Review: Wicked

Wicked

London, Apollo Victoria Theatre 02/01/13

So, as it happens my Girlfriend has seen this twice before and was ecstatic to suggest we go  see Wicked. It has always been something that I have wanted to see as it is a HUGE production and has been around on the West End since 2005/2006.

Aimee had been lucky enough to have seen the last performance version in the West End of the original Broadway actor, Idina Menzel. Aimee loves this musical so I was excited to finally see it for myself!

So, Wicked's music and lyrics are written by Stephen Scwartz and the book is by Winnie Holzman. It is based on a book written by Gregory Maguire in 1995 called 'Wicked: The Life and Times of The Wicked Witch of The West', which coincidentally runs parallel to the original Wizard of Oz film in 1939 that we all know!

The show began...

The story tells us of a unfortunate green girl named Elpheba (played by Louise Dearman) who attends Shiz university to look after her disabled sister. Also at the school is room mate Glinda (played by Gina Beck) who is beautiful, blonde and most importantly... popular. The hatred they have for each other soon turns to friendship as they both want to change the Land of Oz from weird goings on through the powers of 'good'. Once they meet the great and powerful Wizard of Oz in the Emerald City, their estimations of this the great man plummets as the cause of the strange goings on are down to him and he tricked Elpheba in increasing the wickedness. The trickery then leads to the general consumption that Elpheba is the cause of Wickedness in the land of Oz.... cue Defying gravity which literally forced the hairs on the back of neck stand up in awe of Louise Dearman's fantastic powerful voice!

Adventures continue for the pair of witches but Elpheba will forever be tarnished with being Wicked even though she tries to use good deeds. Cleverly however, the second half coincides with the original Wizard of Oz film and implies the whereabouts of Dorothy , The Tin Man, The Scarecrow and The Lion giving a different side to The Wicked Witch of The West at the iconic points in the film.

The show finishes with dare I say, an expected plot twist and the curtains go down.

I will admit now, although the music was powerful and the set was incredible for this huge theatre, I didn't particularly like the storyline and the relationship between the music and the story, there were points where time skipped too much and I was left slightly confused at the far-fetchedness of it all. However, i am glad to have seen it and to have experienced incredible voices which really sets this musical apart from the others due to the powerfulness by Louise Dearman and the company.

Random point to make which really did confuse me and make me somehow mildly discomforted was how the theatre was suddenly "Americanised". there were people up and down selling fizzy drinks and snacks plus little snack stands... Bizarre!

Overall, I give this show a rating of 3.5

http://www.wickedthemusical.co.uk