The Beloved Musical Hit all the Classic Soft Spots with an Added Fresh Take for All Time Fans, and The New Ones Carried Over from the Film Adaptation
I cannot help but feel tingly when San Diego goes Emerald. Wicked has a hefty history that keeps adding, starting with Gregory Maguire’s 1995 novel. A very dark story about politics, colorful characters, and the Wizard of Oz. The musical adaptation came almost 10 years later, in 2003, with music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz and a book by Winnie Holzman. Adapting Maguire’s novel alone would not cut it, so they combined it with L. Frank Baum’s 1900 novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and its 1939 film adaptation. I always define it as the novel being “Disneyfied” for the musical version as, again, Maguire touches upon power, abuse, and captivity dressed with sorcery and colors, amongst other things. Without a doubt, Wicked, the musical as a finished product, is an absolute gem. An emerald, if you will, from the book to the music to the lyrics. With years passing and so many new shows coming like Hamilton or Mouline Rouge, Wicked stayed popular but not as it used to. The 2024 film version with Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo brought new audiences and a new breath to the beloved musical that grossed over $5 million in one week.
The well-timed tour comes with the film, Oscar buzz, and everything else happening. The plot is set in the Emerald City and Shiz University, where Galinda (Austen Danielle Bohmer) and Elphaba (Lauren Samuels) meet. The latter is there to care for her matriculated sister Nessarose (Erica Ito), the prized daughter of the Governor of Munchkinland (Wayne Schroder). Galinda is used to getting her way, and after a few bullying jabs at Elphaba for being green, she expresses interest in Madame Morrible’s (Aymee Garcia) sorcery seminar. Morrible will not have it, but the unexpected happens, and after having Galinda and Elphaba share a dormitory, or well, Galinda’s private suite, she changes her mind. The students have only one talking animal left in the faculty, Dr. Dillamond (Kingsley Leggs), and things continue to change at Shiz which Elphaba questions. A rich and spoiled prince, Fiyero (Xavier McKinnon), comes to the school, and Galinda is floored, while another student, Boq (Alex Vinh), is not. Elphaba expresses her concerns to Madame Morrible, and she suggests going to the Emerald City to see the Wizard (Blake Hammond). Morrible makes it happen, and Elphaba receives a personalized invitation to visit the Wizard, which she shares with Galinda. Once in the Emerald City, the women experience fascination, exposed truths, and the true meaning of love and friendship.
I have had the fortune of working on a couple of touring productions of this show and seeing its Mexican counterpart, where the actress who portrayed Elphaba, Danna Paola (now just Danna), was the youngest in the franchise at the tender age of 18. And, who, ten years later, returned to voice Elphaba in the movie dubbed in Spanish. The cast for this tour is fresh, the most diverse I have seen, and I absolutely loved it, from Xavier McKinnon’s corn-rowed Fiyero, with great smooth vocals, to Alex Vinh, a first-generation Vietnamese-American as Boq, and Erica Ito, raised in O’ahu, as Nessarose. Vinh and Ito had a great dynamic, good movement throughout the stage, and a nice musical delivery. Aymee Garcia as Madame Morrible was a total treat; the last time I saw her was more than 10 years ago in Shrek, The Musical, as Mama Bear. The contrast between those roles was excellent, showing Garcia’s histrionic range. I love me some Chistery, and as visual and stunning as the spider monkeys are in the production, they could get lost in everything else that is happening. DJ Smart is a gorgeous Chistery, giving that beautiful character the space it needs and deserves. Although brief, Blake Hammond is charming as the Wizard, and Kingsley Leggs embraced Dr. Dillamond’s sensitivity, which was charged with a strong, deep intonation.
Bohmer and Samuels, as Glinda and Elphaba, have great stage chemistry, and like with every touring production, each actress gives the role their own style and flair. Sometimes, it is tricky with a blockbuster like Wicked because the characters’ mannerisms and quirks are so well-known that audiences expect to see just that. In the case of Lauren Samuels, she stayed close to the popular Elphaba and displayed great, strong vocals. Austen Danielle Bohmer gave a less loopy/playful Glinda, switching it for a more stoic, cynical one, which, even though different, worked. The vocals, however, were not as potent. Glinda has vibrato and opera. Formidable, long, substantial ranges that Bohmer struggled to hit, at least in the performance I saw. It could be due to a cold or that flu that has been going on, and again, she made it her own, and it still worked.
This production can be seen time after time, enjoying lovely designs like Eugene Lee’s set that houses the school, the Emerald City, the Wizard’s quarters, etc., accompanied by Elaine J. McCarthy’s projections that round out each key scene. Kenneth Posner’s beast of a lighting design, with Defying Gravity alone, takes the cake with a masterful display of color and direction. Susan Hilferty’s costume design has contrasting patterns that go perfectly with Tom Watson’s hair and wig design. And, of course, the music. From Stephen Schwartz’s beautiful music and lyrics to William David Brohn’s orchestrations, Alex Lacamoire and Stephen Oremus’s music arrangements gifted the world with what are now timeless classics like Defying Gravity, Popular, The Wizard and I, I’m Not That Girl, amongst the rest.
Wicked is currently performing until March 2 at the San Diego Civic Theatre. For more information, click here.
You can also Defy gravity by winning the show’s lottery, where a limited number of tickets will be available for every performance for $30 each. The lottery opened Monday, February 3, and will close at 3:00 PM Friday, February 28.
HOW TO ENTER
- Use the official app for BROADWAY SAN DIEGO, now available for all iOS and Android devices in the Apple
- App Store and the Google Play Store (https://www.broadwaysd.com/mobile-app/).
- The lottery will open at 10:00 AM and close for entry at 3:00 PM each day before the performance.
- Winner and non-winner notifications will be emailed between 1:00 PM and 4:00 PM for the upcoming performances. Winners will have 60 minutes to claim and pay for their ticket(s).
- No purchase or payment is necessary to enter or participate.
- Each winning entrant may purchase up to two (2) tickets.
- Only one entry per person. Repeat entries and disposable email addresses will be discarded.
- Lottery tickets may be picked up at will call beginning 2 hours before the performance with a valid photo ID.
- Lottery tickets void if resold.
