Wicked

       I was really excited to see Wicked. I'm a massive fan of The Wizard Of Oz and so to find out about the witches of Oz before Dorothy, was something I found really interesting. The show has received rave reviews and has won 90 international awards. However upon seeing it, I'm sorry to say I was left disappointed. I'm sure there will be lots of people out there who will love it, so even though I didn't like it please don't take it as me saying "don't see it".

       Firstly, I'm not a big fan of the Apollo Victoria Theatre. The last time I went to the theatre was in the early/mid 90's when I went to see Starlight Express, which ran for over 7,400 performances at the theatre. Back then I was young, and actually I don't remember the theatre being that big. Now however I am much more aware of the fact that the theatre is massive. In fact it has the greatest capacity of any West End theatre, with seating for 2500. I was sat in seat X39 in the Stalls, which is 22 rows back. The seat is £65 and personally its the first time that I felt Id paid far to much.

       For me, when I go tot see a show, I like it to feel that they aren't using microphones, like they are singing with just the power of their voice. For me most shows in the West End do this, however in the Apollo Victoria it is beyond obvious that microphones are being used. This for me stops me getting involved with the story and the characters involved. It automatically disconnects me from the show. The sets and costumes however, created by Eugene Lee and Susan Hilferty, are fantastic and are in fact probably the best part of the whole show. They were really the only reason I enjoyed watching. I probably would have left otherwise.

       As for the performances, well they were good. Not outstanding but good. Maybe the fact that I could always hear a bit of reverberation due to the microphones, but the voices were really not as good as I had been expecting. Don't get me wrong, Louise Dearman as Elphaba ad Gina Beck as Glinda are perfectly good singers, but they didn't blow me away. Saying that, I loves Gina's performance of the song Popular. Comically perfect both in timing and the cuteness of how she sings it.

       As I said before, I am a massive fan of The Wizard Of Oz and so the most disappointing aspect of the show was the story. Not that its badly written, though its not great, its that some of it completely contradicts The Wizard Of Oz. I cant really say what exactly, as if you go and see Wicked I don't want to ruin the story, but the whole dream like state that Dorothy appeared to have been in in The Wizard Of Oz is completely thrown out of the water. I know that for the show they stay true to the book on which its based, Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West written by Gregory Maguire and published in 1995, so I blame that totally on Mr Maguire for ruining a perfectly good story. Now if the book had been written before the original The Wonderful Wizard of Oz written by L. Frank Baum and published in 1900, or before the popular 1902 Broadway musical and the well-known 1939 film adaptation (both titled The Wizard Of Oz), then I would reconsider my dislike. However when he wrote the story both the book, musical and film had all been released and were all well loved. So why on earth did he change the story? Why ruin a good thing? I don't get it.

       As you have probably gathered I'm not a fan of the show. I can almost see why its a popular show and I'm not going to say don't go and see it. It just wasn't for me. Tickets and Info