NYC Theater: Wicked Review – An Entertaining, Enchanting, Captivating Good Time

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Category: Haute This Issue
Published on Friday, 23 February 2024 10:59
Written by Janet Walker

Wicked, the enchanting, magical, musical currently playing at the Gershwin Theater on Broadway, in New York City, presents an adaption of the Wizard of Oz, taking audiences back to witch's academy, when friendships were made and severed.

The play opens with and quickly catches the audience up to the future. Elphaba, played by Alyssa Fox, was born green, and her sister Nessarose, played by Kimber Elayne Sprawl, is confined to a wheelchair. The family seems to be struck by tragedy. Until it is realized that Elphaba has extraordinary magical powers, which make her an asset.

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She is sent to boarding school and is placed in the room with Glinda, the good witch, played by McKenzie Kurtz, who is a vivacious, over-the-top, teenage squealing girl. The set props here are remind the audience of scenes in the 1995 film Clueless or the 2001 film Legally Blonde, filled with racks of shoes, and very girly.

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Glinda, who has always been the center of attention and is given anything she desire, is more than the good witch, she will inherit the throne and title, and so she doesn't need to really have an education.

On the other side is Elphaba, who has our sympathies, she is ostracized, and her hardships are visible, she is green, her schoolmates, teachers and society see her as repugnant simply due to the color of her skin. And her she is sent to this school, and of all roommates she is stuck with the blonde bimbo from Munchkin land.

Wicked centers on the awakenings that new environments bring, when children are sent to college and suddenly the world becomes bigger. Soon, and oddly, our opposites Glinda, and Elphaba are friends, and for Glinda, Elphaba is her best friend. It isn't that she sees her as a project, she simply sees her, in what may be one of the first transforming moments in Glinda's life.

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Of course, as Glinda has a best girlfriend, she is also at college to find Mr. Right, the perfect accessory to her title. And soon, the handsome Fiyero, played by Jordan Litz, who in the beginning seems as shallow and clueless as Glinda, and when they become a trio, like everyone Elphaba meets he slowly becomes his own person, sees her as a person, with depth. Glinda, who has already fast forwarded her relationship to Fiyero to their wedding day, really just can't imagine that he wouldn't want the life she has planned for him.

Throughout the musical, of course, we are treated with a wonderful soundtrack including "Defying Gravity," the signature song from the play. As the two, Elphaba and Glinda, become their destines, the traits of who they are, what they believe, and more what they will tolerate are tested, and "Defying Gravity," is for each of them, the instant, that releases them, for Elphaba, it becomes the moment she refuses to allows others to define her and for Glinda, she understand Elphaba's power, which is attractive and wants her to be more reserved.

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Wicked, an entertaining, enchanted, delightful, story of good versus evil, love, resentment, hurt, severed friendships, and unbreakable bonds. The story is familiar, easy to follow, with a soundtrack that will resonate.

Wicked is playing in New York City on Broadway, in London, and throughout the United States. It is a must see.

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