WICKED RETURNS.

BroadwayInChicago has announced WICKED, Broadway's biggest blockbuster, 

will return to Chicago in celebration of its 10th anniversary on Broadway 

for a limited 8-week engagement:  Oct. 30 to Dec. 21, 2013.

Long before Dorothy drops in, two other girls meet in the Land of Oz. One - born with emerald-green skin - is smart, fiery and misunderstood. The other is beautiful, ambitious and very popular. WICKED tells the story of their remarkable odyssey, and how these two unlikely friends grow to become the Wicked Witch of the West and Glinda the Good. Based on the best-selling 1995 novel by Gregory Maguire, WICKED, winner of 35 major awards, including a Grammy and three Tony Awards, is the untold story of the witches of Oz. It is produced by Marc Platt, Universal Pictures, The Araca Group, Jon B. Platt and David Stone. WICKED has "cast quite a spell" (Washington Post) throughout North America, breaking box office records in every city that it has played, including Toronto, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Washington, DC, Philadelphia and Boston to name a few. WICKED has been declared "A Cultural Phenomenon" by Variety and "The Best Musical of the Decade" by Entertainment Weekly. There are currently 7 productions worldwide: New York, London, Holland, Japan, Australia/New Zealand, and two concurrent North American Tours. Globally, WICKED has amassed nearly $2.9 billion in ticket sales and has been seen by 36 million people worldwide in its 9-year history.

~TheatreInChicago

I am sad to say that I am not one of the 36 million people who have seen WICKED. But that doesn't mean it hasn't had a substantial effect on my theatrical education & upbringing. I've loved this musical for a long time because it's unique, funny, thematically intriguing, & catchy; it also has had a substantial effect on musical theatre as a whole. The idea behind the musical was genius: everyone loves the Wizard of Oz, so there was a built-in audience base. Re-imagining the traditional story had already been achieved with The Wiz, but offering the prologue to the traditional story was just genius [sidenote: I've always wanted there to be a revival of The Wizard of Oz on Broadway where the entire cast/set were in black & white (a la Pleasantville) until Dorothy landed in Oz. It would be a smash hit]. WICKED is show that set trends & jump-starts careers. The original Broadway production starred Idina Menzel as Elphaba (who replaced Stephanie J. Block~ read that that story at the bottom of this blog) & Kristin Chenoweth as Glinda. Idina Menzel had already won a Tony for her performance as Maureen in RENT, so she was already a Broadway baby. Kristin Chenoweth has achieved fame that straddles film, stage, & screen, but she still relatively unknown when cast as Glinda. I had seen Kristin Chenoweth in her 1997 Broadway debut in the short-lived musical Steel Pier. The show didn't find much success on Broadway, but I vividly remember being wowed by the tiny, blonde soprano belter. Both of these women deserve all the success they have achieved & being the original leads in WICKED production staff certainly played a pivotal part in the development of both of their careers. 

TRENDWATCH: THE FLYING ACTOR

[extended version; she takes off for flight @ 6.08]

I am not a fan of spectacle for the sake of spectacle, but I really love that contemporary technology has allowed actors to FLY. This trend is 100% due to the trailblazing staging efforts of WICKED. Due to the parameters of the story, it is so essential for Elphaba to actually fly & I'm glad they faced the challenge head-on instead of concocting some strange artistic cop-out. Two musicals that have also incorporated this trend are Mary Poppins & Spiderman: Turn Off the Dark. I saw Mary Poppins on Broadway & the show ends with her flying over the audience all the way up to the 2nd balcony & disappearing into the ceiling of the theatre. It was a pretty awe-inspiring finale & allowed the production to maintain the same quality it exhibited with choreography, costumes, & casting. Just like Elphaba, an essential element of Spiderman's character was his ability to fly; Spiderman has gotten so much bad press for actor injuries, but, after YouTubing when the 99% of the time that the flying went well, I was pretty impressed. Just like any trailblazing technology, putting actors in the air is a risk & backfires. Things didn't go so well for Aladdin & Jasmine, but, overall, I'm grateful that Elphaba paved the road for other actors to defy gravity as well. 

THE AWESOME ANTHEM: "FOR GOOD"

[If this video seems familiar, it's because I posted it in my Wicked DreamCast, but I love it, so whatever.]

I lived just outside of Boston when the book Son of a Witch was released & attended a talk by author Gregory Maguire & composer/lyricist Stephen Schwartz. During this talk, Stephen Schwartz recounted writing my favorite song For Good: he was talking on the phone to someone & trying to figure out how to conquer the duet between the witches to anchor the end of the second act. While on the phone, he said something along the lines of wanting to acknowledge that both women were permanently effected by their friendship. But instead of saying permanently, he said "for good." He immediately realized the double meaning in that phrase & started writing the show's amazing concluding duet For Good. He also acknowledged the fact that writing this song was an exciting challenge & unique responsibility since a blockbuster musical centered around two women's friendship is a rare gem. This has always been one of my favorite parts about WICKED; there is a sense of familiarity that I am positively not alone in feeling when listening to this soundtrack. The only other musical I can think of that centers on a non-sexual relationship between 2 women is Side Show [which tells the true story of Siamese twins Violet & Daisy Hilton's career in vaudeville]. I loved Side Show [click here for my DreamCast], but it was a flop. WICKED proved that women can carry a musical; I don't know if that was ever a conscious intention, but it certainly was a nice side effect. 

WICKED & CHICAGO

It should be noted that WICKED has a special history with the city of Chicago. WICKED first played a limited engagement from April 29-June 12, 2005 at the Oriental Theatre. The producers decided to extend it to and open-ended run, which made it the first non-Broadway on-going production. It re-opened at the Oriental the day after the tour was set to end & closed Jan. 25, 2009 after over 1,500 performances. WICKED returned for a special limited engagement from Dec. 1, 2010-Jan. 23, 2011. This upcoming, 10th-Anniversary limited engagement will run from Oct. 30-Dec. 21, 2013 [hopefully with the option to extend]. Tickets are currently available for groups of 15+ by calling (312) 977-1710; individual tickets will be available at a later date. 

It is my personal theory that a great deal of the success of Broadway in Chicago is due to WICKED's overwhelmingly successful run. It identified Chicago as a city where theatre is not only well-received, but has an audience base that allows it to stand the test of time. While WICKED was running in Chicago, they utilized the lottery system for tickets that RENT employed on Broadway. A lottery was offered on the day of the show & the winners could purchase $25, front-row tickets. To incorporate a lottery means the tickets were in consistent demand, which speaks well for the production as well as it's audience members.

 [sidenote: this option has recently been made available for The Book of Mormon as well]