Notes on a Community Theatre Production of Wicked.

Last night I went and saw a community production of Wicked, in my hometown.

As when I saw the production in Canberra last year, I thought I'd put together a list of observations about the production.

Overall, it wasn't as high quality a production the one I saw last year, but had less technical issues, which is impressive because it was only their third performance.

Me with Lauren

I went with my friend Lauren, and I was pretty excited- and far less anxious than I'd been before seeing the Canberra production. This was my 29th time seeing Wicked, which is kinda surreal.

This was the map of Oz that made up the curtain, which appeared to be an image projected onto a screen.

It's an accurate map, but it did remind Lauren and I of a map of Oz that a kid at school might fill in- not in a bad way.

The theatre is also tiny. I think it seats probably only 200 max? Or less. I'm so bad at guessing these things.

But our seats were good, we could see and hear everything.

I made my notes by scene, so I'm just going to list a few things that stood out for various reasons. But before that, a general overview of our cast:



Our Elphaba was decent vocally- she hit most of the big notes, but often didn't have enough power to make them last, so she'd run up and down them and sometimes fall flat. She could act, which is helpful, but her characterisation wasn't quite right, but I can't quite put my finger on how.

I wondered if I was just being picky, because I am admittedly biased (Jemma Rix reasons), but Lauren felt this way too.

Our Glinda was excellent. Seriously. She nailed all her notes, especially the high ones, and had excellent Glinda mannerisms. I think if a professional production of Wicked came back in 5-10 years, with a little more training, she could be Glinda for reals and I'd be thrilled.

Fiyero was... problematic. He could sing- his voice was actually very nice. But... well, I'll get to this.


Nessarose was another standout for us. Fantastic voice. I didn't have any strong feelings either way about her in Act 1, and then Act 2 she kinda blew us away.

Boq was a pretty solid Boq. I saw his picture in the program and went 'yeah, I see it'. He had a good voice too, and I was happy with his performance for the most part. There was only one little thing I had an issue with, and that may have been a direction choice I think.

The Wizard, Morrible and Dr Dillamond were all fine. No strong thoughts.

Sets were fine, costumes were fine... no complaints here.

Ok, here's my notes on the scenes:



No One Mourns the Wicked: 

• Glinda's bubble was like a chair atop a black platform (that could be raised or lowered) with a giant bubble thing behind it, which got pushed onto the stage by crew members.
• The doll they used for baby Elphaba was tiny, as you can see in the photo on the right. 

Dear Old Shiz: 

• I liked the staging they did for this scene. 
• The "kids" were in groups of like 3-4 around the stage, and throughout the song Elphaba would go stand with a group, they'd lean away in disgust, she'd get a bit more dejected and move to a different group. Then she ended the song standing alone on centre stage. 
• Also, Elphaba had 2 suitcases, instead of one (This is important later)
• The slippers Frex gave Nessa were actually red. Not silver. 
• After Galinda delivered her "Magic Wands: Need They Have a Point?" line, the other students applauded her. 
• When Elphaba's magic when haywire, Galinda grabbed Boq's arm (because he was standing right next to her). 

The Wizard and I: 

• When Morrible declared she'd take no other students, Galinda burst into tears and started sobbing onto Boq's shoulder for a few minutes, while he stared dazedly off into the distance. 
• When Elphaba got to the whole "And I'll stand there with the Wizard" part... there just wasn't a lot of emotion there. She didn't sound very happy. 
• Throughout the song, Elphaba had been doing stuff with one suitcase, while the other remained on the floor. When she went to leave the stage after the song, she only took the one suitcase with her. And then she turned, and beckoned to the other suitcase, (which I guess was remote controlled) and it followed her off stage (actually it went the wrong direction at first which was kinda funny). And the idea was cool, but it does imply Elphaba has control over her powers, which is not supposed to be the case. It was a little too Sabrina the Teenage Witch for me. 

