Wicked is currently playing at Bjcc Concert Hall and continue through Sunday, March 4, 2012.
Here is the preview of Wicked musical by Alec Harvey at AL.com:
“Wicked” is special, with spectacular special effects, sumptuous sets and beautiful costumes that rival any show that’s been in Birmingham. Throw in some endearing and affecting performances from Tiffany Haas and Anne Brummel, and you’ve got yourself a winner.
Haas and Brummel play Glinda and Elphaba, two boarding school chums turned witches – the witches who become Glinda the Good and the Wicked Witch of the West in “The Wizard of Oz.” In “Wicked,” based on Gregory Maguire’s much darker “Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West,” we find out how they became who they were.
Haas and Brummel are a good match as the witches who form an unlikely bond. They both have soaring voices, and they are superb actresses, bringing out the comedic and dramatic aspects of their characters. That’s essential to the success of “Wicked,” since it’s kind of hard to like either one of them considering what they do to each other. Haas brings some heart to the character of Glinda, which might otherwise just be a caricature of a blonde, self-absorbed … witch. Brummel’s Elphaba is multi-dimensional, too, although her singing throughout most of Act I was a tad odd, almost tentative. But once she hit the high notes of the Act I closer, composer Stephen Schwartz’s emotional “Defying Gravity,” she hit her stride.
If Brummel was a little weaker in Act I, she wasn’t alone. Both Dan Pacheo as Boq and understudy Michael McCorry Rose as Fiyero were a bit off the mark musically. They were both OK, but what “OK” meant was that “Dancing Through Life,” their big number that should have been a showcase of dance and song, was listless and forgettable. Rose seemed uncomfortable dancing across the stage, much less through life, and you just didn’t believe that Pacheo’s Boq had fallen head over heels for Glinda. Both did get much better in Act II, but “Dancing Through Life” – usually a “Wicked” highlight — might just as well have been skipped.
Read the complete review {Via AL.com}
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