Student Reviews

Samantha Richard

First off, I give my applause to the show. It was a phenomenal show that I would definitely pay to see again. The costumes were lovely, the lighting was amazing, the set transitions ran really smooth, and I really liked the fact that there was a live orchestra instead of a recording.

The costumes were really extraordinary. Especially during the Emerald City scenes and the Ozdust Ballroom scene. I like that all the costumes were not all of the same color green for the Emerald City scenes. There were even some hints of blue in there. The Ozdust Ballroom costumes were adorable. The black and white dresses were my favorite. They were just so beautiful. One costume that is really memorable though is Elphaba's. I love how it never really changes; it just gets items added to it. It goes from a simple dress to the dress and the hat. Next came the broom, then the cape. Everything just transformed into this righteous costume, which will come to mine every time I think of Wicked.

I don't have much to say about the lighting other than it was done really well. One of the only things I noticed with the lighting was that during the Emerald City scenes, the lights went all green, and it was like you were looking through the green glasses that the characters received. I felt like I was being included in the play in a little way.

Another thing that I noticed was that the set transitions ran really smooth. I know that at least some of the set transitions were done with mechanics, and I was rather worried that something might jam or not run as it was supposed to. But everything went perfectly. One thing that was more of a prop mishap was when Elphaba had to put her suitcase up in one of those pillar things, it didn't go in as swiftly has planned, and it made her a little tiny bit late for the beginning of her song. Luckily, she was able to recover really well. One sound tech mishap that I wanted to address and that was that the wizard's machine was highly inaudible. It was really hard for me to understand what the wizard was saying through that mic.

Last but not least, the music. I was really happy to see that there was a live orchestra instead of a recording. Things just get more difficult with recordings. Sometimes they get screwy or they skip and why risk it. I'm not saying that having a live orchestra doesn't have its risks, but there's less of a chance for something to happen. There were sometimes that some of the dancers and the music were off beat with each other but that could have happened with a recording too. Fortunately, at least for this performance, nothing bad happened, and everything went swimmingly.

Wicked gets a round of applause from me. It was a phenomenal show that is worth seeing. The costumes were extraordinary, the lighting was incredible, the set transitions were really smooth, and the music was live. I give it five out of five stars!

Sara Sommers

This production of Wicked is definitely one to gossip about. It is very highly acclaimed, and with reason! It is definitely worth your time and money. The characters from Gregory Maguire's novel Wicked, the prequel to L. Frank Baum's The Wizard of Oz, are fully formed with great personalities which are further complimented by their costumes, which were phenomenally crafted and very artful. The actors made few mistakes, and when they do, they make up for it quickly, so unless you were looking for them, you wouldn't see them. The performance was overall refreshing.

The costumes were elegantly designed, and reflected the characters perfectly. Elphaba (Donna Vivino) constantly wore drab, shapeless dresses and that ugly pointy hat fit her smart, thoughtful and fiery personality wholly. Glinda (Katie Rose Clarke) was very perky, as should be, and her all-over pink and yellow dresses, with glitter and sequins covering all only exemplified her hair shaking, bouncy, omigod kind of persona. Madam Morrible (Myra Lucretia Taylor) had bustles, high collars, and shuffling made you realize her striving for attention and glory.

The lighting was perfect, with dark, deep purples and blues during the sad and passionate songs, and so many green lights in the emerald city that you really felt like you were there, wearing those green-tinted glasses. The live orchestra made no audible mistakes, just the tuning of a piccolo before the show started.

The dancing always corresponded aptly with the mood of the scene. Most dancers moved around the main characters, who did not dance as much, but never blocked them from view for more than a split second.

I fell in love with this play as soon as they started singing. I am not usually into musicals, especially when the songs don't fit quite right, but I had no problems with that in Wicked. The actors were in pitch and I only caught one mistake, when Donna Vivino is putting a suitcase up on one of the set pieces she had a bit of a hard time lifting it, so she was a bit late for the beginning of the next song, but not by much, and made up for it quickly.

My one last criticism is that the Oz Machine that the Wizard speaks through is hard to understand because of its high volume and distortion. Otherwise I thought the show was overall awe-inspiring and full of catchy tunes and costumes that must have taken hours to think about, not to mention sew together. The actors and actresses were very well-rehearsed and sang beautifully. Wicked is definitely worth your money, whether you have been to countless other musicals, or if the only production you've sat through is your older sibling's high school play.

Alicia Battle

On Thursday November 6th I saw Wicked. I had fairly high expectations for it, seeing as it has won so many Tony awards and is so highly acclaimed. I promise you, I was not disappointed at all.

Wicked was funny, touching, and easy to relate to. It also made you look at the classic story of The Wizard of Oz in a totally different light, giving you the prequel on that mysterious character the Wicked Witch of the West. Seriously, it turned the whole story on its head. Of course, it wasn't just the writing, the acting, and the music that made it amazing; there were many other components that made this show so great.

