Jere-Rigged

And Not In A Good Way

So last night, on my fifth attempt (Thanks for the good karma, Matt!), I finally got into Wicked, the big splashy new musical at the Gershwin Theatre. Mine was the very last card pulled and I was stunned. It was to be a harbinger of things to come.

And how ironic is it that I was saw musicals in both of Broadway's huge, soul-less barns in the same day? I've come to realize that it may not be the buildings themselves, both of which do have their odd charms, but rather that it takes an especially innovative director to make them work, not unlike the Gershwin's neighbour, the Circle in the Square Theatre. You can't just throw up any piece with any director in one of these places.

Back to Wicked, though...

I purposely avoided the press on this show as much as possible, so that I'd go into it as unbiased as possible. Nor have I listened to the cast recording. Until last night, I was Wicked ignorant, as they might say in Boston.

Oh, boy. The show turned out to be poorly written and ineptly directed, and the evening was salvaged (barely) by some terrific performances from a game cast.

Again, I was stunned. I spent much time in this space awhile back praising Joe Mantello's direction of the Assassins revival at Studio 54. Wicked seems to be directed only for those audience members sitting in the center of the auditorium, a huge mistake since the box office charges money for the seats of the sides as well. In just about every scene, the leads at center stage are partially obscured by members of the ensemble just populating the stage and/or set pieces that have rolled out for the occasion. Mantello should have brought more of the action downstage or made sure that the ensemble stayed more upstage. This tendency of Mantello's to ignore the sides of the auditorium is something that I hadn't noticed before in his work, but which was one of my few criticisms of his Assassins direction.

But Mantello isn't the prime offender here. Wicked's writing, both book and score, by Winnie Holzman and Stephen Schwartz, is probably as poor as any major musical I've seen. And, yes, I've seen Aida. There isn't really a single memorable song in the score. And the book has no idea what it wants to be.

When you are creating a musical that is tangentially connected to a classic movie that everyone has seen many many times that creates its own visual world and vocabulary, you either embrace that pre-established world with absolute fidelity or you go in a separate direction and create your own world in which to tell your story.

Wicked does neither. Or rather, it tries to do both. At one point it sort of becomes a neo-Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead for the Wizard of Oz set. We see scenes that are supposed to be going on parallel to those in the film, but what we see on the stage contradicts what is seen in the film or vice versa. The character of the Wizard is alternately presented as the country gentleman of the film and a power-mad fascist whose despotic reign in Oz resembles nothing less than the Third Reich.

And some of the events of the film are presented out of sequence, which struck me as the oddest thing of all.

There are even moments when the show morphs ever so briefly into other shows. There's an Aida moment, an Evita moment, and a whole Beauty and the Beast song.

Anyway, Wicked is based on a novel by Gregory Maguire, which purports to tell the backstory of the Wicked Witch of the West and how she came to be wicked and despised. Along we way, we discover that Elphaba (the Wicked Witch's actual name) was the college roommate of Glinda, the future Good Witch of the North, and faced much derision from classmates due to her green skin. Also, in the class are Nessa Rose, Elphaba's crippled sister, the future Wicked Witch of the East, Fiyero, the class golden boy who only has eyes for Glinda, and Boq, another Glinda acolyte who is loved by Nessa Rose.

Through the course of the show, we watch as Elphaba turns from outcast student to political activist to domestic terrorist. And we're asked to root for her all the way, another weird viewpoint from a weird show. This aspect of the musical is almost presented as an a rationale for terrorism.

Idina Menzel is Elphaba and she brilliantly executes the strange journey her character takes over the course of the show. Strangely enough for such a strong belter in such a belty role in a ballad-heavy show like this, Menzel is strongest in Elphaba's quieter moments. As odd as it does sound, Menzel does make the audience root for her domestic terrorist character and that is quite a feat in 21st Century New York.

The role of Glinda has been tailored to Broadway golden girl Kristin Chenoweth and it's a mixed bag. The material isn't all that challenging for her, but she's giving it her all and nearly succeeds in stealing the show away from Menzel. The most interesting part of her performance was that Chenoweth hasn't had an opportunity to play such a right bitch since A New Brain's Nancy D., The Thin Nurse, and Steel Pier's Precious McGuire. And she's perfect for it. Her Glinda isn't sweet or even especially nice, and thank goodness for that. She's the campus beauty who willingly becomes a political tool of the corrupt right wing administration of the Wizard. Chenoweth is a trouper, but I no longer question her "early" departure from the show in July. I'm sure she wants to use her currency from this success to get herself a more challenging role in a better show.

The other cast members are equally successful at working within the confines of their script. Joel Grey as the Wizard, Carole Shelley as the mysterious Madame Morrible, and especially Norbert Leo Butz as golden boy Fiyero all work hard to fill in the dots with likability that haven't been filled in by the writing.

And the set design by Eugene Lee is as weird and unexplained as the rest of the show. The motif is giant interlocking gears and I have no idea why. There are no references to anything like this in the show. There is a huge moving metal dragon atop the proscenium for reasons known only to the production staff; there are no dragons, metal or otherwise, mentioned in the show.

The choreographer is Wayne Cilento who has provided the same generic steps here as he did for the Elton John/Tim Rice Aida. Eh.

The costumes by Susan Hilferty are lovely and go the furthest toward creating the world of the show. I give the ensemble a lot of credit for keeping the complicated getups together through all their entrances, exits, and gyrations on stage.

Have I made it clear how disappointed I was by this show? I can't remember wanting to like a show so much and being so let down. But I was distinctly in the minority...the audience was eating the show up and cheering every bit of it. Okay...whatever...

So, those of you who love this show, please leave me comments below and tell me why.

Posted by Jere at May 23, 2004 09:59 PM | TrackBack