Despite a lackluster economy and soaring unemployment the musical “Wicked” is still defying gravity.
On its third pass through Pittsburgh as a presentation of PNC Broadway Across America — Pittsburgh the show has already sold all but a few tickets for its four-week run at the Benedum Center, Downtown.
The Broadway production continues to sell out most performances, eight years after its debut. The two national tours and four international companies have similar success.
Gregory Maguire’s dark, contrarian tale turns the Oz you thought you knew inside out, exposing the politics, prejudice and personalities of Frank L. Baum’s Ozians in a not-so-merry-old land of Oz.
Dorothy is a minor, off-stage presence in this story that focuses on the coming of age and dawning rivalries between Elphaba (AKA the Wicked Witch of the West and Glinda (the good witch) that took place long before Dorothy Gale dropped her Kansas farm house on Elphaba’s sister, Nessarose.
Stephen Schwartz’s intense, soaring music and lyrics allow characters to vent their emotions in ways that connect with audiences. Not everything is perfect, of course.
In the first half Natalie Daradich’s Glinda is more stridently than comedicaly annoying and her perkiness wears thin fast. You do grow to feel sympathy for her more mature and resigned second act adult personality.
As the third point in the love triangle David Nathan Perlow’s appealing Fiyero makes the greatest journey from arch playboy to committed revolutionary.
Winnie Holzman’s stage adaptation of Maguire’s novel streamlines the story so that it’s accessible without dumbing it down or eliminating Maguire’s more serious messages. Moreover “Wicked” continues to deliver value for the money.
The producers and creative team have bejeweled and bedazzled the story with an overlay of glittery, glowing candy for the eye and ear. More importantly it’s a well-maintained production that holds up despite its time on the road.
Set designer Eugene Lee, lighting designer Kenneth Posner and costume designer Susan Hilferty create an lavish alternate universe that alternates between turning ominous cogs and wheels of clockwork gadgetry and the upbeat sparkle of a brightly antiseptic yet splendiferous greenified Emerald City.
Treachery, betrayal, love triangles and political skullduggery thrive against a background of menacing cogs and wheels while a humungous red-eyed dragon hovers over the proceedings.
Read the complete review {Via PittsburghLive.com}
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