“Wicked” the musical!

When Dorothy famously triumphed over the Wicked Witch we only ever heard one side of the story.

“Wicked” is set in the re-imagined Land of Oz creating a parallel universe to the familiar story “The Wizard of Oz”. We follow the incredible untold story of a profound but quirky friendship between two girls who first met as sorcery students at Shiz University. One is called Glinda – the popular, beautiful, blonde girl – and the other is Elphaba – the green and misunderstood witch.

Following their encounter with “The Wizard of Oz” their friendship reaches a crossroads and their lives suddenly take very different paths. Elphaba proves to have determination of steel as she chooses to remain true to herself and uses her powers to fight for what she believes in. However Glinda who has an unflinching desire for popularity, is quickly seduced by power, and they both follow extraordinary adventures in Oz to finally reach their destinies as “Glinda The Good” and “The Wicked Witch of the West”.

“Wicked” is very much known for its superb score by Stephen Schwartz as it features extremely demanding songs such as “Defying Gravity” and “The Wizard and I”. I was impressed with both actresses playing Glinda and Elphaba as they had outstanding voices that very much suited their characters and they both gave flawless performances. This show has an incredible amount of costume changes and I particularly enjoyed the Tim Burton-inspired theme carried out through the ensemble of slightly hypnotic characters. The choreography and ensemble singing was all very tight, catchy and certainly carried the show as the story unravels.

If I had to sum up this musical in one sentence I would say that it tells a universal story, with characters that will break your heart, memorable songs and generally there is wit and charm in abundance. Visually this show is very striking and with lots of children and young people in the audience, from what I could tell they were all hooked!

Wicked is currently showing at the Apollo Victoria Theatre and is taking bookings up until April 2016. Be sure to get yours!

Jigsaw Performing Arts is dedicated to developing performance skills, promoting self-expression and building confidence. We offer performing arts classes for children aged between 3 – 18. Find your nearest school by entering your postcode into the search on our home page.