The leads, Jemma Rix as Elphaba and Suzie Mathers as Glinda do very well. This is a necessarily broad form of theatre, but they retain just enough subtlety and depth to make the emotions land. Indeed, acting-wise, I preferred them to the stars of the Broadway production I saw a year ago. Singing-wise, they are perhaps not quite as strong: Rix occasionally spikes into a screechy tone at the top of her belt range, and Mathers begins the evening poorly, with unintelligible, throaty consonants marring the pseudo-operatic No One Mourns the Wicked. But for the most part, both are excellent, with Mathers' Popular expressing a delightful joie de vivre and crisp, rounded tones despite its pace, and with Rix's moving and expressive I'm Not That Girl providing the highlight of the show.
Of course, the highlight of the show is supposed to be Defying Gravity, but for the second time now, I haven't found it to be. The song is a powerful, aptly uplifting anthem to self-empowerment - yet the dramatic context requires it to be sung with an anger that fights against its soaring melody and, ironically, pulls it down. It's still good, as well as being excitingly staged and terrifically lit, but I can't help feeling that it's the right song at not quite the right time.
The rest of the show is pretty much identical to the Broadway production, which means lavish, off-kilter costumes; fluid, well-judged sets (except for the pointless dragon-puppet centrepiece); energetic dances; and a rousing pit band. But there's one exception: Bert Newton gives a painfully wooden performance as the Wizard and, at least on the night I attended, failed to latch on to the pitch of his first number, A Sentimental Man. I kept wishing Lim Kay Siu would run on and replace him.
Wicked will never be my favourite musical due to its saggy, thematically over-reaching second act, its highly convenient characters, and its politics, which are only slightly less sophisticated than those found in Saturday-morning cartoons. But if you want the full Broadway experience, I have to admit that this is it. And if you have young teen daughters, there's probably some kind of law that you have to take them.
3.5 out of 5, Matthew Lyon, 13 Dec 2011
]]>But, for me, the strength of this musical is in its book by Winnie Holzman, adapted from Gregory Maguire's novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West. It gallops merrily along the yellow brick road and is peppered with a surprising amount of sass and snark. Most importantly, amidst all the wild magic onstage, it keeps its focus on the very human friendship between Elphaba the Wicked Witch of the West (Jemma Rix) and Glinda the Good Witch of the North (Suzie Mathers) which starts from their time together as college roommates.
The idea of taking very well-known characters and casting new light on them by reinventing their histories is nothing new. That the Wicked Witch is revealed to not be so wicked after all and the Good Witch not so good is hardly revolutionary. But how the idea is executed is key, and Holzman is able to make us connect on an emotional level with the story and the characters.
Elphaba has been ostracised since her childhood because of her green skin and ultimately takes on the mantle of the Wicked Witch only because of the machinations of The Wizard and his scheming accomplice, the appropriately named Madame Morrible. She falls in love with the dashing Fiyero but cannot believe he could possibly love her. After all, no guy could resist the charms of Elphaba's new best friend, the popular (and, of course, blonde) Glinda - who would clearly have been head cheerleader if they had pom-pom girls in Oz.
If it all sounds like a teenage soap opera, it is worth remembering that Holzman was one of the creators of seminal 1990s teen TV drama My So-Called Life. It is also worth remembering that though it only ran for one season, it remains one of the most critically acclaimed contemporary dramas to be set in a high school because of its authentic portrayal of the struggles of growing up. Holzman knows she is dealing with a familiar archetype but nonetheless invests Elphaba with such humanity and spirit that you immediately relate to the character and the overwhelming situations that she finds herself in, especially when, time after time, she holds her head up high and tries to be the better person. Hers is a story that will tug at the heartstrings of anyone who was an outsider in school because they were made to feel fat or ugly or just plain different.
And then we have the giddy, sun-kissed Glinda who isn't exactly the brightest of the bunch ("I don't understand why you can't just teach us history instead of always harping on the past"). Hers is also a recognizable arc. She is the pretty little rich girl who is forced to make difficult choices, first when BFF Elphaba is framed for crimes she did not commit and Glinda is pressed to abet the persecution, and again when she learns that her fiancé Fiyero has been secretly in love with Elphaba all along. She has a more interesting journey than the stoic Elphaba because she evolves as a character, ultimately becoming the Good Witch she has always dreamed of being, not because of her glittering tiara and wand but because she has learnt to be compassionate, generous and brave.
