{"id":1922,"date":"2012-10-22T18:25:31","date_gmt":"2012-10-23T01:25:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wickedthemusicalticketsonline.com\/blog\/?p=1922"},"modified":"2012-10-22T18:25:59","modified_gmt":"2012-10-23T01:25:59","slug":"wicked-musical-review-features-strong-cast-in-its-return-to-baltimore","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.wickedthemusicalticketsonline.com\/blog\/wicked-musical-review-features-strong-cast-in-its-return-to-baltimore\/","title":{"rendered":"Wicked Musical Review – Features Strong Cast in its Return to Baltimore"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Here is the review of the Wicked musical by Tim Smith at BaltimoreSun.com:<\/p>\n

Equal parts nostalgia and hipness, satire and sentiment, one-liners and philosophy, the hit musical \u201cWicked\u201d remains a potent brew. Bewitching, even.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s component parts certainly come together snappily in ways that create entertainment writ large.<\/p>\n

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 \u2014 the Wicked Witch of the West, who tried so darn hard for the return of those jeweled slippers in the 1939 film \u201cThe Wizard of Oz.\u201d<\/p>\n

Various details we accept as gospel from that movie get some interesting twists (better to … forget what you remember Margaret Hamilton\u2019s iconic witch doing to the Scarecrow). And, like in Mozart\u2019s \u201cThe Magic Flute,\u201d characters are apt to shift between good to evil without warning. <\/p>\n

Oz, it turns out, is not entirely Eden-like. The Wizard happily tells his people lies, because \u201cthey were lies they wanted to hear.\u201d Prejudice, intolerance, suspicion of the \u201cother,\u201d power-hunger, fast-flying rumor \u2014 it\u2019s all happening in or around this emerald-tinted world.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

One of the tricky things about \u201cWicked\u201d 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.<\/p>\n

The touring production boasts terrific balance and chemistry between the two leads \u2014 Christine Dwyer\u2019s sensitive, wry Elphaba and Jeanna de Waal\u2019s 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 \u201cfor good,\u201d resonates strongly here. <\/p>\n

Dwyer doesn\u2019t just nail the glum, glib side of Elphaba, but unleashes the eager little girl beneath. Even in her most theatrical moments, she doesn\u2019t lose a touch of humanness.<\/p>\n

Would that Stephen Schwartz\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Read the complete review {Via BaltimoreSun.com<\/a>}<\/p>\n

Wicked musical performances at Hippodrome Theatre<\/a> will continue through Sunday November 04, 2012.<\/strong> Buy Wicked Baltimore MD Tickets<\/a> Online at discounted prices, Get $10 OFF on Orders of $350 or more by using code AFF$10.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[655,658,656,657,659,653,654,651,463,509,332,184,442],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.wickedthemusicalticketsonline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1922"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.wickedthemusicalticketsonline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.wickedthemusicalticketsonline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.wickedthemusicalticketsonline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.wickedthemusicalticketsonline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1922"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.wickedthemusicalticketsonline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1922\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1924,"href":"http:\/\/www.wickedthemusicalticketsonline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1922\/revisions\/1924"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.wickedthemusicalticketsonline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1922"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.wickedthemusicalticketsonline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1922"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.wickedthemusicalticketsonline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1922"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}