Wicked revisited

Us fairies had something of an epiphany recently, and we decided to share it with you.

Wicked.

OK - we've seen it a few times and like it. We think it has some cracking songs and, of course, staging and costumes to die for. But generally there's always been something that has stopped this musical from reaching the dizzy heights of a 'must see' for us. We're all for seeing something new, and although we resisted seeing 'Wicked' for the longest time, when we did eventually succumb we did fall in love with the idea of it (and do a good rendition of 'Popular' and 'Defying Gravity' on long car journeys...) as it is visually so impressive as well as having a few really catchy tunes. What has let it down, at least for us, is the story line which is so weak and in some places trite and so mawkish that you're reduced to tears for the wrong reasons. Same with the lyrics; though generally good, there are some truly rubbish ones. Nonetheless, it's an enjoyable show.

We weren't expecting to see or hear anything different last week, but we had the opportunity to go and see the show again and like hell we'd give up the chance of a night at the theatre. And we saw the show with completely different eyes. Why?

Because we saw it in the dress circle. Who would've thought it would make such a difference? We've only seen the show from the stalls before. The sound quality hasn't always been brilliant; we were accustomed to hearing what sounded like overly loud amplifiers and microphones cutting out every so often, with the ensemble sounding as if they had to shout over the melee. Yet in the dress circle, sitting slightly further back, the sound was vastly improved. The orchestra sounded so much better. Not only that, but the lighting and special effects, which before had looked impressive and rather lovely, now looked amazing. What a revelation.

There are characters in the story that really never develop and are there just to keep the story ticking along in some direction or another. For us, Nessarose, Boq and Fiyero really are a bit pointless.Controversial we know, but it's our opinion and we're sticking to it! Not because they don't fit in to the story, but their parts are written so thinly that they seem like a waste of space. The part of Nessa is not really a gift, for example, and regardless of the skill or talent of the actress, she will always be portrayed as bitter, angry and selfish. Really not very likable. Boq is always a bit...unnecessary, other than becoming the tin man. George Ure was fine in the part, no quibbles, but Ben Stott made us sit up and listen to Boq more so than usual. Normally Boq gets ignored by us, but not this time. Good work!

Which brings us to Fiyero. Never a favourite. We first saw Oliver Tompsett in the role, and sure he had a pleasant voice, but he looked acutely uncomfortable sometimes. Lee Mead...played Fiyero straight and didn't get the comedic aspect. Left us cold. And then we see Mark Evans. He has a nice voice, but more than that he has stage presence and comic timing. He doesn't take it too seriously. He had us in fits of giggles with his dancing in 'Dancing Through Life' as he did in other scenes; in the serious ones he still kept his acting the right side of funny. We were truly impressed. For the first time EVER we thought Fiyero was OK. He was played as a doofus who knew his own limitations. He was the mindless scarecrow. Lee Mead played him as a self important prince. You never really believed his Fiyero. You do this one.What an improvement. We found ourselves rooting for Fiyero!

No real reason to critique the leads - we like Louise Dearman a lot and she was great on the night. Nikki Davis-Jones was on as 'Elphaba' and was OK...ish. Karina felt she over-acted and her voice wasn't great. What we did discover was that the whole show works brilliantly when the cast play the show for what  it is;  a slightly silly fairy story but with a sweet message. Play it any other way and it can seem a bit stiff and unintentionally funny. Keep it light and fluffy. It works so much better.

We left the Apollo feeling almost as if we'd seen a whole new show. Who would have known!!