What is this Feeling?:

• Nothing to note. 

Something Bad:

• The only really thing to note here is that the blackboard in the classroom was weird. 
• I recreated it on Microsoft Paint with what I remembered. (I can't draw, even on Paint. The thing under the arrow is supposed to be the infinity symbol)
• I feel like there may have been some more odd equations, but I don't really remember. 

Dancing Through Life: 

• Ok. Here we go. Um, how do I put this? (Man this hurts to write):
• Fiyero was a jerk. He was a smarmy, kinda creepy, over dramatic jerk. Allow me to elaborate. 
• So, instead of a rickshaw, Fiyero was sleeping on like a wooden luggage dolly. (Picture isn't exact, but it's the closest I could find). 
• And their version almost knocking over Elphaba is: she was standing stage left, reading. Avaric entered stage right, pushing the cart, and walked across the stage until he bumped into Elphaba. 
• Here's the other thing to note about Avaric. He was old. He was an old man, dressed in... something like this. 

It was pretty much like this.

• So, Elphaba woke Fiyero up, he did his "it's day time" line, and then Avaric pretty much tipped him off the cart/dolly thing. 
• Then Fiyero got up, walked around to Avaric and was so mean to him. He was like "Well. I'll see you soon, Avaric. I don't suppose I'll last longer... etc etc (you guys know the line)"
• And then Avaric did that mimic, mocking thing under his breath. And then walked off stage saying "work, work, work, that's all I do. Tow the cart, Lift the (something I don't remember)". 
• Then when Fiyero had his line "Maybe the driver saw green..." he like got super into Elphaba's face and ran a finger down her cheek. 
• And then she slapped him around the face and walked off stage. 
• Fiyero wasn't pertubed by this in the least, and immediately went to hit on two girls in the background while Galinda and Boq did their bit. 
• As soon as Galinda turned up, Fiyero was all over her. And again, it came off super smarmy and creepy. 
• When he did the "what do you do for fun around here?" line, he took Galinda into his arms and like dipped her a bit, and went to kiss her; and then when Boq chimed in with "we've been studying" he stuck his head in between them, so they ended up each kissing one of his cheeks. 

Popular:

• Nothing really to note on the performance here. 
• They had a bright green light on Elphaba's side of the room, and pink on Galinda's side. 
• The shelves behind Galinda's bed had a bunch of shoes on it, per usual, but Elphaba's was weirdly empty.
• The beds had been pushed onto the stage by crew members (we could hear the movement before the lights came up). After Galinda had her "it's your very first party" line, right before Elphaba said "do funerals count?", a crew member popped up from behind Elphaba's bed and walked off stage, which was funny. 

I'm Not That Girl:

• In the beginning of the scene, when Elphaba was practicing her hair toss, all the other kids in class were watching, pointing and laughing. 
• Dr Niddick was a woman, which is new. 
• The Lion Cub was not a cub. It had a mane. But whatever. 
• Right before Dr Niddick went to inject the Cub, she did an evil laugh. 
• Another weird Fiyero thing- when he ran off to "get the Cub to safety", he ran off without the Lion Cub. And I thought "oh that's ok, he'll come back to get it. That's the joke." But he didn't. 
• So, Elphaba sang a lot of INTG to the Cub, and then in the instrumental break, took it offstage and let it go. While she was doing that, Fiyero and Galinda came onto the platform on stage left and made out for a bit. And then Fiyero just smiled at Galinda and they left the stage. No hesitating, no looking around for Elphaba, nothing. 

Train Station Scene/ One Short Day: 

• Fiyero didn't bing flowers to Elphaba. 
• And another weird Fiyero thing. When Galinda changed her name to Glinda, he did almost a little bow with his "that's very admirable, Glinda" line, and then started to walk off. And then he did a sharp turn around to Elphaba to wish her good luck. It was a really looked oddly sharp and over dramatic- not quite to the extreme of Draco or Lucius Malfoy in A Very Potter Musical/Sequel, but that kinda thing. It was so bizarre. 
• Emerald City costumes were good for the ensemble, although there were quite a few wearing green wigs. 
• Also, the ensemble member who gave the girls glasses did some very snazzy kicks. 

