Wicked Awesome!

Last month for Angie's birthday, I took her to see Wicked! If you think you know The Wizard of Oz, you don't. Forget about the shallow, preachy, original black and white- then color - then black and white movie. No, you need to see the full color, live action production at the Ahmanson. If you can make it through the first half, and some of the mundane musical numbers, like the opening "Nobody Mourns the Wicked," that ends with an ensemble shouting "Wicked, Wicked, Wicked," (in case you didn't know what you were there to see) the story is really good.

The set design was outstanding. The "curtain" is a giant map of Oz, and the set sides are constructed of giant gears. Gears seem to be a recurring theme in the set design, but it works. From the opening scene, when Elphaba's (the wicked witch, for the uninitiated) mother is drinking "green" elixer, to Oz, when the set is transformed into emerald green lights and twinkling illumination, to the forests and castle scenes, every part of the production tied indirectly into the original story, but with a modern brush of industrialization. Nothing is grey in this play.

The story is a little weak at first, remenescent of a high school drama, complete with popular (annoying) bubbly blond, and the outcast, misunderstood, diamond in the rough. The musical numbers don't do anything to help, either. None of the tunes were catchy, at least I didn't think so. During the intermission, I told Angie that I was not yet impressed. Even the sound seemed weak to me, whcih is shouldn't have been, seeing as there were 5 line arrays that I could see. But the production redemed itself in the second half, and we find out where the lion, tin man, scarecrow, wizard, and witches all come from, why they are all the way they are, why monkey's can fly in Oz, and what is so special about those stupid jeweled slippers. For me, it added a much needed layer of depth and explination to the original story, and if you are familar with the prequel to Wicked, you'll understand a lot more about this musical than the adoscelent crowd that was overrepresented on the night we went.

Overall, I would have to give it an 8. I got an outstanding ovation, but it my opinion, it was only for the actors' gumption of pulling it off.

http://www.wickedthemusical.com/