Lisa Howard endows Shiz headmistress Madame Morrible with an enjoyably withering hauteur, wringing every ounce of performative juice out of the character. Bent on establishing a repressive regime, sinister political forces are cracking down on dissent by literally taking away the voices of animals. Meanwhile, in the background, shadows are gathering over the land of Oz. Elphaba, too, is smitten with Fiyero, but she is aware, as expressed in her heartbreaking “I’m Not That Girl,” that he’s out of her league and could never be interested in her. Glinda begins a romance with a dashing and handsome prince as shallow as she is, named Fiyero (an excellent Jordan Litz). Holzman’s choppy book, alas, is decidedly earthbound it has always been, and remains, the show’s weak point.Īt Shiz University, a complicated friendship begins to bloom between two roommates who are antagonists at first: Elphaba, a green-skinned outcast, later to be known as the Wicked Witch of the West and Galinda, later to be Glinda the Good Witch, a popular and unstoppably perky blonde. Schwartz’s score still glows and burns, still stirs and soars, as it delivers gem after gem, whether funny (”Popular,” “What Is This Feeling?”), anthemic (”The Wizard and I”), or intimate (”For Good”). “Wicked” is, of course, the back story to “The Wizard of Oz,” based on Gregory Maguire’s novel and featuring music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz and a book by Winnie Holzman. It’s got a freshness, even urgency, about it, as if doing justice to this musical matters as much to this stellar road company as it does to the young spectators in the seats, many of whom have doubtless devoured the cast album but are seeing the show live for the first time. Nor was there any guarantee that the tandem of Lissa deGuzman, as Elphaba, and Jennafer Newberry, as Glinda, would prove to be as terrific as they are.īut not a moment of this Joe Mantello-directed “Wicked” feels rote or phoned-in.
Still, given the guaranteed bankability of “Wicked,” it was not a given that the current touring production would be as outstanding as it is. High stakes are thus built into every performance of “Wicked.” The unwritten terms of the usual contract between performers and audience are unusually exacting ones when it comes to this show.
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