Lexus, with a stack of Louis Vuitton trunks and a super-fashionable wardrobe, and the one who arrives in dreary, Salvation Army-like castoffs, and who is charged with full responsibility for a disabled younger sister.

It's enough to drive the rich, popular, on-the-make Glinda (Kendra Kassebaum) to eventually take over a country and rule it with a sort of Eva Peron-like largesse. And it's enough to drive the other, Elphaba (Stephanie J. Block) -- the "it's hard to be green" outcast -- to more extreme choices. In fact, depending on your generational bent, you might just think of Elphaba as Oz's answer to Kathy Boudin, that notorious member of the radical 1960s Weather Underground, who, it is worth noting, also had daddy problems.

Along the way you might ask: Is this musical one very weird apologia for terrorism? Are terrorists just people who want to be part of the status quo, but are trapped in their alienation? Or is it sending the ultimate relativistic message that nothing is purely evil, nothing purely good and everything gets canceled out in the end?

Of course, for the spell to work there must be songs. And let's just say that Harold Arlen and E.Y. "Yip" Harburg, who gave us the glorious cinematic Oz, can rest easily in their respective graves. Composer-lyricist Stephen Schwartz has written three songs that will probably have continued life: "I'm Not That Girl," "No Good Deed" and "For Good." The rest of the score blends into an undistinguishable amplified mass. His "Popular" would work well at American Girl Place.

The production, cast more or less as a clone of the original Broadway edition, has formidable star power in at least one actress. Block -- tall, dark and lovely in her bookish, Virginia Woolfish way -- brings a big, luscious voice and surprisingly rich emotional shadings to the all-important role of Elphaba. She knows how to command the stage, and does so with grace and unforced power. As Glinda, a character meant to set your teeth on edge, Kassebaum nails the comic lines and is less annoying than her predecessor, Kristin Chenoweth.

Carol Kane's Mrs. Morrible, press agent for the Wizard, seems like an outtake from "Beauty and the Beast." Derrick Williams' Fiyero, the feckless preppie who is, at various times, attracted to both Glinda and Elphaba, is capable. David Garrison is whimsical as the benignly irresponsible Wizard, though this character's mature guise is completely out of synch with its younger version. And Timothy Britten Parker, in a small but crucial role that owes everything to "Animal Farm," makes a beguiling Doctor Dillamond.

Joe Mantello's direction is as stylistically chockablock as the show's story line, and Wayne Cilento's generic disco choreography is a mess. Visually the show is a stylistic hash (although the dragonlike icons and flying monkeys fit the gilded fantasy creatures of the Oriental Theatre's architecture), with Eugene Lee's set a mix of Victorian clockwork and Disneyesque kitsch. Susan Hilferty's costumes are splendid, with a gorgeously textured black gown for Elphaba that could easily become a couture hit.

The cinematic "Oz" is, of course, little more than a footnote here, with the Scarecrow now revealed to be a lynched black man, the Tin Man a romantically challenged Munchkin, and the Cowardly Lion -- well, that's a long story.

Oh Dorothy, oh Auntie Em, oh Miss Gulch: You've all been post-modernized to death!

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 5/6/05 at 11:41am

I saw the show last night and had mixed feelings. First off, I was THRILLED to see Carol Kane and David Garrison. Though Kane was hard to understand, she brought a lot of energy and vibrancy to the character. Garrison was perfect for the Wizard. Joel Grey simply was too odd trying to play the only "human" in the show. Stephanie was a strong Elphaba and Derrick was ok, but I saw too much Star Search and not enough Fiyero.

As for Glinda, well, I just found Kendra's take on the character far too dopey and clumsy. Glinda (supposedly) comes from upper crust society and though she's spoiled, ignorant and self-centered, she always has poise and charm. Kristin had a knack for capturing the sincere honesty of Glinda's tactlessness while never compromising Glinda's strengths - her beauty and grace. Even in "Popular", when Glinda tries to do the little dance, Kristin did it as though Glinda believed she was doing something pretty. THAT'S what makes it funny. Honestly, I felt Kendra had the comedic timing, nuance, and subtlely of a mud puddle in Buckingham Palace. Her singing was quite strong, but she played Glinda more like one of the Beverly Hillbillies - a clod trying to fit in the wrong social class. It was a very bizarre choice that did not work for me at all. I thought her timing was way off and her performance forced. She missed several opportunities simply by hammering lines that would have been funny if handled lightly and more sincerely, not trying to yank the laughs out of the audience. Some of her physical stuff was cute, like her little jumpy-dance-thing, but when you do it about 20 times in the first act, it gets real old real fast. And in that curly wig, I couldn't get the image of a dumpy clumsy thirty-something Shirley Temple out of my head.

