Wicked
[Devin Dayley]
Cast Led by:
Jackie Burns as Elphaba/The Wicked Witch of the West
Kara Lindsay as Glinda The Good Witch
General Summary:
This play goes behind the scenes of the classic story, The Wizard of Oz, and tells of things as they were before Dorothy came to Oz. The play explains more of who these witches, Glinda The Good Witch and The Wicked Witch of the West, are and what events led up to them being who we see and know in the film.
Review:
On February 9, 2019, I saw the Broadway show, Wicked, at the George S. and Dolores Dore Eccles Theater in Salt Lake City, Utah. This may have been one of the best casts I’ve ever seen. I have seen this show a total of 9 times. Twice in Los Angeles, three times in Salt Lake City, once in Chicago, and three times on Broadway. I know this show. I have gotten to a point where, instead of just enjoying the show for the music and the story, I judge the actresses based on other actresses I’ve seen in the past.
So I will first review this particular cast, then I will review the show. “Jackie Burns holds the title of Broadway’s longest-running Elphaba.” So you expect her to be good, right? Well, she defies expectations. See what I did there? Defies? If you’ve seen the show you’ll know what I mean. She has played Idina Menzel’s understudy in another play on Broadway, so she sounds a lot like her AND she looks like her. So that helps. Plus, she’s got a voice that is so powerful that it sounds like it must be tiring to sing her part every day.
As for Kara Lindsay. I know her voice from Newsies, where she played Katherine Plumber, and I heard that she played Glinda on Broadway. I could automatically hear what I thought was her rendition of Glinda in my head and I thought that’s not that good. It’s adequate but not amazing. I was wrong. She, like Ms. Kristin Chenoweth, is able to manipulate her voice to be a great opera singer or a great singer. Not a lot of singers are able to do that.
This is a story about friendship. Yes, it stars two women, which makes it especially necessary at this time. However, the heart of this show comes from the friendship that is fostered between the two main characters. This is the type of show that ends giving you more faith in humanity than when you came in. Which, I believe, the world is seriously lacking- faith in humanity.
This show is fun, it’s emotional, it’s enthralling, it’s breathtaking, it’s chill-giving, it’s family friendly, it’s just a good time at the theater. There are costumes and sets that have intense color that make the show fun and entertaining for small children, and vocals, story, and acting that make the show entertaining for adults. There is no one that I would not recommend this show to. Even people who “don’t like theater,” I believe, would like this.
I love theater! So my baseline for anything theater related would be a 6.0/10. But since this is Wicked and contains the cast it does, I will give it a 9.7/10.
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