Wicked is currently playing on tour in Durham, NC and the performances at Durham Performing Arts Center continue through Sunday May 27, 2012.

If your first question about the return of “Wicked” to the Durham Performing Arts Center is if you should see it again, the answer is yes. “Wicked” was here two years ago for a blockbuster month, and it will spend most of May at DPAC for a popular return engagement. The first time or second time you see this fly-away Broadway hit, you will like something different about it than the person sitting in the seat next to you. And there’s much to like.

This reviewer went into this show thinking about the roles of the strong leading women, noted by producer David Stone in an interview with The Herald-Sun last week. Elphaba (Christine Dwyer) and Glinda (Tiffany Haas) are powerful women and have a powerful friendship that transcends what keeps them apart. Like many college students who are thrown into rooming together, they come from different worlds and different perspectives. Yet both have qualities that bring them together as friends, and audiences like them, too. Dwyer and Haas excel in their roles.

Elphaba, Glinda, Madame Morrible (Marilyn Caskey) and Nessarose (Catherine Charlebois) are all examples of how to ascend to a power position, for good or evil. There’s Elphaba with her natural and earnest power, Glinda with her popularity power, Morrible with her diabolical behind-the-scenes power, and Nessarose, with her power given by nepotism and held onto with might. Except for Morrible, perhaps, we all see the good in these powerful women, even when they make bad choices.

That all this is pulled off in a musical with spectacular songs, fabulous sets and costumes and a compelling story is quite a feat. You won’t leave “Wicked” without kind words to say about it, whether you were most impressed by the technical, vocal, musical or writing talent. It’s too bad that audiences can’t see the orchestra, because they beautifully exemplify what this score can do.

Not to leave out the men: Billy Harrigan Tighe is charming as Fiyero, Timothy Britten Parker is convincing as goat professor Dr. Dillamond, and Dan Pacheco is spot on as Boq. The Wizard (Paul Kreppel) gives one of the best speeches heard on any Broadway tour – sung, of course – about politics and its smiling nefariousness. Kreppel is wonderfully cast as the Wizard. He does a superb job.

Read the complete review {The Herald-Sun}

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