The rundown on my 31st show of Wicked, my third community theatre production.
This time, I wrote my notes out during the show in the dark (as opposed to trying to reciting notes to myself throughout and then scribbling frantically through intermission), so we'll see how much they make sense now!
No One Mourns the Wicked:
Our Glinda was a good vocalist. At times a little over the top in her acting- which you can do with Glinda, but it didn't always work in this case.
Also, the Monkeys. They entered through the audience to come up on stage, which is fine. I've had that happen before and I don't mind it. But they entered at the top of the overture, I found that a little distracting. The overture is such a moment, let us have a bit of it to set the mood before the Monkeys come in!
The staging of the birth of Elphaba was staged with the bed being brought out while the Wizard came out, facing away from the audience. The Wizard and Melena hopped on the bed during their little dance, and then the Wizard ran off and Melena went into labour.
Maybe the director couldn't find a fake belly and way to hide it? I don't know.
Dear Old Shiz:
When looking at the cast list, it didn't appear as though the ensemble was much smaller than a usual cast, but either it was- or DOS was just staged badly.
Instead of having ensemble members run off while Glinda was talking, to be replaced by Shiz students later, they would walk off in twos and threes with dismissive gestures- as though they were turning away from Glinda and just walking off.
But that meant by the time Glinda got to "and we were both very young" there were only two ensemble members on stage, and then all the Shiz students appeared.
Also, Glinda was waving her wand, as though to conjure all the different parts of Shiz and such- including Elphaba's arrival.
While the students were running away from Elphaba, one girl held her nose, as though Elphaba stunk, which I thought was a bit much.
G(a)linda and her friends were laughing and talking during Morrible's welcome speech, with a particularly loud burst after "nothing but the highest hopes", so it looked as though Morrible added the "for some of you" in response to that. As a teacher (though hopefully a better teacher than Morrible!) I found that appropriate.
When Elphaba first introduced herself, she pronounced it as "Alphaba", with a heavy emphasis on the "A" and I was worried, but that was the only time.
The Wizard and I:
Our Elphaba had a good voice, and she could hit the notes but didn't quite have the belt to sustain the big ones.
Her acting, however, didn't quite do it for me. It kinda felt like the actress didn't really know what to do with her hands throughout the show, and so just kept gesturing. And while there are moments in the show where that works. But there were a lot of moments where it didn't.
What is This Feeling?:
Nothing really to comment on here, except for the last chorus, they were all doing the same choreography- including Elphaba. Not a huge deal, except the point (for me) of WISF, is to establish Elphaba as an outsider. Having her dance along with Glinda and the ensemble ruined that for me.
Something Bad:
Our Dillamond was fine but didn't really sell the "G-G-Glinda" for me. Likewise, Elphaba's speech about maybe "some of us are different" had no fire.
She was very stiff and cold throughout, which meant Galinda's retort of "Well, I see the artichoke is steamed" fell flat (although people still laughed).
Morrible also entered the classroom earlier than usual, and just stood there watching Dillamond and Elphaba talk for a bit.
Dillamond neither hid the chalkboard nor made an effort to do so.
Dancing Through Life:
Fiyero's entrance was fine.
In fact, our Fiyero was great and (in my opinion) the strongest cast member. Which is no surprise, given our Fiyero actually was in the ensemble and understudied Fiyero in the 2010-2011 Aussie production.
That being said, Fiyero and Glinda's meeting was a little awkward. It felt like Glinda missed a cue, or forgot a line for a second or something.
My notes just say "Fiyero👍✅✅✅✔" (actually, it just had a tick. But I just found out you can use emojis here, and got excited)
Boq on the other hand... Act 2, I liked him (we'll get to that). Act 1, I found him a bit... almost creepy? I don't know what it was. Maybe it was that he was by far the tallest Boq I've ever seen (he towered over Glinda).
And there was a bit during DTL where he went to sit at the base of the statue, folded his arms and sulked.
I don't know. It just really rubbed me the wrong way, and I didn't like him.
When Morrible entered the OzDust to talk to Galinda, she called her Elphaba at first.
When Elphaba entered, and Nessa wheeled herself out of the room, Elphaba went after her but stopped just short of exiting the stage.
Popular:
There was a moment in Popular (I didn't note when exactly, and I'm trying to think of it right now and blanking...) but Galinda was laughing and she snorted. Not sure if that was an acting choice or an accident, but she played it really well.
Elphaba's toss, toss attempts were in silence? At first, I wondered if it was a sound issue, but it wasn't.
Galinda called Elphaba's dress "your simple, ugly frock".
She did a "testing 1,2,3" with the wand that was funny.
Oddly, my friend didn't like this song? She thought it was so shallow, and I'm like "That's the point! If you think about the lyrics, it's not shallow!"
I'm Not That Girl:
OMO, I was looking at my notes and it looked like it said "INTG- glaves" and I was like "wtf? What's a glave? Did I mean glove? Why would I write glove?"
I then realised it's "INTG- glasses" (again, I wrote these in the dark, often while not actually looking at the paper to try and focus on the show).
Anyway, why did I write glasses?
Because Elphaba, once she took the flower from her hair, put her glasses back on! First time I've ever seen that. I mean, she took them off again before her magic went haywire, but I still liked that she put them back on for a moment.
When Elphaba gave her "can you imagine a world?" speech, she and Fiyero were standing right next to the Cub's cage surrounded by students and the teacher, and I don't buy no one wouldn't overhear them talking. She did move during "someone has to do something" line, but it was odd staging.
