It may or may not be apparent from my previous posts but I am a massive fan of the musical Wicked: The Untold Story of the Witches of Oz, therefore I cannot begin to explain how excited I was when a revival tour of Australia was announced. I had seen the musical four times in Melbourne during its original run, as well as once in Sydney, once on Broadway and I had also watched the original Broadway production at least 50 times online.
Wicked tells the story of Glinda the Good and Elphaba the Wicked Witch of the West as they journey through Shiz University together, before Dorothy and Toto landed.
I first heard of Wicked when I performed two of the songs for a dancing concert back in 2008, and absolutely fell in love with everything about the production. It starred my favourite musical theatre actors Rob Mills, Lucy Durack and Amanda Harrison, as well as veteran performer Bert Newton. Unfortunately this time around Rob Mills, Amanda Harrison and Bert Newton won’t be returning but I am ecstatic that Lucy will be reprising her role after two and a half years away in which she starred in Legally Blonde: The Musical and Strange Bedfellows. Joining Lucy will be Jemma Rix in the role of Elphaba, Maggie Kirkpatrick who will continue her long running role of Madame Morrible and Steve Danielsen as Fiyero. It is still unknown who will play the role of the Wizard.
The musical is based on the 1995 book Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire with music by acclaimed musical theatre lyricist and composer Stephen Schwartz and book by Winnie Holzman.
I think that this production will be a real hit and miss with die hard The Wizard of Oz fans. Not to give too much away but it changes the way you will see the story of Dorothy of her friends, but it also answers the question of how Tin Man, Scarecrow and The Cowardly Lion became the way they are.
Wicked returns to Melbourne on May 11, 2013 and it is really a show that is not to be missed.
Tickets on sale now through ticketmaster
The Razzle and The Dazzle 