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.

Wicked Musical currently Stops in Honolulu HI for almost 7-week run. Wicked will be performing at Neal S. Blaisdell Center Concert Hall through January 12, 2013. Wicked musical play at Neal S. Blaisdell Center – Concert Hall reviewed by RUTH BINGHAM as ““Wicked” works magic”. Here is the review:

“Wicked” the musical is a better, tighter story than Gregory Maguire’s novel, which composer Stephen Schwartz and author Winnie Holzman rewrote so that it works on multiple levels.

In the novel, the story is launched by a hurdy-gurdy man’s mechanical “razzle-dazzle spectacle” that comes to town to lead good citizens astray: “Wicked” the musical is that spectacle. We, the good citizens of Honolulu, assemble to see the novelty, a trained money cranks open the curtain, the mechanical Clock of the Time Dragon roars, and the fantasy begins.

The musical takes place wholly within the book’s Clock of the Time Dragon; it begins as a “once-upon-a-time” flashback from a point we thought we knew, but ends by sending us back into our world without returning to the starting point so that we carry the story with us as we leave.

On reflection, “Wicked” is a dark tale, on one level a morality play about good and evil, but it is told with humor and a happy Hollywood ending, making it suitable and enchanting for audiences of all ages. Part of its magic is that people experience the tale differently and walk away with different lessons, so no spoilers here — you have to experience it for yourself.

That said, “Wicked” will be the shortest three hours you’ve ever spent in a theater — it covers a lot of ground during that time. Like its structural forefather, Baz Luhrman’s “Moulin Rouge,” almost every line is a reference, and every twist and turn of its very dense plot is delivered in only a phrase or two, making every word essential.

“Wicked’s” pit orchestra — 15 musicians, nine hired locally — provide an almost subconscious flow, carrying the drama along. The production is at such a high level overall that when minor issues with balancing sound intruded during a performance last weekend, they fortunately passed quickly.

Read the complete review {Via HonoluluPulse.com}

Wicked musical will be in Honolulu HI through January 12, 2013. Buy Wicked Neal S. Blaisdell Center – Concert Hall Tickets Online – SAVE $10 when you spend $350 or more, Use code AFF$10.

Wicked second national tour is currently in Baltimore, MD for the second time for a month long run from October 03 to November 04, 2012. Wicked first visited Baltimore in 2007.

Here is the review of the Wicked musical by Tim Smith at BaltimoreSun.com:

Equal parts nostalgia and hipness, satire and sentiment, one-liners and philosophy, the hit musical “Wicked” remains a potent brew. Bewitching, even.

This tale-spin about life in Oz, before that rude girl from Kansas crashed the place, is neither quite as profound as its most ardent champions would aver, nor quite as empty as its detractors have charged. But the work’s component parts certainly come together snappily in ways that create entertainment writ large.

The plot, adapted by Winnie Holzman from the Gregory Maguire novel, presents a back-story for the peculiarly green woman we last saw in a puddle — the Wicked Witch of the West, who tried so darn hard for the return of those jeweled slippers in the 1939 film “The Wizard of Oz.”

Various details we accept as gospel from that movie get some interesting twists (better to … forget what you remember Margaret Hamilton’s iconic witch doing to the Scarecrow). And, like in Mozart’s “The Magic Flute,” characters are apt to shift between good to evil without warning.

Oz, it turns out, is not entirely Eden-like. The Wizard happily tells his people lies, because “they were lies they wanted to hear.” Prejudice, intolerance, suspicion of the “other,” power-hunger, fast-flying rumor — it’s all happening in or around this emerald-tinted world.

Some of these issues, especially a campaign against talking animals (a chilling classroom scene is fully Third Reich-redolent), could use more depth. But the fast-moving, if opera-length, show stays primarily focused on the emotional journey of the supposedly wicked witch, Elphaba, how and why she moved toward the dark side.

One of the tricky things about “Wicked” is how to keep the Glinda character from tilting the musical her way; she spreads glitter from the get-go and could go on to steal any scene.

The touring production boasts terrific balance and chemistry between the two leads — Christine Dwyer’s sensitive, wry Elphaba and Jeanna de Waal’s iridescent Glinda. Both are nuanced actresses who manage to tap into something genuine about the characters. Their unlikely friendship, the bond that changes both women “for good,” resonates strongly here.

Dwyer doesn’t just nail the glum, glib side of Elphaba, but unleashes the eager little girl beneath. Even in her most theatrical moments, she doesn’t lose a touch of humanness.

Would that Stephen Schwartz’s score contained a few more items of that cleverness. A lot of the songs are in generic pop mode, spinning their wheels over well-worn harmonic paths and failing to generate a really strong melodic hook.

The supporting cast does uniformly persuasive work. Paul Kreppel makes a disarming Wizard, Gina Ferrall a colorful Madame Morrible. Billy Harrigan Tighe has the fresh, all-Ozian looks and smooth swagger for Fiyero, the man who lights a spark under Elphaba and Glinda.

Read the complete review {Via BaltimoreSun.com}

Wicked musical performances at Hippodrome Theatre will continue through Sunday November 04, 2012. Buy Wicked Baltimore MD Tickets Online at discounted prices, Get $10 OFF on Orders of $350 or more by using code AFF$10.

Wicked Broadway musical tour is currently performing in Montreal Canada from August 01 to August 26, 2012. Here is the Wicked musical review by Anne Sutherland, The Gazette.