I absolutely loved the dancing in Wicked, and it never seemed out of place to me. When Wayne Cilento choreographed this, he did a great job because the dancing totally matches the characters' personalities. Glinda's dancing was always perky and happy, even when there wasn't any music she'd be jumping around and flipping her hair like crazy. At first it was almost annoying but you got used to it after a while. In contrast, Elphaba always danced more slowly and thoughtfully- when she danced at all- almost creepy. There were touches of modern, jazz, ballet, waltz, and some hip-hop. There was even a bit of ribbon dancing when Glinda and Elphaba got to the Emerald City. I think one of my favorite bits of dancing was in the very first scene with Elphaba's mother and her green-elixir-giving lover. It's almost flirtatious the way they flit around each other, her trying to grab the bottle of elixir from him. That was definitely the most memorable dance in my mind.

The lighting was also very well done. It was often used to create certain moods and emotions and it came off fairly well. In the very first scene when Glinda begins to tell the story of her and Elphaba there is this huge shadow of the Wicked Witch of the West that dwarfs Glinda's own shadow. Honestly, it kind of scared me, but I think that it was meant to symbolize what the citizens of Oz thought of Elphaba. One of the best uses of lighting in the whole show was right before the intermission when Elphaba is singing "Defying Gravity" when she is hoisted into the air. It's completely dark on the stage except for some spotlights on other characters, Elphaba is wearing this cape that flows out behind her and there are these green swirling lights that look like the northern lights. It's pretty amazing, the whole effect. I got chills watching it.

Yet another element to show the characters' personalities was the costumes. This was most obvious in Elphaba and Glinda of course. Elphaba wore a lot of drab looking dresses with no real shape and black boots, but with each costume change the outfits grew more intricate, so that by the end she was wearing this regal black gown with complicated embroidery patterns on them. Glinda wore plenty of sparkles and large hoop skirts and had a ton of outfit changes. She always stuck out and pastels were a constant. As the show went on and she matured her skirts slowly started to grow longer and longer. Madam Morrible's outfits also described her very well. They were very fancy with these large bustles in the back and they always tightened at her ankles so she couldn't walk easily. To me the costumes seemed to push the idea that Madam Morrible was a very uptight woman who was trying to appear much more important than she really was. There was one little touch that I absolutely adored, and that was how Elphaba's sister, Nessarose, wore the black and white striped stockings and the sparkling slippers that the Wicked Witch of the East wore in The Wizard of Oz.

The only thing I didn't understand was why her slippers were silver instead of the ruby red we're so used to. Overall, I absolutely adored Wicked. I suggest that if you have the chance to see it you definitely should. You will come out of the theatre seeing things in a totally different way, because one of the things Wicked does best is show you how things are almost never as they seem.

Stephanie Perry

Sitting in row DD, seat three, I looked at my surroundings; it was a full house at the Orpheum Theatre, eager theatre goers were buzzing with excitement and anticipation as they too settled into their seats to watch the prequel, spin off of The Wizard of Oz, Wicked, Gregory McGuire's take on what really happened before and during Oz. Since Wicked has acquired numerous Tony Awards, I expected nothing less than the best as the lights dim, and the flying monkeys crank open the curtains.

Ah, those winged monkeys. With them in appearance, plus Glinda and the citizens of Oz, the show opens with, "No One Mourns the Wicked." The choreography was less than impressive because there wasn't much of it, and at times it seemed that the characters were lost. "The actors/actresses voices aren't anything spectacular," I remember thinking. I closed my eyes and began counting down the minutes before the musical was over.

Within a minute of that initial thought, my opinion began to shift. A sound as supple as cotton candy serenaded my ears, the bubbliest voice I had ever heard. The voice was sweet as sugar and wonderfully operatic, reaching up into the heavens one octave at a time. Katie Rose Clarke, known as Glinda, the good witch of the north, harvested said voice.

As the musical went on, and Elphaba made her appearance, my opinion moved further to the impressed side. Elphaba's voice (or rather Donna Vivino's voice), was strong as an ox and as powerful and energized as the Energizer Bunny, meshing as well with her character's personality as did Katie's to Glinda. I could feel the power in Elphaba's voice as a charge of electricity ran the length of my spine, kicking up my heart beat. Inside of that green skin and those frumpy clothes, laid a beastly voice comparable to the baby cub she saved early in Act I.