But the Lion Cub scene. I loved that scene. Elphaba grabbing Fiyero's hand looked so natural (because sometimes it can look awkward) and when she let go, Fiyero shook his hand a little and put his hand on his heart!
It reminded me of the hand flex/twitch scene in the 2005 Pride and Prejudice movie, and I just loved it.
When Fiyero took the cub, he didn't do the "oops, it's the other way" thing. Which doesn't really matter, but I always enjoy it.
INTG was sung really well. I think it was really in our Elphaba's range and it was done beautifully.
Glinda came on stage earlier- while Elphaba was first singing "blithe smile, lithe limb," etc.
One Short Day:
When Elphaba and Glinda ran off to do their change for OSD, Elphaba didn't take her suitcase. So Glinda grabbed it. Not sure if she forgot it, or if it was planned, but I was like "random".
Which was not the most random thing in this scene.
There were all sorts of random things in this scene- ensemble members were zipping around the stage on roller skates, bikes (not so random), scooters, Segways and a shopping trolley?!
My friend who I went with said (because the director was her HS drama teacher so she knows him) that he likes to put "quirky" things into his shows (for whatever reason). But I found it really distracting and odd- mainly the shopping trolley.
This is also the first community theatre production I've seen of the show that included the flat tops in the Wizomania part (or tried to). They were dressed in these... well:
Except that they were white, not green.
A Sentimental Man:
Chistery was a girl!
And Elphaba hesitated after grabbing the Grimmerie before running off stage.
When the guards came on stage, they all had the "Oz" symbol on their clothes- except for one, who only had an "L". Another one of those "quirky" director choices.
But again, I found it distracting. Was he supposed to be a 'learner' guard? What did the L stand for?? I still don't know.
Defying Gravity:
Elphaba hit the notes but lacked power a bit for the big belts. But she still flew, I still teared up.
When I asked my friend what she thought of the show at intermission, she said "I'm so immersed!" and she thought DG was great. Which means I can still be friends with her 😂 LOL.
Thank Goodness:
There was a Monkey on stage in the beginning to raise the curtain, which didn't make as much sense as it does in the overture.
After Fiyero ran off, Glinda didn't go back up onto the podium until her "bridges you didn't know you crossed until you crossed" line, so she sang that middle bit of the song upstage, while the ensemble and Morrible were frozen around the podium.
Wicked Witch of the East:
I really liked Nessa's dress in this scene. I didn't really have any strong feelings on our Nessa.
They lowered the curtain for this scene as a backdrop, so it looked as though Nessa had a giant map of Oz on one wall of her study.
Elphaba's Act 2 dress was pretty if a bit too sparkly.
Boq was really good in this scene, especially in the "my heart is shrinking!" bit, and that redeemed him from Act 1 slightly. Far less creepy.
My friend leaned over here when Boq came back as the Tin Man and was like "Ohhh, I get it!" which made me laugh.
Wonderful:
Our Wizard had a decent voice, but I've always scene Wonderful as the Wizard putting on a show, you know? Trying to lull Elphaba back on his side, and our Wizard didn't make it much of a show.
Fiyero had a sword, instead of a gun. I'm not sure if they couldn't find a prop gun, or it was just another director choice. Either way, wasn't a huge distraction.
When Fiyero said "I'm going with her" Elphaba's response was "Whaat?" (I don't think that describes it very well. This is the closest equivalent I could find on youtube, but it's not exactly right). And it was funny but didn't really work at the moment.
I'm Not That Girl (reprise):
Elphaba and Fiyero came on stage at the beginning of the song, instead of near the end, so they were just milling around as Glinda sung.
As Long As You're Mine:
There was no kiss between Elphaba's solo and Fiyero's, but it was a really beautiful performance. Their voices blended well together, and it was right in our Elphaba's range again.
My friend didn't like this song either. She thought it was cheesy and in the wrong place.
After Nessa's death, the background was just a house silhouette and some corn stalks, so there wasn't much there.
During the catfight, there was kung-fu music (?!) as Elphaba and Glinda prepared to fight. I did not like it.
And when the guards came on, they just stood there for a bit watching and smiling to one another like "yeah, girl fight!" Ugh.
Fiyero's rope swing was great. Got a lot of laughter and applause, and then he was strutting around the stage for a bit until they stopped, which while funny didn't really work in the moment.
No Good Deed:
While Elphaba was chanting the spell, her voice echoed a bit, which was awesome.
March of the Witch Hunters:
The witch hunters marched off stage while singing at the end.
For Good:
Was fine, except Glinda and Elphaba both sung to the audience more than each other.
After Dorothy "melted" Elphaba, her silhouette shrugged as if to say "oops". Didn't love that either.
After, my friend was like "I don't understand! How did she survive? In the Wizard of Oz, she clearly melted!" so I had to explain that.
We also had a talk on the way home about politics and stuff, because she was like "where does it fit timewise in history?" and I just laughed and said "depends on whether you want to go by Wizard of Oz book or movie, or the Wicked book or when the musical was made" because she was getting communism vibes for a lot of the show.
My friend also said "I can see why you like it so much. It's got so many layers and deeper meaning", and she said that she really enjoyed it! So, that's another win for me!
Overall, it wasn't as good as the Canberra production I saw, but better than the Wollongong one. I was honestly just relieved that I liked our Fiyero, because (even though I saw the Wollongong production in August and I saw it on Broadway last month) the Wollongong one left me a little unnerved. I didn't like not liking Fiyero!
I think that's everything I can think of about the show... costumes and sets I was mostly happy with. I didn't like the "quirk" the director added though.