The strength of the musical Wicked lies in the two leads, the Wicked Witch of the West and Glinda the Good. For all the sumptuous costumes, fancy sets, dry ice, flying monkeys and production numbers, it all boils down to whether these two dames can belt it out.

To state the obvious, the two leads are wicked good.

Wicked, the touring version that just touched down at Place des Arts for almost the entire month of August, is blessed with the gifted pipes of Jeanna de Waal as the saintly sweet Glinda and the superb Christine Dwyer as the flawed but ultimately redeemed Elphaba, the witch of the title.

It’s the story that purports to tell the tale of what happened before Dorothy and her house landed on the Witch of the East in the classic children’s book and 1939 movie The Wizard of Oz.

Based on a series of books by Gregory Maguire, the musical backstory of the friendship of these two divergent characters has been a juggernaut on Broadway, London’s West End and broken all sorts of attendance and box office records since its debut in 2003. And it’s a great show, with outstanding songs culminating with the goosebump-raising vocals on Defying Gravity.

The story opens with widespread jubilation as the citizens of Oz celebrate the passing of the Wicked Witch of the West, a dastardly green creature who has been bedevilling the land. As fans of the story know, she was done in by a bucket of water tossed by Dorothy. Seems her soul was so unclean that pure water could melt her.

Elphaba is destined for great things, Morrible says, and will be introduced to the great Wizard of Oz, her lifelong dream.

The costumes are quite brilliant, particularly the numerous hues of green in the Emerald City tableaus and the candy-coloured gowns sported by the good witch.

Read the complete review {Via MontrealGazette.com}

Wicked musical showings at Salle Wilfrid Pelletier Place Des Arts continue until August 26, 2012. Experience the Spell of Wicked. Wicked Musical Montreal Quebec Canada Tickets are in full Demand! Avail $10 OFF on Wicked Place des Arts Ticket Orders of $250 or more by using code SUMMERFUNTN at Checkout!

When Wicked first landed in Nashville in 2009, it played to sold-out crowds and broke box-office records. Now, the award-winning blockbuster is back and once again ready to cast its spell on local audiences at Tennessee Performing Arts Center.

With music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz and book by Winnie Holzman, Wicked opened on Broadway in 2003 and quickly became something of a cultural phenomenon. Loosely based on Gregory Maguire’s novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, the musical explores the untold story (and unlikely friendship) of green-skinned Elphaba and Glinda the Good — and just how they became the witches of Oz.

Anne Brummel brings great strength and sensitivity to the role of Elphaba, wowing the crowd in the show’s defining musical number, “Defying Gravity.” Meanwhile, Tiffany Haas shines as the perky and popular Glinda. Far less chirpy than other Glindas I’ve seen, Haas makes the most of the role’s comic elements, while capitalizing on its more bittersweet moments.

And while the two seemed a bit tentative in their opening numbers, both settle into their roles nicely, sharing a joyful chemistry. “What Is This Feeling?” and “Popular” are especially fun.

Brummel and Haas receive fine support from Jody Gelb (as schoolmistress Madame Morrible), Emily Ferranti (Nessarose) and Dan Pacheco (Boq). David Nathan Perlow is charming as love-interest Fiyero, and film/stage veteran Don Amendolia is … well, wonderful as the Wizard.

Eugene Lee’s elaborate set continues to amaze, and the production’s technical wizardry is dazzling — from the Time Dragon Clock and flying monkeys to Glinda’s gracefully floating bubble. Susan Hilferty’s intricate and colorful costumes and Kenneth Posner’s dramatic lighting add to the spectacle.

Read the complete review {Via www.tennessean.com}

The Nashville engagement of Wicked will run through November 06 at the Tennessee Performing Arts Center. Buy Wicked Nashville TN Tickets Online. Hurry to grab your Wicked Tickets with the discounts, Use Code AFF$10 to Get $10 off on Orders over $350!

The Wicked national tour, visiting Washington for the first time since 2005, sounds first-rate. Cooper ably recalls Glinda’s originator, Kristin Chenoweth, in her comic timing for “Popular,” and she and Roscioli mesh expertly in their second act duet, “For Good.” Randy Danson’s Madame Morrible is as persuasive an inhabitant of that oleaginous part as you’re likely to encounter, and Colin Hanlon is a dashing presence as Fiyero, the romantic wedge between Elphaba and Glinda.

“Wicked,” with an infectiously pulsing score by Stephen Schwartz, is the environmentally and politically conscious back story of “The Wizard of Oz,” told from the points of view of one witch labeled good and the other wicked. But labels, the show informs us, are never to be trusted — one of the hardest truths to drum into high schoolers’ heads.

What accounts for the truly devotional impact of “Wicked”? People don’t just pay to see this show, which is making a return, summer-long visit to the Kennedy Center; they open their wallets as if it were their obligation to tithe for Elphaba and Glinda (and, of course, the musical’s savvy investors).

Eight years after its opening, it is still regularly Broadway’s top-grossing show. Last week, it took in $1.7 million in New York — the nearest empty seats were in a diner down the block. In the Kennedy Center Opera House, center orchestra seats for evening performances are selling for up to $250 each, and are going fast. The musical’s reach, measured in other terms: When “Glee’s” Kurt and Rachel traveled to show-choir nationals in New York, their dream-come-true moment was singing a “Wicked” tune on the Broadway stage.

Read the complete review at The Washington Post.

Wicked is currently playing on tour in Vancouver, BC Canada and Washington-DC.