Wicked

Last night my wife and I saw the musical Wicked at the Ford Center for the Performing Arts at the old and beautifully refurbished Oriental Theater. We had great seats—eighth row center orchestra on the aisle.

The show provides an amusing back story to the events of The Wizard of Oz. It had a very energetic young cast and a pleasant but not particularly memorable folk rock score by Stephen Schwartz (Godspell, Pippin, etc.).

I thought the costumes and lighting effects were fantastic.

Our leads as Elphaba and Galinda were Dee Roscioli and Annaleigh Ashford, both extraordinarily talented young women. Ms. Ashford created the role of Elle in the staged version of Legally Blonde. I could definitely see her as Elle. I’m afraid it betrays my curmudgeon status but I wish they hadn’t been miked. Their voices really didn’t need it and I’d rather have heard their singing voices than the flat amplified tones.

In supporting roles as the Wizard and Madame Morrible were veteran character performers Gene Weygandt and Barbara Robertson, both with lots of stage, television, and motion picture experience under their belts. A couple of old pros really helps—whenever they were on stage you could scarcely take your eyes off them. Experience counts.

I thought that the book needed a little help (I’d have liked to have seen more character development for some of the supporting characters); my wife wasn’t as critical.

All in all a pleasant evening’s entertainment.

There was one other thing that impressed me that I should mention. Seated in front of us during the performance were a group of people with serious visual impairments. I thought the staff rendered good and appropriate assistance to them. I also noticed that they had setups to give them commentary something like the closed captioning on television. I didn’t find it obtrusive and I’m sure it helped enrich our seat companions’ experience of the show.