Wicked

Wicked is the back story for the Wizard of Oz, Hollywood's greatest children's musical. Where did the scarecrow and the tin man come from? Who was the witch that the house fell on? Why was Glinda so good? And most pressing question of all, why is one of the characters green? Wicked answers all these questions.

Notable about this performance was that the sound was not too loud!!!! This is worthy of major celebration. The singers' problems were their own and not those of the usual modern musical sound system distortion.

The story should probably be called Good, not a good title. The end is so unrelentingly happy it could be a Baroque opera.

In their photos the blond character has dark hair in real life, and the green/dark one is a (badabum) blond (crash). Dianne Pilkington who played Glinda has a fluttery voice suitable for the Billie Burke role while Kerry Ellis as Elphaba, the Margaret Hamilton role, is a belter. The type casting switch seemed to work well.

There were a lot of children in the audience who shouted instead of clapping. The broomstick broke, causing much laughter and breaking of character by the actors. It was fun. I've wanted to see it for years, and now I have.