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Post by isabel on Nov 24, 2023 20:45:09 GMT
Ahh well more boring news. Same old same old .
I expect the Tour will have all the focus over London
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Post by jay987 on Nov 25, 2023 1:15:15 GMT
Is this the same for Alexia Khadime and Lisa-Anne Wood? Will they pass Rachel Tucker and Sarah Earnshaw to be the longest Elphaba and Glinda standby? I don't think so - Rachel did three (and a half) contracts, so by a rough estimate she'll still just edge Alexia out and retain the longest running UK Elphaba title (but I'm happy for someone who's got time to do the maths to prove me wrong!) If I'm doing the math right, this contract will put Alexia past Rachel. They'll have both done three and a half, but contracts were shorter when Rachel was in than they are now, so if they stick with a twelve- or thirteen-month performance run for the new cast as they have done lately, Alexia will have more total months on the West End. Rachel will have more overall because of the year on Broadway, but Alexia will be longest-running West End Elphaba. |
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Post by jacob on Nov 25, 2023 13:47:25 GMT
Echoing the RR comments with disappointment. Having seen the Bway production last month, they put the West End version to shame. The cast over there is phenomenal. A Fiyero that can sing and dance breathes so much life back into this show:)
Can’t wait to see Laura and Carl on tour instead.
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Post by theshez on Nov 30, 2023 13:18:32 GMT
Delighted to hear that Alexia and Lucy are staying on. I likely won't be able to get over to see them until after March! Also glad to see Laura Harrison making a return as standby Elphaba. She really carried the show when Lucie was Elphaba, so it's great she is getting recognition. This absolutely fantastic news. I am sooo pleased. Really the best Elphaba ever imho (No Food Deed OMG). And what a team. So sorry Christine Tucker is leaving. Love her interpretation of Glinda. Love Lucy too. |
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Post by littlefluffychick on Dec 4, 2023 4:14:59 GMT
I saw Alexia for the first time on Saturday. Hmmm.
I’ve seen Wicked a good few times over the years. I ‘found’ the show during the Rachel Tucker/Louise Dearman/OliThompsett golden years. RIP.
Alexia’s performance was not my cup of tea at all. I thought she sounded very very shrill and nasally throughout the entire show, and her acting choices didn’t work for me either. She SHOUTED almost every line and I actually left the theatre with a headache. I was so disappointed.
The understudy Glinda (Christine) was on and she was excellent. A very talented comedic actress and great singer, Different from Lucy’s stellar performance but just as good in a different way.
Ryan Reid was better than last time I saw him, but I still don’t understand why his understudy Ross Harman isn’t been given a chance. He was vastly superior to Ryan in every aspect imo.
I left the show feeling significantly underwhelmed. Alexia was just not for me at all.
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Post by toomasj on Dec 4, 2023 5:18:07 GMT
I’m sure fans - and probably even the production - know the show is in a bad way creatively. It’s just a write-off at this point.
Much like Phantom, if they did something spectacular with the casting I might go back.
At this point it’s name value alone. The show itself is so, so tired.
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Post by asps2017 on Dec 4, 2023 6:33:01 GMT
I really thought Ross Harmon had a chance of taking over in this role or at least extending in his ensemble role. I’ve heard that he’s extremely impressed the powers that be. What normally happens with current ensemble cast. Do they have to audition to get another contract with the show? There’s one or two who have already said they haven’t got anything lined up after so I assume it’s not been their choice to go? Wonder why Ross is leaving!? |
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Post by hoopoe on Dec 4, 2023 10:13:53 GMT
I saw this for the first time last week, and my overall impression was just that it's fine. I can still remember the theme of a bunch of songs, but the tunes and words were gone as soon as I left the theatre, though I thought they were fine enough in the context of the show. My main issue was there were a lot of things that I felt happened just because they needed to for the plot or staging, not because it made sense, and I couldn't really get invested in any of the characters. For my £35 I felt it was worth a watch; I enjoyed the dragon and the wizard's animatronic, and I'm glad to have ticked it off the list of things it feels like one ought to have seen, but I was left a bit confused about why it has the status it does in musical theatre.
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Post by christya on Dec 12, 2023 21:15:48 GMT
Seeing this tonight and so far not all that impressed. It’s bee n years since I saw the show, but it feels as though the level has just gone down massively. I think we have Ross Harmon as Fiyero and I’m enjoying his performance, but Christine as Glinda is shrill and pitchy, and she actually missed her entrance for One Short Day. Which I could forgive, but neither she nor anyone else sang her line so there was just an empty space. Not great. Outside of that she’s just so pantomime. I don’t remember Glinda being quite that pantomime. Alexia - she seems like she has two voices. On the one hand this beautiful rich, strong tone, and then also this shrill almost strained thing going on (which, to be fair, reminds me of Idina and might be a choice). She’s doing some lovely stuff onstage, but somehow I expected more.
