Writing a review for the national tour of Wicked seems almost like an exercise in futility. With the musical’s incredible popularity has anyone not made up their mind whether to see or not see this show? Nevertheless, that is the task assigned to me, so I will do my best to fulfill it.

If you have been living under a rock Wicked is the incredibly popular musical first produced in 2003 on Broadway and still running to this day. Part 1 of the feature film debuted last year to huge success and now the national tour is going to be in Salt Lake for 6 weeks, which is pretty remarkable (Life of Pi in contrast was here for 4 days!)

In some ways I resent Wicked and its success because it started this horrible trend of both the ‘fresh take’ on a fairytale (which is usually remarkably unfresh see recent Snow White for example) but also the humanizing of classic villains which often leaves them bland and personality-less (I’m talking to you Maleficent.) It feels like we can’t even have villains any more. They are all surprise villains (thanks to Frozen) or really not so bad after all. Groan. While it can be valuable to find the humanity in evil it also can lead to a sameness in storytelling that can be frustrating and lead to a moral neutering of our heroes and their heroic journey (ie if Dorothy isn’t facing off a great evil than where’s her bravery in just walking through the forest to get a broomstick from a nice lady?)

Anyway, it’s no surprise that everyone would want to copy Wicked after its success but that doesn’t mean the original is not of value and very entertaining. Surprisingly I have actually only seen the stage musical of Wicked once before in 2006. My Elphaba was Ana Gasteyer believe it or not and my Galinda was Kate Reindeers. It was a blast and every bit the spectacle entertainment with the great songs I was hoping or.

The spectacle entertainment is really the reason to see the national tour of Wicked. It’s a grand big show with lots of bright lights and big colors- everything you could want from a production of this musical. This iteration is directed by Joe Mantello and its probably boldest move is casting Lauren Samuels and Austen Danielle Bohmer in our two leads as Elphaba and Galinda respectively. They are both very talented singers but with Samuels being the more petite of the 2 (by 4 inches) it defies casting stereotypes as usually Galinda is the smaller of the actors. I enjoyed this dynamic because it helped make Elphaba into more of an underdog in the scenes at Shiz and even in her interactions with Galinda (Kristin Chenoweth, who premiered the role of Galinda is only 4’11” to Idina Menzel’s Elpheba at 5’6”). Fortunately both Samuels and Bohmer are up the task of the singing with challenging songs like “Defying Gravity,” “For Good,” “Popular” and “The Wizard and I.”

The ensemble in the national tour of Wicked is also mostly solid although I felt underwhelmed by Blame Hammond’s Wizard. He could have leaned into the camp of the role a little more and supported his singing better (although he does have two of the weakest songs of the musical in “A Sentimental Man” and “Wonderful.”) Aymee Garcia, on the other hand, gave me everything I could want in a Madame Morrible. Dripping with disdain and disgust for all around her. She stole every scene she is in. I also enjoyed Xavier McKinnon’s swoony take on Fiyero and his confidence in songs like “Dancing Through Life.”

Like I said, the spectacle entertainment is everything fans could hope for with the national tour. I do think the first Act of Wicked is much stronger than the second but it’s still satisfying and certainly gives us enough catchy songs to make for an entertaining night of theatre. Certainly seeing a show like Wicked is a chance to get children excited about musical theatre and that’s why I most encourage families to go and see this show while it is at Eccles for 6 weeks. Particularly your girls will be talking about if for weeks and they just may be inspired to audition for their local community musicals. Popular shows like Wicked have that ability to speak to new musical fans like Les Miserables or The Little Mermaid did for me as a young person and that is important and valuable. So go see Wicked while you have the chance and take the whole family. It is playing May 25th and tickets can be purchased here.

Wicked is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz and a book by Winnie Holzman based on the novel by Gregory Maguire.

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