In clear contrast to one another, both Glinda's and Elphaba's voices were pulled seamlessly together in "What's That Feeling?" The song was beautiful in every sense of the word and their chemistry was most evident during this song. During the musical, Glinda and Elphaba go through a series of changes such as: Glinda's voice and attitude, Glinda's wardrobe, and Elphaba's attitude. At the beginning of the musical, Glinda's voice is bubbly and full of vibrato, show-offy, like life was a stage and she was the star. Along with her vicious hair shakes, she was pretty full of herself. Slowly, she matures and gets to be more caring and aware of others. Glinda's wardrobe starts out bright and leggy, but soon becomes more modest, even with the pastels (I notice that she stays away from the color green).Elphaba's attitude from the start was spiteful, sarcastic, and filled with self loathing as the "If I Were"s pierced her songs. But by the end of Act I, she found herself. That chamber inside of her heart stored all of her self-love. She flew up above the people of Oz in "Defying Gravity", and a cacophony of colors surrounded her.

In my mind, the fabulous voices of the witches more than compensated for some of the other less-than-extraordinary aspects of the show such as: Elphaba's mismatching green skin pigments in the first ten minutes of the show, and less-than-spectacular dance scenes with the exception of "Dancing through Life." Other things added to the show's magnificence, like the truly emerald, Emerald City, and the mechanical wizard whose voice made your seat vibrate.

By the time, the musical ended, I had my friends on speed dial, bragging about the awesome play I had just watched, leaving audience members clapping until their hands were red and raw, and saying, "They sing like that every night?" This musical is money well spent and will hold you siege as you keep reminding yourself that yes, you are watching a musical and that musical, is perhaps the greatest musical around.

LaToya Miller

With the title "Wicked", the first thoughts that appeared to me were evil, witches, and a lot of the color green. I imagined there to be a lot of ugliness. The play was actually somewhat of what I expected, but there was much more to it than that. The play gave a lot of explanations to questionable events that took place.

One thing I didn't know is that "Wicked" is actually the prequel to the "Wizard of Oz". "Wicked" explained how the things in the "Wizard of Oz" took place. It importantly clarified the whole depiction of witches overall. Why witches are green, why they fly on broomsticks, and where the tall pointy hat came about, and so much more. We discovered how Tin man, Scarecrow, and how the Cowardly lion came to be how they are. The author was very clever and the whole plot was put together well.

Elphaba and Glinda stole the show with their singing. The lyrics and choreography was great. Glinda made the show a comedy with her ditziness for boys and her hair tossing. I loved when someone tried to pronounce her name how she emphasized the "Guh" in it. She said "It's Guh-linda, you know with a Guh!"

The show kind of differed in my expectations. It was sparkly and the fact that the wicked witch wasn't wicked or evil at all, and the fact that the so called good girl was actually really mean.

"Wicked, overall was excellent. I give it two thumbs up. I recommend it to all young and elderly to go out and see

Diamond Billiger

As I arrived to the theatre not knowing what to expect, I was overwhelmed with excitement. It was the beginning of an experience that I would never forget! As I watch other spectators join together from all walks of life, to experience what "Wicked" had to offer. The vast cultural difference in all age brackets was simply amazing to me. After its first run of a play, it was nominated for a Tony award.

Just given the title, I imagined it to be in the way of a horror or mystery. But to my amazement it was totally different. As the lights went dim, anticipation of what was to come filled the air. The opening scenery was dynamically designed. As Glinda (Katie Rose Clarke) floated to the surface in what appeared to be a bubble, I knew at that point that this performance was going to surpass my expectations. The illumination that arrived with her and followed her throughout the entire play was outstanding. She carried such beauty with a spectacular voice to match. Her costume design matched her character to the fullest extent in every scene. The design for every scene was ingenious. The lighting, costumes, and set design together made it all appear to be real. I was captivated from the beginning. It was like I was being led into the time and place that was being demonstrated on stage. I could feel the emotions through the voices of the characters as they spoke and sang. Each costume design allowed me to have a sense of time and place and revealed the character as well as their emotion at the time. The most beautiful voice that a person could have generated live on a stage was carried out by Elphaba (Donna Vivino). Her singing sent my imagination soaring into the world she was in at that time. There was no mistaking that her strong voice paralleled character she played.

I felt that the character of Fiyero (Cliffton Hall) did not perform to his greatest potential. The emotions he demonstrated for Elphaba did not appear to be genuine. He gave me the impression of being a indiscriminate young man which could have contributed to Elphaba's behavior toward him.There was not much choreography but the small numbers they had didn't really keep my attention.

The music was performed by a traveling orchestra. Conducted by Boko Suzuki and they were well rehearsed and performed flawlessly. It seemed as if they had pre-recorded the entire program, when actually it was a live performance from beginning to end. The sound effects incisive, the pitch was perfect, and implausible.

Most people would rather go to a movie theatre before choosing live theatre. Live theatre has so much more to offer that a movie theatre. It gives you the sense of living in the moment, connecting with the characters, and sort of participating emotionally. I would recommend "Wicked" for all to have that temporary emotional attachment.