Obviously I could have travelled to Sydney or Melbourne or Brisbane to see it while it played in those cities, but I'm generally of the opinion that if the producers of a show aren't willing to bring it to Adelaide, then they don't deserve my money.
Anyway, the dates were eventually released and as soon as tickets were available, I got one1, winding up in what they called the 'Emerald Section', in D row, which – given there are two rows before A (AA and BB) – means the sixth rows from the stage.
1Actually, I got four – I'd arranged with three friends who also wanted to go – but you get the picture.
Some background
Wicked – occasionally subtitled 'The Untold Story of the Witches of Oz' – is, as that additional information suggests, is about the witch characters of Oz, i.e. the fantasy world created by author L Frank Baum and most well known from the film adaptation The Wizard of Oz.
It's based on a novel (also called Wicked, but with the slightly different subtitle of 'The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West') by Gregory Maguire; I read this a few years back but wasn't particularly impressed by it. I'm not really sure why; it's certainly not the concept – a very dark retelling of the original story from the perspective of the Wicked Witch – which is usually the sort of thing that appeals to me.
The musical is very different from the book, though; while it takes the idea (retelling the story of that particular episode2 of Oz history) and many of the characters (though some really only have the same name), it's much lighter in tone, condenses the action into a much briefer time period (the book is set over something like thirty years), has far less (though is not completely bereft of) political and social commentary – it's overwhelming focus is the relationship between the girl who would become the Wicked Witch and her 'good' counterpart.
2I say episode because the series of Oz books stretches into the dozens; the story of Dorothy and Toto being brought from Kansas in a house via tornado is but one of them.
The story (minor spoiler alert)
After the death of the Wicked Witch, Glinda, the Good Witch of the North3 appears and speaks to the citizens of Oz; we are then taken, via flashback, to where the two witches – then known as Elphaba and Galinda – met and became roommates at Shiz university. They didn't, however start off as friends; how that changed is the crux of the story. Throw in a boy (Fiyero), Elphaba's wheelchair-bound sister Nessarose, another boy (Boq), a talking goat who's also a teacher (Dr Dillamond), the manipulative headmistress Madame Morrible, a growing political problem and the Wizard who – like in the orginal – isn't quite the man people think he is, and you've got a framework for what takes place.
3In the original novels she was from the South; why this was changed I've no idea.
A thorough listening
I've been listening to the Broadway cast recording for the last few months; I'd decided that I'd enjoy the show more if I knew the songs a little better. I'd heard a couple before – Defying Gravity showed up in an episode of the tv series Glee, for example – but I felt I needed to hear the rest.
One of the interesting things was how different some of the songs were in the show, some because they were broken up with dialogue – Wicked isn't a sung-through musical like Les Miserables; a lot of it is spoken, and that's generally minimised in a soundtrack album. I knew this was the case because I was familiar enough with the story to know that the songs didn't cover everything.
What I didn't think about was how they might be different because of character; in a way, the songs on the soundtrack album are sung independent of the context of the show they're from; as a result, they're slightly different – but in a way that, although it surprised me at the time, makes sense now I think about it.
In short, the songs were a little different – but, for the most part, in a good and logical way.
Visually spectacular
The sight of the set – even with the curtain closed – sent chills down my spine. What I could see was dark wood and metal, and what looked to be vines and creepers growing through a series of huge cogs and wheels underneath some balconies and scaffolding.
As I noted in my Facebook status update at interval:
And the visuals only got better from there – and better and better and better. Nearly every scene (and there were plenty) had a different backdrop and/or flown set pieces. The costumes were also amazing, and – given that there were as many different scenes as there were – there were lots of them.
The lighting, too, was at least several steps above any other show I've ever seen. Just stunning.
Laughs aplenty
I knew from the soundtrack that there would be comic elements throughout; however, I was not prepared for exactly how much – or just how funny I'd find it. There are jokes the whole way through and I laughed pretty much constantly throughout. Glinda gets the majority of the good lines, and her character – in the sense that she's ditzy, outspoken and often exasperated – provides for even more hilarity.
That's not to say Elphaba is denied the opportunity for laughs; she gets some, but in a different way because her character is much quieter, has a drier sense of humour and tends toward deadpan.
And the other character get their chances: a big part of Madame Morrible's shtick is her bizarre malapropisms; Boq, a Munchkin, gets short jokes; Fiyero plays up his lazy rich kid persona; even the Wizard gets a few good lines.
Great performances
Unsurprisingly, given this is a professional production of a very popular and recent show4, the standard of performance is very high, and the singing, acting and dancing is some of the best I've seen. Jemma Rix is considered to be one of the all-time best Elphabas, Lucy Durack has – as I've noted – excellent comic timing, as well as a lovely voice, and Maggie Kirkpatrick (star of the legendary Australian tv show Prisoner) is brilliant as Madame Morrible.
And then there's Bert Newton. Yes, he's also a legend of Australian television, but he's really not a musical theatre performer, and as a result was the low point of the show. He did okay, but he just wasn't up to the high standards of those around him.
The orchestra – including ubiquitous local composer/accompanist Matthew Carey, who I've bumped into a few times before – were also excellent.
4With something this recent, protecting the 'brand' is very important, so the people who own the rights are far more likely to be involved in casting; this may be the case, particularly in older shows.
A wonderful5 package
Putting it all together, you have the best big-budget musical I've ever seen, and what is likely to remain one of my all-time favourite shows – I enjoyed it so much I'm going again in the final week of the season.
5Yes, that's a pun.
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