By Manning Harris
fmanningh@gmail.com
It’s back and better than ever and will probably break the house record at the Fox for the third time (it visited in 2006 and 2008). “Wicked” is playing through Oct. 9, and I’d get tickets now because they are going fast.
It’s hard to envision a more delightful, accomplished, and completely entertaining musical play; it opened on Broadway in late 2003 at the Gershwin Theatre (New York’s biggest), and has consistently sold out ever since. If you go to the theatre website broadway.com, you will learn that “Wicked” is consistently the highest grossing show in town. And this hardly scratches the surface of the show’s sellout world tours, where it breaks the house record everywhere it plays. I’ve heard of a show’s having “legs,” but this is ridiculous. It just keeps getting bigger. “Wicked” is the most profitable theatrical commodity on the planet.
Starting with an unlikely friendship between two young women, undercurrents of truth run through the show; the nature of good and evil and our unfortunate tendency to label people and ideas; seeing through sham (or not); the power of enduring friendship. The show is brilliantly witty: “There are precious few at ease with moral ambiguities; so we act as though they don’t exist,” says the Wizard. Would you like to be “Popular”? In song Miss Glinda tells you all about it, and in seconds the hypocrises of that quest come shaking out like loose nails.
We’re in Oz, you know (or have you been on the moon, my pretties?); and as the ads say, so much happened before Dorothy dropped in. Based on Gregory Maguire’s 1995 novel, “Wicked” is the untold story of the witches of Oz. Glinda, pretty and popular (Amanda Jane Cooper), and Elphaba, a green-skinned brainy young woman with a social conscience (Dee Roscioli), meet at college and have a mutual attack of “unadulterated loathing” for each other. Guided by the seemingly guileless Madame Morrible (superbly played by Alma Cuervo), they become not only roommates but best friends. But times are scary, paranoia is rampant, and scapegoats are sought (sound familiar?).
There’s a not very bright handsome young man named Fiyero (a somewhat lackluster portrayal by Colin Hanlon) who cheerfully admits “life’s more painless for the brainless.” Happily, “Wicked” shows us that people are capable of change. Mark Jacoby’s Wizard (a fine performance) shows us that he is all too human and well-versed in the art of compromise. Oh—call me corny, but I must say that the end of Act One (Elphaba’s “Defying Gravity”) has become one of those iconic, thrilling moments in musical theatre and gives me goose bumps, especially when the actress has a voice that soars, as does Ms. Roscioli.
Some of Broadway’s best minds put this show together: Stephen Schwartz, music; Winnie Holzman, book; Wayne Cilento, musical staging; Joe Mantello, direction. Other cast standouts include Justin Brill, Boq; Stefanie Brown, Nessarose; Paul Slade Smith, Dr. Dillamond. This cast, led by the stellar duo of Ms. Roscioli and Ms. Cooper, will make you “rejoicify,” as Glinda would say. Ms. Cooper’s Glinda, by the way, is wonderfully funny (“Let’s face it—who isn’t less fortunate than I?”).
There is a day-of-performance ticket lottery at the box office two and a half hours before the show for $25 orchestra seats. Such a deal! Otherwise, you’re on your own. It’s “Wicked” – go for it.
For tickets and more information, visit www.broadwayacrossamerica.com.