Defying Gravity: 

• Elphaba's hat fell off when she grabbed the broom. 
• She stood on the same platform that had been Glinda's "bubble" and they raised it so she flew. 

Thank Goodness:

• Good performance, but for some reason Boq was there????
• He was standing there watching as Glinda and Fiyero had their little conversation. It was odd, considering his "we can't leave Munchkinland" line. 

Wicked Witch of the East:

• Act 2 dress was pretty accurate. I liked it. 
• This production loved the dry ice. Every time Elphaba did a spell, she got a faceful of dry ice. 
• When Nessa was threatening Boq with her "did you think I'd let you leave me here flat?" line, she grabbed him by the shirt front and was right in her face. It worked. 

Wonderful:

• For some reason, after Elphaba releases the Monkeys, Chistery stayed? He climbed back atop the Wizard's head thing for the rest of the scene. I assume it was to help push it off stage once the lights went down, but in terms of the story, it made no sense.
• When Elphaba said her "Fiyero, you frightened me" line, she touched his face? And like... she has no reason to know his feelings at that stage, I don't know why she would do that. 
• Yet another odd Fiyero moment. He was right up in Glinda's face when he said "I'm going with her" and then he immediately did a sharp turn and walked over to Elphaba and then both girls were like "What?" 
• But there was a nice Fiyero moment- when he said "well, it was. But it wasn't." he took Elphaba's hand, which was sweet. 
• The Wizard said to Morrible "How about a change in the weather?" instead of Morrible. 

I'm Not That Girl (Reprise)/As Long As You're Mine:

• Glinda had a moment where she was standing on the platform on stage right, and she took off her engagement ring and put it on the railing before walking off. Nice moment and symbolism, unless you think about the fact that she bought herself the engagement ring. 
• SO. MUCH. DRY. ICE. At times, you could barely see Elphaba and Fiyero. 
• ALAYM wasn't as risque as the Canberra production, but they did spend a lot of time lying down. Like, Fiyero was lying on the ground with Elphaba kinda leaning over him as she sang, etc. 
• Fiyero's shirt was... yeah. It was like the shirt Mr Darcy wears at the end of the 2005 Pride and Prejudice movie, except I swear the neck line was lower. You could see like half his chest. 

Our Fiyero couldn't really pull this look off.

Just for this moment...?

• It was just a little odd. I swear, for most of the song, they could have been posing for the cover of one of those Harlequin romance books. You know the ones I'm talking about.
• It was one of the least enjoyable ALAYM scenes I've ever watched. (I'd say the least, but I am torn between this and one Fiyero I saw who kinda butchered the vocals). 
• At the end after Elphaba ran off to Nessa, they had an actual model of a house that kind of spun across the stage, which was cool. 

No Good Deed:

• They had Nessa's legs in the background. I was like "... oh."
• There was a cross in the background for them to hang Fiyero on. 
• As the lights went down, you could see the guards start to beat Fiyero- punching his gut, etc. 
• Elphaba's first "Fiyerooo" you could barely hear, but I think that was a mic issue. Her second "Fiyero" riff was awesome, but her riff on "again" fell flat. 

March of the Witch Hunters:

• Nothing to note here.

For Good/Finale:

• For Good was very sweet. My only note was "<3" 
• There was a voiceover the melting, with a voice saying "I'm melting!" which was... meh. But whatever. 
• I got teary at curtain call. May have been just a combo of the fact it'd been ten months since I'd seen it, and the realisation the next time I see the show (about 51 days from now) it'll be on Broadway.  Oz, I miss this show. 

That's about it. So, I wasn't rapt with Fiyero, and Glinda and Nessa were the standouts.