The politics of the play also point to wider social issues, with the way The Wizard and Madame Morrible maintain power by creating bogeymen to cultivate a culture of fear, and the idea of individuals standing up to institutionalised injustice, benefiting from resonance with issues of the day. But Wicked is not without its problems. Inspired as it is by L. Frank Baum's original story (and the 1939 Judy Garland film), the musical is also hampered by it. Some of the references may confuse audience members not familiar with the original narrative. A passing comment here and there is fine as an in-joke ("Steal a dead woman's shoes? Must have been raised in a barn") but I wasn't enamoured with the way the Tin Man, Scarecrow and Lion are ham-fistedly woven into the story, for example. More damaging is the need for the ending of Wicked to dovetail with that of the original which means that the public charade of Elphaba as a Wicked Witch has to be maintained by Glinda for no particularly good reason. This diminishes Elphaba's and Glinda's moral victories significantly, weakening how the play closes. The message to teenage girls ultimately seems to be that even if you are ugly, you'll get the boy in the end – but everyone will still hate you forever; meanwhile the Mean Girl (or Heather, if you are a child of the 80s) continues to be rich and powerful and popular while you live hidden in the bowels of the earth.
But all this aside, the majority of the people turning up in droves at Marina Bay Sands are more likely there simply because of the promise of a sumptuous musical spectacular, and let me assure you, it is there in all its glory. I caught the Broadway version in December 2010 and what we have here in this Australian production is pretty much the real deal. You get the ginormous (if frankly cheesy and unnecessary) smoke-breathing dragon hanging above the stage, a dazzling recreation of the Emerald City complete with wonderfully outrageous outfits, and all the acrobatic flying monkeys you could ask for. And the much-vaunted scene in which Elphaba takes to the skies to flee the Wizard's guards while singing the show-stopping Defying Gravity ... I'd seen it before and still I sat there, mouth agape, my heart thirty feet off the ground, defying gravity right next to Elphaba.
Vocally, Rix and Mathers impress but it is the quality of their acting that gives them an edge over their Broadway counterparts. The irrepressible Mathers is golden in her many comic moments but the way she captures all the little shades and shifts of her character's indecisions and conflicts, even on as big a stage as this, is what demonstrates her sensitivity as a performer. The role of Elphaba requires a charismatic performer you can't take your eyes off the moment she appears, and whom you cannot resist rooting for. Rix knocks it out of the ballpark - and her deadpan delivery of some of the play's most cutting lines is a real treat. The two leads also share convincing chemistry as frenemies. Less successful are a rather bland if still adequate David Harris as Fiyero and an uneven Bert Newton as The Wizard. Newton is an icon of Australian TV, radio and stage entertainment but here, he is unexpectedly stiff and his vocal delivery of A Sentimental Man is shaky. The ensemble work does not disappoint and really adds to the scale of the show. We also have a sinfully delightful Anne Wood as Madame Morrible who performs with devilish glee.
Speaking of Glee, the TV show is likely to be responsible for more than a few ticket sales, since Rachel and Kurt have sung both Defying Gravity and For Good on the show, and (hate me, haters!) but I actually prefer their rendition of the former to the one here. This is not to take away from Rix in any way as even the original Elphaba, the Tony-winning Idina Menzel, is saddled with an awkward arrangement designed to accommodate plot-advancing dialogue and to secure Elphaba to the hydraulic lift. In addition, as my Inkpot co-editor points out in his First Impression below, the song, a soaring anthem to self-empowerment, is complicated by a dramatic context that requires it to be sung with an anger that doesn't gel with its luscious melody. Glee's version is more straightforward pop and serves the song better. But there is nothing to distract from the prettiness of Stephen Schwartz's For Good and I'm Not That Girl, with their earnest schoolgirl-diary lyrics that nonetheless ring so romantically true ("And now whatever way our stories end / I know you have re-written mine / By being my friend"). Although if someone can explain to me the metaphor of the seed being "dropped by a skybird in a distant wood", I'd be much obliged.
Unlike Base Entertainment Asia's other big MBS production of the year, The Lion King with its innovative use of puppetry, Wicked is hardly a ground-breaking piece of theatre. But it has a stronger book, and is extraordinarily easy to like because of an exuberance which really pops onstage. Wicked will appeal to a wide audience but especially teenagers and theatre-goers looking for a faaabulously camp-tastic night out. Fan-favourite, the spry Popular in which Glinda teaches Elphaba "the proper ploys / When you talk to boys" is a perfect example of the magic of Wicked: it doesn't have anything new to say but it says it so very well.
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