In the midst of the madness that has been July I got a chance to experience one of the best musicals on stage in decades!  For those of you who aren’t familiar with Wicked I’ll give you a quick run down.

Author Gregory Maguire specializes in writing re-imaginings of classic fairy tales from another point of view, and one of his most successful novels is Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West which is now an entire series of three (soon to be four) books offering a new perspective of the world in L. Frank Baum’s novel The Wizard of Oz.  The musical Wicked is a (very) loose adaptation of Maguire’s book.  It debuted in 2003 and quickly became one of the most successful musicals in years.  Currently the show is on it’s second National Tour, which is why I was able to see it at the Fabulous Fox Theatre in St. Louis.

Now if you don’t know, I think it’s only fair to admit that I’m a big fan of musicals on stage, in movies, or even on television.  They’re a guilty pleasure.  So, that said, you can imagine how excited I’ve been to see this show for a long time and how I went in with all the songs memorized and a good idea of the story and was even halfway through Maguire’s novel.  This wasn’t a blind exposure by any means, and in fact there were a lot of expectations and even a bit of fear that it wouldn’t live up to the hype I’d build up in my mind.

From my experience, the biggest change between a show on Broadway (or the CD or video from that show) and the live National Tour is the change of actors.  In the case of Wicked you have two of the most critically acclaimed actresses in Kristin Chenoweth and Idina Menzel being replaced for their lead roles.   I’m glad to say that for this tour the roles of Elphaba and Glinda are in good hands with strong talents – particularly Vicki Noon who absolutely owned the role of Elphaba from the soul-melting angst in her acting to the amazing vocals that sent shivers down your skin.  She was so amazing, that while I was trying to wade a crowd of hundreds down three flights of stairs everyone was praising her endlessly.  I won’t be the least bit surprised when she lands a major role in the near future.

The music itself was fantastic, and if you’ve never heard the score to Wicked I strongly recommend you make time to listen to it.  The songs are rich and vibrant – even though they all carry a slight dark and corrupted tone,  and at least half of them will get stuck in your head (which is a good thing.)  The play itself has that same style of mixing light comedy with dark undertones.   It isn’t sad or ‘emo’ but it does evoke a roller coaster of cheer and empathy then a mix of joy and regret all at once.  It’s a fun ride.

After finally seeing the show I came away with only one real complaint.  While the first act of the show is rich and detailed with good pace and strong character development the second act severely lacks in every one of those categories.  It’s fast and spotty, and characters flip their positions and motivations quickly and with no explanation.  While the first half builds up the world and cast of Wicked the second half just plows through all the events that the audience deserves to be emotionally invested in.  It would be like reading the last scene of Hamlet where everyone dies without really knowing why everyone was killing each other.  You’re still drawn into the intensity and power of the moment but you feel disconnected and a bit overwhelmed.  Or maybe underwhelmed.  Probably both.

STILL, the overall experience of this show is strong enough that it easily makes up for it’s one flaw.   The music is amazing and pulls you through, and the characters are vibrant and strong. If you get a chance to see it live during this tour, then for goodness sake go and see it!!