 Newspaper View
 Print
 Email
 Comment
 RSS
 Bookmark
If you would like to bookmark this article you will need to Login to your tulsaworld.com account
close
'Wicked' just feels so darn good!
Magic rules the PAC stage before the curtain falls
"Wicked" continues at the Tulsa PAC's Chapman Music Hall, 101 E. Third St., through Aug. 9. Tickets are still available for most performances, but are getting scarce. For ticket information, call 596-7111, or go online to tulsaworld.com/mytix. Courtesy
By JAMES D. WATTS JR. World Scene Writer
Published: 7/18/2009 2:21 AM
Last Modified: 7/18/2009 4:30 AM
A lot of things are wrong in the Land of Oz.
Animals aren't being allowed to speak. Monkeys are taking flight. Wizards aren't the benign bumblers we always imagined them to be. And the giant dragon clock that dominates the land has 13 hours.
But there is nothing whatsoever wrong with "Wicked," the musical that provides this alternative view of the fanciful world created in 1900 by L. Frank Baum and made immortal by the 1939 film, "The Wizard of Oz."
The national touring production, which opened its 32-performance Tulsa run Wednesday at the Tulsa Performing Arts Center, is simply extraordinary. And Thursday evening's performance — the first one that the press was allowed to see — was one of the most completely satisfying experiences I've ever had watching a work of musical theater.
The nearly three hours it takes for "Wicked" to unfold seem literally to fly by — this is one of those rare shows in which everything works, where every moment has a purpose in telling the story or revealing a character.
Nature of evil
A good deal of that is due to the source material — Gregory Maguire's 1985 novel that re-imagined the world of Oz from the viewpoint of the girl who would become known as the Wicked Witch of the West.
Composer and lyricist Stephen Schwartz and book writer Winnie Holzman have necessarily simplified Maguire's epic story, and sweetened its bitter, darkly tragic tone. But there still remains enough of Maguire's original concerns — about the nature of evil, the ease with which innocence can be corrupted by the smallest smidgen of power — to make "Wicked" a musical that leaves you pondering philosophies as much as humming melodies once the curtain comes down.
That said, "Wicked" does not stint on the things that people usually expect from Broadway musicals — spectacular sets, eye-popping lights, dazzling costumes, moments of "how did they do THAT?" stage magic.
This production also has a superb cast that gets the most of these things, as well as working that special magic that appears when very talented performers work their alchemy on such mundane objects as words and musical notes to create something that — no matter how familiar — sounds wonderfully new.
At the heart of the show is the relationship between Elphaba (Marcie Dodd), a green-skinned young lady with — not surprisingly — a sour opinion about the very pale people around her, and Galinda (Helene Yorke), who is a hyperactive, helium-voiced blonde happily used to being the center of attention and getting everything she wants.
Elphaba has a keen sense of injustice, especially for creatures such as her professor Dr. Dillamond (David DeVries), a goat who is one of the last animals to be allowed to speak, much less teach. She's also mindful, in her way, of the needs of her sister Nessarose (Kristine Reese), who's confined to a wheelchair.
But Elphaba also is aware that she possesses a unique power — something that brings her to the attention of Madame Morrible (Marian Caskey), who in turn brings the girl to Oz's shadowy ruler, the Wizard (Tom McGowan).
It seems the only power the Wizard has is the ability to build mechanical contraptions that seem magical. To have under his command someone like Elphaba, who is truly magical — just look what she did for the monkeys! — the Wizard would be invincible.
When Elphaba refuses to cooperate, she is suddenly labeled as "wicked." Her efforts to do something good, or at least forestall the bad things that continue to happen, end up going awry. Family and friends turn on her, and the gears of fate grind on to a fateful meeting with a girl named Dorothy and a big bucket of water.
Or something like that.
Perfect contrast
Dodd is onstage for much of the evening, and her performance is at once finely nuanced and full-out. The little familiar touches she adds — a great Margaret Hamilton cackle now and then, for example — seem at once startling and perfectly right.
Yorke constrasts Dodd perfectly. During "Popular," the excitement of taking on the challenge of making over Elphaba in Galinda's own image has her bouncing around the stage like a puppy on amphetamines. Her confusion as her desires get fulfilled in ways she doesn't like, and her spitefulness when she discovers the one thing she truly wants belongs to someone else, is well-played.
As the man who comes between Elphaba and Galinda, Colin Donnell cuts a suave, even heroic figure as Fiyero, and proves himself more than capable of "Dancing Through Life," moving about the stage with fluid ease.
McGowan is an avuncular villain as the Wizard — someone with little concept of the trouble and pain he's caused by trying to fulfill other people's mistaken ideas about who he is.
At Thursday night's performance, Celebrity Attractions president Larry Payton said more than 75,000 seats were available for "Wicked" during its Tulsa run. That sounds like a lot. It isn't. This is a show to see, and — just as in Oz — the clock is always ticking.
James D. Watts Jr. 581-8478
james.watts@tulsaworld.com
By JAMES D. WATTS JR. World Scene Writer
Copy Text
Search for this phrase/name
Close
Newspaper View
Print
Email
Comment
RSS
Bookmark
If you would like to bookmark this article you will need to Login to your tulsaworld.com account
close
 |
|