Let’s see how it goes for Act 2!
Act 2 - a little better but still disappointing. Even a couple of instances where microphones didn’t kick in on time. I think this could do with a reboot of some kind, quite honestly.
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Post by jay987 on Dec 17, 2023 1:43:10 GMT
Does anyone know - has Christine Tucker essentially assumed the role of standby Glinda? I know she still performs in the ensemble, but it seems she’s routinely on for Glinda with a frequency uncommon for a first cover.
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Post by Matt on Dec 19, 2023 22:53:58 GMT
Saw this tonight after a 7 year gap or so. I was there on first preview night, press night, and many more times during the first year. I saw it on Broadway with shoshana and Megan in year 2, but my GOD this show has fallen off completely.
I booked row O stalls on rush and moved to row c stalls as the theatre was probably only 2/3 full or less. There were some sound issues at first, too quiet, mics not being brought in quick enough, but that got better.
Every single joke fell flat bar a couple. All of the Easter eggs for the wizard of oz went over everyone’s heads, so I’m thinking that the audiences nowadays just aren’t familiar with the film, or was it something else, the acting and delivery…
It’s a bit of the first, but mostly due to the latter.
Alexia has a really good voice, although nasally, and Mark Curry was great as the Wizard, but that’s the only positives I had.
Apart from Mark, NO ONE can act. There was no comedy timing or knowledge on how to deliver the lines, they were simply being just read off the script. I wasn’t a fan of Lucy as Glinda at all, and Ryan was without a doubt the worst of them all. It was like GCSE drama, very OTT, and VERY camp for an alpha male role.
I literally cannot believe what I saw tonight and how some of these have continued in their roles. Surely someone inside is watching this and the audience reaction and thinking something just isn’t clicking? Surely the cast can tell how flat it is?
But for some reason most of the audience thought it was worthy of a standing O. During the interval the woman behind me was saying she has seen it loads, on Broadway too, and had never seen it like this. The woman in front of me said the same, and also said her child’s school class came last week and most of them fell asleep. In the interval I stood at the front and looked at the size of the theatre and realised how massive it actually is. Surely they can’t keep this going much longer?
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Post by BurlyBeaR on Dec 20, 2023 7:43:52 GMT
Makes you wonder if the cast themselves understand the Easter eggs.
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Post by toomasj on Dec 20, 2023 8:13:10 GMT
Well yes, thank you for your review Matt. The show has, in my view, been in terminal decline for a long while now. The jokes haven’t landed in ages and it just feels very flat - and of course the sound is the worst in the West End. By most accounts the tour is where it’s at for a tighter ship - but I can’t help but feel Wicked needs a genuine shake up.
Looking at some of the non-replica productions does make me a touch envious. It is very tired looking at this stage sadly.
Re: audiences though - this has been going for ages and there hasn’t been a whiff of it closing. I saw a Thursday night I think with Jennifer DiNoia (best Elphaba I’d seen since Idina/Shoshana/Cassidy Janson) and they actually brought everyone forward. There can’t have been more than 700 in the house.
When I went last year with Amy Webb, understudy Glinda and Ryan Reid, that was the final straw for me. Half full, very flat and - worst of all - I could tell the cast were bored. Lots of wandering glances into the audience from ensemble, a lyric fumble from Amy Webb who was on autopilot etc.
I’d love Wicked to start afresh, get the Director, choreographer and original MD back in for a few weeks, close the venue and fix the sound whatever it costs, and get it back to its former glory with a truly stellar cast.
Never gonna happen though. They had their chance with COVID if they were bothered about its condition.
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Post by capybara on Dec 20, 2023 8:31:24 GMT
Perhaps it will get a bit of a refresh, both in terms of cast and its overall image, off the back of the two part film release?
The movie will undoubtedly attract new fans and rejuvenate older fans. It is vital the show is in a fit shape when it happens.
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Post by Matt on Dec 20, 2023 8:58:13 GMT
It’s honestly made me wonder why they are bothering with the film, but I guess the book will be more or less completely different with a few classic lines thrown in.
You can tell how dated a lot of it is with the projections of the tornado etc, and defying gravity when she flies just doesn’t have a wow factor anymore.