I was quite impressed, however, with how closely they recreated the set. It's almost identical. A couple of small things were scaled down, such as no big floating hat at the opening and the use of video projections in place of the live shadows, but that was not a big deal. I thought how the broom floated in from the wings during "Defying Gravity" was MUCH more effective than Broadway as was Elphaba's "flying" at the end of the number, which is basically staged the same way, but it seemed to have more depth and movement than I remembered.

Most likely, I'll be seeing the sit-down cast in August. I'm not really thrilled about seeing the show again, but I know my parents and Jarico want to go, so it will be fun nonetheless.

[uncageg]

Posted: 5/6/05 at 11:43am

OK...I really wasn't feeling that lynched black man remark. Wonder if she would have said that if the actor was not black. Not really liking her review or style of reviewing.

[uncageg]

Posted: 5/6/05 at 11:58am

OK...it bothered me enough to send her an e-mail....this is what I said. I will post her response if I get one!


Just read your Wicked review here in Denver. I saw the show on Broadway with the original cast and enjoyed it. No, it is no masterpiece but an enjoyable show with good music. I am e-mailing you in regards to a part of your review. The comment that the scarecrow is revealed to be a "lynched black man" is kind of offensive especially seeing that I am a black man. It also gives a plot surprise away, something that most reviewers have not done. I wonder how you would have described the character had it been played by a white person, Asian or Hispanic on the tour. I cringe to even think about it. While I agree with some of your review about the show (I can't speak to the touring cast but will see them in Denver to form my own opinion)I think it was pretty harsh and slightly off the mark.

Updated On: 5/6/05 at 11:58 AM

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 5/6/05 at 12:08pm

I almost forgot! The actor who played Boq was GREAT! He made a nondescript character stand out in a way I had not yet seen. I remember reading in his bio that this was his first tour and may I say, "Bravo!"

That Hedy Weiss review is WAY off. What's with the Hitler and concentration camp crap? The Wizard's hair was parted on the side and that's as far as the similarities to Hitler went. Did ANYONE actually think "concentration camp" looking at the students costumes? Is she on crack? And the lynching comment was way out of line. It's one thing to dislike a show, but it's another to force controversial parallels that simply aren't there in order to stir up hatred.

And yes, Kendra did the hair flip, but it lost something with that Shirley Temple wig. What made it funny was Stephanie's attempts at the hair flip. Not to sound like a huge fan or anything, but Kristin had the audience roaring on Broadway, while Kendra got a couple of laughs, smiles, and at times, crickets.

[SueleenGay]

Posted: 5/6/05 at 12:24pm

Hedy Weiss is a moron. Take everything she says with a grain of salt. What was that little tiff she had with Kushner awhile ago? I can't remember the details...

Posted: 5/6/05 at 12:27pm

Hitler? Concentration Camps? Lynching? Good lord Where the hell did that come from?

On the off-topic board there is a spirited debate about If The Wizard of Oz can be seen as a parable about Populism and the coinage of Silver...I guess now we see how these things get started-- if someone can watch Wicked and see a Lynching.

She said Kushner was self-hating Jew I beleive. And she doesn't think "Defying Gravity" is a stand out number, also. Bizarre!

[WindyCityActor]

Posted: 5/6/05 at 12:32pm

Hedy got into quite a tiff with Tony Kushner of "Caroline or Change"
Updated On: 5/6/05 at 12:32 PM

[uncageg]

Posted: 5/6/05 at 12:36pm

Was it about the show "Caroline or Change" or Angels..?

[uncageg]

Posted: 5/6/05 at 12:40pm

OK..it was! Here is her review and his response...

http://www.jewish-theatre.com/visitor/article_display.aspx?articleID=691

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 5/6/05 at 12:45pm

I remember that Kushner self-loathing Jew thing. He actually took time out to respond to it, which is rare for Kushner. Normally, he doesn't feel the need to defend his work, but Hedy obviously pushed some buttons with her nonsensical attempts to appear more intelligent than she is. I'm sure I could overanalyze the Rugrats to find parallels to Apartheid in South Africa, but it doesn't mean I'm smart. It means I'm trying too hard to find something controversial or negative that really isn't there.