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I have always wanted to see two musicals live in a west end theatre: Wicked and The Phantom of The Opera. Well, Phantom and London can wait — but, on Wednesday (19/02) I attended the matinee performance of Wicked: UK and Ireland tour in the oh-so-glamorous (and stupidly expensive to park in) Milton Keynes.
The cast itself, I can’t fault. Nikki Davis-Jones was my ‘Elphaba’ and Emily Tierney played ‘G(AAH)linda’. It felt to me, as though they each had their own half of the show in which they each excelled and stuck out to me as very talented actresses. I couldn't keep my eyes off of Emily in the first Act, I fell in love with her Glinda and her ‘Toss Toss’. At first, I found Elphaba irritating, in the sense that she never stopped moaning about something and she was never really had a presence in the first few Shiz scenes, she just wasn't my favourite, although I had very much expected her to be almost right away. But after she defies gravity and comes into her own, I fell in love with her too. And as Act II began and continued, I began to favour Glinda less and less, she was less sassy and more soppy and it felt like she was fleeing from the stage in tears every five minutes. But I don’t think Nikki or Emily can be faulted for all of that and it’s rather the way Wicked had been written than acted. Both girls had a strong stage presence and a strong sense and embodiment of their character, each had perfect diction and pronunciation, they moved and reacted how I imagined their characters would, neither seemed nervous or ill-prepared and, although I do not know a lot about singing, they both had incredibly strong and beautiful voices. Nikki's gravity was something else, it’s the first time I've ever heard it live and she made it sound fresh and new, even though I've heard so many different interpretations before. As for the rest of the cast, I was surprised when I only counted 24 members of the company bowing at the curtain call, in the big dance numbers or scenes at the Shiz, it always felt like there were more people on stage then there actually were, each of them had a presence and were always in character, I’m impressed by how far 15 members of an ensemble can stretch to so many different “background” roles in a show.
I was vaguely familiar with the story line before seeing the show, you know, green girl is the outcast and blonde girl is popular and they somehow become bestest friends. And I knew that it ran alongside the story line of the Wizard Of Oz. But I had no idea how much heartbreak and hurt the girls go through nor did I know how many small comical interludes there are from Dorothy and “Do-Do” — or how many ‘Ahh, I get it now!’ moments there are when you discover how the Tin-man, the Lion and Scarecrow come to be ‘the Tin-man, the Lion and the Scarecrow’. I thoroughly enjoyed what I learnt about the rest of Wicked, though I’m still a little confused about the Silver (rather than Ruby) slippers?!
The only thing I was let down by was ‘For Good’, mostly because it was the song I was most familiar with before seeing the show and I had such high expectations for it. After waiting through out the whole show until the end for ‘For Good’ it, I felt like it wasn't really being treated as a real ‘goodbye forever’ between Glinda and Elphaba. Glinda didn't really seem to shift from ‘popular’ Glinda to ‘I’m going to lose my new best friend’ Glinda. But I think I am mostly to blame here, due to the fact I listened to Kristin Chenoweth and Anna Kendricks version a million times and expected that from Nikki and Emily which is unfair and a little ridiculous.
If I could go back and the see the show again, I would go to an evening rather than afternoon show and definitely get better seats. The matinee performance, unsurprisingly, was packed with children on half-term break. I was distracted by a 7 year old girl randomly clapping in the middle of scenes more than once during the show. And I think my mother and myself managed to secure ourselves the two seats that were the furthest possible away from the stage. The only thing I can really fault the company, and more the technicians on the show on was the volume of the orchestra in the pit compared to the volume of the members of the company who were singing, at points in the show some were drowned out by the music.
All in all, I was so happy that I got to see the show and I really enjoyed it. The tour was in no way shape or form amateur. The set was absolutely stunning and everyone on stage was present, experienced and extremely talented. You got the feeling that everyone on stage wanted to be there and that they were thoroughly enjoying themselves. I was so impressed by Wicked, I can’t wait to get the chance to see it in London and I would not hesitate to recommend the show to anyone else. An
afternoon well spent.
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