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Post by ukpuppetboy on Dec 20, 2023 9:03:57 GMT
Saw this tonight after a 7 year gap or so. I was there on first preview night, press night, and many more times during the first year. I saw it on Broadway with shoshana and Megan in year 2, but my GOD this show has fallen off completely. They were leading the cast the first 2 times I saw the show also - on Broadway and then Toronto. An impossible (double) act to follow really… |
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Post by hoopoe on Dec 20, 2023 9:51:23 GMT
defying gravity when she flies just doesn’t have a wow factor anymore. Is it the norm that Elphaba doesn't even pretend to be riding the broom in this scene? When I saw it a few weeks ago she just held it next to her and it was one of the things I found really took me out of what was happening. |
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Post by solangelafitte on Dec 20, 2023 10:23:20 GMT
I saw that Ross Harmon was on instead of Ryan last weekend so took my opportunity to see the rest of this cast. I enjoyed Alexia a lot when I saw her back in 2009 and was excited to see her growth all these years later but she really fell flat for me. Her No Good Deed was good but at just about every other point in the show I was wishing I'd seen one of her covers. I liked Lucy more than I expected to but even then not close to one of my favourite Glindas. Glad I saw Ross, he at least attempts to give Fiyero a personality and he made some nice acting choices.
Matt, it's funny to you mention the Wizard of Oz jokes getting no reaction as it's something my group commented on too. First time we'd ever noticed it. We didn't know if it was people being less familiar with it now or, like you say, if it was the delivery.
I will admit I thought people on the board were exaggerating slightly about the sound before I went but my goodness! I saw Wicked a lot in the first couple of years and make pretty much an annual trip so have sat in just about every area of the theatre by now but this was shockingly bad. Wicked has been the show I bring niece/nephews/friends' kids to as their first big theatre experience. Even with varying casts it's always been pretty reliable in terms of quality but I left the show this time thinking I probably won't be back to the Apollo Victoria for a while, at least until the next contract for this cast ends. Have tickets for the tour next year as it sounds like the better cast and production at the minute.
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Post by normasturban on Dec 20, 2023 20:18:32 GMT
Yes I saw this a couple of months back and share much of the same thoughts. Alexia wasn’t overly pleasant to listen to in most songs and there was no sense that any of them had been directed how to actually land a joke or inject light and shade into their performances.
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Post by toomasj on Dec 20, 2023 22:21:41 GMT
But it has been like this for years. The actress I saw as Glinda the time before last sounded like she was having an asthma attack with her gasps for air every time she sang. I was genuinely a bit worried for her. Savannah I think her name was.
Unusual for the board to be so unanimous on a subject; but it seems we’re agreed Wicked in London is in a right state.
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Post by richey on Dec 21, 2023 6:46:24 GMT
I've not seen it for a few years, the last time was Lucie's opening night, but even then i was thinking there were some decidedly ropey momemts. When the platform carrying Glinda etc came downstage for Thank Goodness I feared for their safety, it was wobbling around so much.
When you see so many videos of the non-replica productions around the world it does make you realised how dated it is looking.
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Post by musicalfan on Dec 22, 2023 21:12:24 GMT
Currently at the interval - Amy Webb is on for Elphaba. Haven’t seen her since September
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Post by SuttonPeron on Dec 23, 2023 1:01:22 GMT
I personally loved Alexia and Lucy, and thought they were the perfect leading combo. Loathed Ryan Reid and loved Mark Curry and Sophie Louise Dann. I also think Wicked, much like other shows, is a product of its time. A time machine to early 21st century Broadway shows. The original production and its subsequent replicas are meant to reflect that, and do so wonderfully.
My issue with the West End production (poor audience behavior aside) after seeing it recently is its mediocre supervision/resident direction/Music direction. Many jokes don´t land, the acting is often mediocre and the choices poor and uninspiring, the ensemble "are there". And the orchestra has lost so much power and oomph in recent years, with some weird tempi choices. It´s a magical show that means a lot to so many people, and that when done well, can touch people´s hearts in an unforgettable night out. Give them the best you can, not just a lazy 30%! Broadway is learning and the show is in great shape over there. Why can´t the same happen in London?
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Post by Deleted on Dec 23, 2023 4:01:07 GMT
I personally loved Alexia and Lucy, and thought they were the perfect leading combo. Loathed Ryan Reid and loved Mark Curry and Sophie Louise Dann. I also think Wicked, much like other shows, is a product of its time. A time machine to early 21st century Broadway shows. The original production and its subsequent replicas are meant to reflect that, and do so wonderfully. My issue with the West End production (poor audience behavior aside) after seeing it recently is its mediocre supervision/resident direction/Music direction. Many jokes don´t land, the acting is often mediocre and the choices poor and uninspiring, the ensemble "are there". And the orchestra has lost so much power and oomph in recent years, with some weird tempi choices. It´s a magical show that means a lot to so many people, and that when done well, can touch people´s hearts in an unforgettable night out. Give them the best you can, not just a lazy 30%! Broadway is learning and the show is in great shape over there. Why can´t the same happen in London? |
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Post by Deleted on Dec 23, 2023 4:01:44 GMT
I saw Alexia in BOM she was amazing in that
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