Posts Tagged ‘Wicked’
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Going with yesterday’s review of Wicked I thought I’d focus this week’s Twitter Tuesday on one of the actresses who made the show such a success. So, this week our focus will be on Kristin Chenoweth!
Kristin was the original Glinda the Good for Wicked when it was on Broadway. Before that she won a Tony Award as Sally Brown in You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown. She’s also done some television, having won an Emmy Award for her role as Olive Snook on the show Pushing Daisies, and also playing a role on West Wing and most recently the reoccurring April Rhodes on Glee. Obviously to have won a Tony OR an Emmy would be great, but Kristin has proven her talent by winning both.
If that’s not enough, and really it should be but you know… just in case, Kristin has also done voice work for the new Tinkerbell movies and Robot Chicken, made a few Funny or Die videos, written her own memoir, starred in the made for TV movie The Music Man with Matthew Broderick, has appeared three different times as a part of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, been a guest judge for American Idol, toured with international pop sensation Il Divo, and done a few small movies like Bewitched, Stranger Than Fiction, and Four Christmases.
Oh, and then there’s her music! Three of her own albums with a fourth slated for later this year. If you’ve heard the soundtrack to Wicked or seen her episodes on Glee then you know she’s got talent, but if you don’t let me point out that she’s classically trained with a range of four octaves. That’s a lot of octaves. It’s actually a shame that Twitter is a text program, cause if they could let you share singing I think most everyone would have put Kristin on their follow list by now.
Even without a vocal system on Twitter I highly recommend following Kristin because, lets face it, the woman is a star in every sense of the word! Stage, film, musical, written word, national tours, and on and on. The bottom line: she’s Popular.
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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!!
