Review: West End musical Wicked wows with power vocals, set and costumes

On Monday evening the children were reading a Wizard of Oz picture book and on Tuesday six-year-old Big Girl was carrying Michael Morpurgo’s Totoaround and even reading in a taxi to Victoria. This week has been all about the Land of Oz, gearing up for our evening out reviewing West End musical Wicked, which opened in London on 27 September 2006 at the Apollo Victoria Theatre where it is already the 9th longest running musical in West End history.

Wicked is based on the Gregory Maguire novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, which re-imagined the Land of Oz and created a new version of L. Frank Baum’s 1900 classic The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. The musical tells the story of how Elphaba, The Wicked Witch of the West, and Glinda The Good met at university. The events in Wicked are often described as a prequel to Baum’s classic, but the story takes place before, simultaneously and after the happenings in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.

Elphaba, who to her parents’ horror was born with green skin, is soon recognized as having special powers after starting university, while the pretty Glinda is the popular girl who is all about appearances and used to attracting admirers. After being forced to share a room together, Glinda and Elphaba form an unlikely friendship, and Elphaba brings Glinda along to Emerald City when she is invited to meet the Wonderful Wizard of Oz following her success in the sorcery class.

It is in Emerald City that Elphaba faces a tough decision, and audiences are treated to a true wow-moment when she sings the beautiful power ballad Defying Gravity by Stephen Schwartz and rises up from the stage in a number that marks the end of the first act. During the song, I was whispering to Big Girl that Laura Pick, who played Elphaba on the night, had a smashing voice, and we were both in awe by the time the interval hit.

In addition to being left with the feeling that this musical is one to watch for the vocal performances, we were also talking about the costumes after the show – particularly all the imaginative green creations worn by the large Emerald City ensemble, as well as the goat Doctor Dillamond’s costume.

From the moment we sat down in the now green-themed theatre with green lights outside and green seats inside, the set design caught our attention. There’s a giant dragon mounted at the top of the stage, making for an impressive, moving centrepiece.

Young children may find the dragon a bit scary-looking, but in terms of the story, it wasn’t before the last action-packed 15 minutes of the musical that Big Girl, who saw Wicked for a second time, commented it was scary. The story has also opened up for discussions about differences and prejudice, as well as friendships and sticking to a good cause.

For me, Wicked has all the ingredients that we’ve come to expect from a first-class West End musical– powerful voices and dancers and glorious costumes and set.

Wicked continues an opened-end run at the Apollo Victoria Theatre where tickets are currently on sale to Saturday 30 November 2019. For half-term, an extra performance has been added on Thursday 21 February.

Photos by Matt Crocket (The photos show Alice Fearn as Elphaba)

Tags: Musical, Review, West End, Wicked