Wicked - New UK and Ireland Tour (2018)

Lol! Elphabanter.

Where's the cast board at the Hippodrome? Looks like it's going to be anyone's guess who I get today! Thanks.

I saw Wicked for the 7th and final time last night. Last night's performance was very average. Elphaba didnt sound vocally strong enough but was better in Act 2. The understudy Glinda was great vocally, but most of the humour didnt land at all. It made me wonder how I have sat through it so many times before. I havent seen it for many years and this was the first time i have seen it with 2 British.sounding leads.

The audience in Bristol were very distracting. The young girl in front of me had a huge tub of popcorn, a huge jug of slush puppi, a tube of Smarties and jelly babies!! She didn't stop moving all evening. My grey wicked hoodie from the first London preview was older than she was!

Still the audience seemed to love it was more than i did.

When did they add the 2 girls on wires??

I'm sure there's been a flying girl ever since the very first preview back in 2006.

Just flying monkeys in London.

The flying girls are in the lion cub classroom scene on tour. Not sure why they haven't added this to London as that scene seems distinctly unmagical without it. They have added other bits from the tour such as the ensemble turning away in turn before the wizard arrives but also have not added others like the soldier's bizarre dance after March of the witch hunters in the pre-Wonderful music (Glindas friends are in ballgowns dancing with soldiers in that scene in London. Presumably ditching the ballgowns saves a few quid).

Had a lovely time this afternoon, I got a bit teary as Elphaba ran in, was just thinking about how much this show means to me. Anyway, on to the actual review.
Amy Ross - oh my! Thought she was absolutely fantastic. Someone said she wasn't really a power belter but to me her voice sounded so powerful and strong and she gave an amazing amazing Defying Gravity. No Good Deed was fab too, and both had quite a few riffs but not too many. I also agree with whoever said her acting was a highlight, she really did think through every line and I think her portrayal moved me most out of all the Elphabas I've seen. Absolute star I think and in the words of The Wizard "If you can do this your first time out, sky's the limit.
Charli Baptie - a solid, average Glinda I'd say. She sang the role well and her facial expressions were very good in No One Mourns The Wickef and Thank Goodness I thought. The problem really was the comedy, she made the audience laugh but she just wasn't naturally funny like Suzie for example. I think most Glindas have a sort of gimmick, a way they play the character, for example Sophie Linder-Lee was batsh*t crazy Glinda, but Charli didn't really have anything that extra special. A good, solid take on the role but I look forward to seeing Helen later in the tour.
Aaron Sidwell - great take on Fiyero. Loved the bad-boy way he played it and his voice sounded quite posh and well-spoken which backed up Fiyero being the "silly rich boy". His singing was good but I just miss Oliver S really!
Kim Ismay - she seemed to play the role overly-kind in Act I, I suppose it was to make it a big shock when she turns out to be one of the bad guys? I just wanted to see more sass from her really, definitely better than Anita Dobson though!
Steven Pinder - good Wizard, he must be getting bored now after a year with the UK Tour and nearly a year with the International Tour and now back for another year in the UK? I thought he was drunk in his first scene but I guess that was just the way he was playing The Wizard! Good Dillamond too, not much more to say!
Emily Shaw - I liked her but I found her tone of voice to be a bit whiney, but solid Nessarose.
Iddon Jones - he was a good Boq, enjoyed him, not really much else to say.
So yes the set is more cut-back than in London and I did miss having them all on the side-balconies but the show still works absolutely fine on tour as I'm sure is clear to everyone and the amazing message obviously still gets across. I loved seeing the flying girls too!

Like I said most of the cast were pretty average in my opinion but I still had a fab time because I was just missing the show plus Amy really made the whole thing. GO SEE HER!

Of course, you're right.

Nikki's been on an awful lot lately. I hope Amy's okay.

When there are nine shows a week instead of eight the two leads both get a show off. Not the same one.

Nikki's had around 5 unscheduled shows I believe and most of them were the weekend just gone (Thurs eve - Sat). Sounds like Amy just had a bad weekend with general illness/hay-fever and it's nothing more to worry about than that