Defying Gravity...

So, two blogs in one day, I'm on fire! This one will be my review of world renowned and fawned over musical Wicked. I'll be honest, I have read Gregory Maguire's novel and quite enjoyed it, but I don't think I would read it again. It added little to one of the great stories of our times. So when Caroline wanted to see it, I said okay, the stage show has won awards and praise left, right and centre.
We arrived to find that the lead would be played by the understudy, I'm okay with that, and then that the Wizard would also be played by the understudy, okay. Then I realised I recognised the guy who should have been playing the Wizard. Ah well, with a show like this you come for the show not the cast.
Settling into our seats the set design is fantastic, there is a 30 or 40 foot dragon thing suspended from the ceiling and a massive map of Oz hanging on the stage. Looks pretty good.
The woman playing Glinda does a good impression of the woman playing Glinda in the original film, but she missed a couple of notes early doors and I did not have high hopes! She recovered well though.
I really hope the understudy gets a leading role somewhere soon, she was fantastic, helluva voice and I believed her acting! Her name is Ashleigh Gray, big future.
My main problem with Wicked is that for a musical it only has one catchy song, and I only know that from Glee. I'll give credit, that is a catchy song, but still, every other musical I ever saw had more than one memorable song. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the show, but I feel like that was due more to the comic timing of Diane Pilkington playing Glinda and the fine work of Ashleigh Gray as Elphaba than any particular quality in the writing.
I just think it would have worked so much better as a straight play. It felt an awful lot like the characters were singing as an excuse for something to do. It was exposition, but it wasn't well done exposition. Now as I stated, I read the book, enjoyed it but am no purist but a lot of the detail missing from the show was what made the book interesting.
In short, I found Wicked to be not nearly as good as I was hoping, and about as overrated as I expected. I expect to get abuse for this review from lots of people who love it, and that's fine, I'm neither a homosexual male nor a woman and therefore the appeal of people singing exposition is lost on me a little. So there you have it, Wicked, is okay.