Does anyone like to make lists of their five or ten favourite musicals? Maybe that’s just me. Anyway, this next musical on our journey through musical programmes takes us to one of my very favourite musicals, Wicked (so apologies in advance for any excessive fangirling). My current top 5 that I’ve seen live (since you asked) are: 1. Waitress (I saw that in London last summer with my best pal), 2. Wicked, 3. Annie (see previous posts- I've seen this a few times but all amateur shows), 4. Six (saw it in February of this year in Edinburgh), and 5. Come from Away (I saw this in Toronto with family in summer of 2018).
The programme pictured above is from when I went to see Wicked in London ten years ago when I was ten and a half (in October 2010). With music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz, it really is an absolutely incredible show that I cannot praise enough. It was also really nice because we were staying with my Mum’s cousin, Steph, and her family and it made it extra special that we went to see the show with them. We’d hardly spent much time in London as a family up until this point and it was such a contrast from the small town in Scotland where we lived at the time, that apparently, I made a point of saying that London had ‘everything’ (bit unsure what exactly this ‘everything’ was referring to) and was ‘on the edge’ of my seat throughout most of Wicked. Around this time, my parents started to realise that this love for musicals was not a passing phase.
Wicked was based on the 1995 Gregory Maguire novel Wicked (The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West), and the subsequent other novels that followed in the series. The books and musical seek to cast the infamous Wicked Witch of the West, or Elphaba as she’s called in Wicked, in a more sympathetic light by giving origin stories to her and some of the other main characters from The Wizard of Oz. Arguably, one of the most important relationships that is explored in the musical is between Elphaba and Glinda and how they become best friends despite the antagonism that exists between them at other points in the story. The musical focuses more on the romantic aspects than the books do and is very successful at incorporating foreshadowing, homages and references relating to The Wizard of Oz, and building the familiar fictitious world of Oz but interpreting it in a very different way and with new perspectives. It also has some HUGE tunes (Defying Gravity, Popular, Thank Goodness, One Short Day, Dancing Through Life).
Musical theatre legends, Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth, are known for originating these roles, Elphaba and Glinda, respectively, on Broadway in 2003. They both also appeared on Glee and got a chance to show off their extremely impressive voices (I haven’t mentioned Glee for a couple of posts but this week it is back with a vengeance!). Unfortunately, they didn’t sing any of the Wicked songs that were covered on Glee, but all the versions on the show were still insanely good. Here’s one of the two versions of Defying Gravity that you can see in Glee (this one from series 5, the first was in series 1):
Glinda’s characterisation and development in Wicked is very interesting, as Kristin Chenoweth herself discussed how she altered her singing voice to make it gradually slightly deeper to indicate that Glinda was changing and growing as a person. The fact that the character actually goes from calling herself Galinda in the first act to the more familiar Glinda in the second act might relate to this as well. For instance, whilst Glinda is definitely not a villain in Wicked, it is implied that she is less perfect and angelic than she seems, and more focus is put on Elphaba to show how good her heart really is and that she’s not necessarily as evil as she is generally portrayed to be. Interestingly enough, in more recent years, there have been fan theories speculating and questioning if Glinda really was as kind-hearted and perfect as she might seem in the 1939 film, as she only stepped in to tell Dorothy how to get home at the very end and wasn’t always there to save them from the witch.
The particular London production of Wicked in October 2010 was at the Apollo, Victoria (which either is or isn’t West End, depending on who you are talking to – it felt pretty West End to me!). It actually featured ‘the’ Lee Mead (as mentioned in a previous blog post), as Fiyero, who becomes the scarecrow, Louise Dearman as Glinda and Rachel Tucker as Elphaba (Tucker and Dearman in programme photos above. Photos in programme by Tristam Kenton). Rachel Tucker was an incredible Elphaba who has played the role in both London and New York and who appeared in the 2008 BBC TV programme I’d do anything, which looked to cast the role of Nancy in a revival of Oliver in the West End. Jodie Prenger was the winner of the series and went on to appear in many shows around the country but many other very talented and successful performers who were still in their late teens at the time, got very close to winning, such as Samantha Barks, who has appeared in many musicals and the 2012 movie version of Les Miserables, and Jessie Buckley, who has appeared in several major movies and television programmes, such as Wild Rose (2018) and Judy (2019), giving her a ‘Rainbow connection’ to the wonderful world of Oz , after all, as Judy tells of the life of Judy Garland. Do you have a ‘Rainbow connection’ to Oz? I wish I did. In the meantime here I am again trying to be a lion (this time in Trafalgar Square in 2010).
p.s As a Friends fan it was hard to get through this post without saying ‘London baby’. And look I nearly made it. Shout out to all the Friends fans…
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