Wicked at the Peace Center
This is the Wicked that people have been crowing about for the past 20 years?
On a production design and general imagination level, the hype is indeed warranted and enchanting from the get-go on the Peace Center stage. With a giant map of Oz emblazoned on the curtain and a metallic animatronic dragon with glowing red eyes above, it’s tough not to feel a sense of nostalgic Baum-bastic wonder at what’s about to unfold.
The magic only grows from there as the veil is withdrawn and Glinda (Celia Hottenstein) descends from the ceiling in a sort of steampunk bubble to field her fellow citizens’ questions about the death of the Wicked Witch of the West. And the technical elements remain strong as efforts from Eugene Lee (set design), Susan Hilferty (costumes), Kenneth Posner (lighting), Tom Watson (hair and wigs), Joe Dulude II (makeup), and Jake Bell (technical supervision) mesh well under Joe Mantello’s confident direction to sustain the visual allure.
The story of misunderstood green outsider Elphaba (Olivia Valli) likewise resonates with anyone possessing a heart, and her early days at Shiz University as odd couple roommates with the delightfully air-headed Glinda makes one wonder if the show’s creators have filed suit against Neftlix, Tim Burton, and the Wednesday team for copyright infringement.
Further intrigue arises via tension surrounding kindly Dr. Dillamond (a scene-stealing Boise Holmes), the “token goat” professor at the school who gets fellow outcast Elphaba’s mind whirring about animal rights and the reliability of news from the Emerald City. But as his storyline plays out and bad boy Winkie prince Fiyero (Christian Thompson) awkwardly romances Elphaba, Winnie Holzman’s adaptation of Gregory Maguire’s phenomenal book begins to falter and receives little help from Stephen Schwartz’s songs.
Placing Wicked’s two best (and only memorable) numbers — “Popular” and “Defying Gravity,” both of which live up to their illustrious reputations — in the back half of Act I is perhaps not the best idea, particularly when the second act tunes feel like little more than filler. And yet, the rapid decline in musical quality matches the increasingly frustrating narrative, which discards one compelling topic after another — animal rights! propaganda! the Wizard’s backstory! — in alarming fashion while favoring the bland Elphaba/Fiyero relationship and the poorly developed Dorothy/Toto subplot.
Original Broadway cast superstars Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth likely elevated the so-so material with their powerhouse vocals, and while Valli (a revelation in Pretty Woman) and Hottenstein are no slouches, they’re missing a special something here that might have lifted the uneven show. Instead, they merely do the best they can with what they’re given: an overrated musical whose reputation is in need of some serious reconsideration.
Wicked runs through Aug. 20 at the Peace Center. For details and tickets, visit peacecenter.org.
(Photo by Joan Marcus)
