Wicked is a musical playing right now at the Gershwin Theater. It follows the story of the Wicked Witch and the Good Witch before Dorothy landed in Oz. This musical is an adaptation of the book written by Gregory Maguire called: Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West.
Summary
The musical starts off after the Wicked Witch of the West is dead, Oz is joyful. Glinda the Good Witch comes down to celebrate with the citizens of Oz and one Ozian asks Glinda if it’s true that she was friends with Elphaba (the Wicked Witch of the West) once. Glinda then goes back to the time where her and Elphaba roomed in college and the story of Elphaba and why she is green. Elphaba and Glinda are polar opposites and don’t get along. When the Wizard requests Elphaba to study under her it leaves her happy because finally she will be noticed. The musical explains how the Tinman came to be, the Cowardly lion, and the Scarecrow. It explains how the Wicked Witch dies and how she doesn’t die at the same time. The story even includes Dorothy’s arrival in Oz (even though she’s never actually shown onstage).
Review
Kevin Chamberlin, who plays the wizard isn’t new to Broadway as he’s been in many other shows before. He perfectly displays the complex character of the Wizard of Oz.
This show was by far the most amazing one I’ve ever seen. The Gershwin theater is the biggest theater on Broadway. It was enormous and beautiful. I was blown away by the way the theater was decorated to make it look like Oz.
The set design was very complex and it was able to add so much to the story. My favorite part of the set was the dragon at the top of the stage. The lightning was amazing too, my favorite lighting was the green lights in the Emerald City scene. The entire stage lit up with green. The effects in general were astonishing. There was lots of fog on the stage for most numbers. The rain was really cool too because it made it look like it was actually raining but it was just a projection. I also really liked the way that the stage had many different entrances for the characters so they entered from different spots.
I also liked the levels of the stage. At the end of “Defying Gravity” Elphaba gets brought up above the rest of the characters and in that moment I couldn’t even breathe because it was so amazing. I actually cried because of how good the number was.
The actors performances were one of the best performances I’ve ever seen. I’ve seen 5 shows, this one being my fifth and it was the best I’ve seen so far. Every single detail was thought out and it made me feel like I was in Oz. The actress who played Elphaba was phenomenal, she had one of the most impressive voices I’ve ever seen. Glinda was amazing as well, she embodied the Good Witch perfectly.
Final Thoughts
This is one of the best shows I’ve ever seen. This was an amazing way to tell the story of the Wicked Witch of the West. I highly recommend.
