Wicked Musical currently touring in Costa Mesa CA for almost 4-week run through March 17, 2013. The Wizard of Oz has returned to the Segerstrom Center for the third time and reviewed by ANNE VALDESPINO – Here is the review:
Now a decade old, “Wicked” continues to set records for ticket sales and it still attracts an eclectic audience: little girls in ruby red dresses, punks with platinum hair, fresh-faced young women dragging their boyfriends, seniors and gay couples. Its soaring score, fantasy landscape, love story and a book packed with one-liners appeal to a wide demographic.
It’s no surprise that composer-lyricist Stephen Schwartz, with his love of challenging subjects, could craft a musical out of Gregory Maguire’s best-selling 1995 novel. “Wicked” bristles with great music, from its foreboding title track, “No One Mourns the Wicked,” to songs of young love awakening such as “I’m Not That Girl,” and plenty of anthemic ballads in between: “Defying Gravity” and “The Wizard and I.”
Schwartz is suddenly hot again – or perhaps he’s never gone cold. “Pippin” is poised for a spring Broadway revival, and “Wicked” is just more candy for his hard-core fans. The composer of “Godspell” and Disney musicals including “Enchanted,” “Pocahontas,” and “The Prince of Egypt,” Schwartz is a master of pulling on heartstrings.
“Wicked” is about the odd friendship of two girls, one blond and popular, the other a green witch with strange powers. Thrown together accidentally, they experience the typical phases of teen relationships: first dances, bonding over clothes and hairstyles, fighting over the cutest boy in the school. Add politics, sorcery, betrayal and murder to the mix.
Continually taunted for her green skin, Elphaba attends school only to care for her wheelchair-bound sister Nessarose, and meets her opposite, Glinda, the girl with the golden hair. At first they tangle, then become roomies and best friends. Handsome prince Fiyero tests their loyalties by first falling for Glinda and then taking up Elphaba’s political cause: her championing of animal rights, which lands her in deep trouble at school and with the Wizard. Meanwhile, Nessarose has her heart set on Boq, a Munchkin who only has eyes for Glinda.
Read the complete review {Via OCRegister.com}
Wicked musical will play through March 17, 2013 at Orange County Performing Arts Center – Segerstrom Hall. Buy Wicked Costa Mesa CA Tickets Online – SAVE $10 when you spend $350 or more, Use code AFF$10.
