Wicked - International Tour 2016-2017

So she's going on tonight? Really excited for tomorrow, I must admit. I so hope it won't be Jackie as I'm not exactly her biggest fan.

I don't think so. She just had her cover run today.

Jodie Steele said she has a date for Elphie. She didn't say when though

Is it this weekend Michael is doing his three show marathon?

Looking forward to reading his thoughts.

As promised, here are my thoughts about my Wicked Bradford marathon this weekend.

They replaced the old-fashioned cast board from the last tour (which I loved) with a glossy TV screen - not good.

The only programmes are souvenir brochures for £8. The introduction from Mark Shenton is the same as for the last tour and they've even reused old pictures for the company shots: two big pictures are taken from the 2013/14 London company (funnily enough with Jackie in the ensemble). And I couldn't find any information in the brochure about it being an international tour. Understandably, I felt slightly ripped off, as it was quite ad heavy.

The show itself is identical to the last UK tour, I didn't notice any differences. For those of you who haven't seen the last tour: it is somewhat downsized to be able to accommodate the production in the various touring houses, but if you haven't seen the London production (that often), you wouldn't even notice that something's missing or different. There were only two flat heads in Wizomania, no trap door in the floor so the witch's father runs offstage in NOMTW, and Elphaba runs onstage in NGD (and Chistery holds the Grimmerie). And in the Finale, there's a well with a fake trap door next to it; Elphaba hides in the well and it seems as if she were climbing onstage from through the trap door. There's no walkway above the stage so Fiyero and Glinda cross the stage in INTG (and Elphaba hides on the side), the poppies at the front stage in INTG have been cut as well, and there are no stair cases on the sides, so they move platforms onstage.
To be fair, there are also two improvements to London: when Elphaba casts her spell to free the Lion cub, two students (secured by cables) fly through the air, and in the final bits of DG, a lightbeam projects Elphaba's face to the side of the stage so it looks as if she were flying in front of the moon.

I was disappointed with the orchestra. Defying Gravity sounded really poor, and when I looked in the pit in the interval, I saw four (sic!) Keyboards down there and no string section. Anyone remembers the band size of the last tour? No Good Deed sounded similarly poor. That's a development I really don't like.

Unfortunately, I had a full main cast in all three performances. Tbh, I had hoped they had finally learned their lesson and given the standby at least one scheduled show per week (preferably the Saturday Matinee ), but, to quote Mick Jagger, "You can't always get what you want..."
Hopefully, there'll be further stops in Europe next year.

The ensemble were really strong. It was so good seeing a new and especially young Nessa who seemed to enjoy playing this part. I thought Boq did a good job as well. Can't say much about Morrible and Wizard/Dillamond, as I thought that both were OK - nothing to complain about. However, if I recall correctly, I didn't like Steven Pinder's take on the role(s) in the last tour that much, so he seems to have really improved since then.

Bradley Jaden is likely the strongest Fiyero I saw in quite a while, but can someone please gift him a comb? I particularly liked it when he smiled at Elphaba in the throne room scene in the 2nd act when he decided for her instead of Glinda.

Carly Anderson is an amazing Glinda, but, after seeing her in Xanadu last year, I must admit that I was slightly disappointed, but only because my expectations were too high - I expected her to be even funnier and more over-the-top. Maybe it's the UK director's guideline that they have to tone it down? I'd really love to eventually have one of the Broadway mental (in a positive way) Glindas in The UK.

And lastly Jackie. I'm not exactly her biggest fan and was really disappointed when they announced her - I even stopped pursuing my plans of flying down to Singapore in October to see the tour there (which I'd have so done had they cast an Elphaba from my wish list). Vocally, she was very good, really great voice. Not outstanding as others, but I've also seen many worse - top third I'd say. However, I think it's her slightly clumsy acting that lets her down. Hopefully, it'll improve as the tour progresses. Still, I think it an impressing career making it all the way from ensemble, swing, understudy and standby to lead Elphaba.

Bradford itself isn't the most exciting town, so staying in Leeds was the right decision. Even the rail replacement buses this weekend were working perfectly fine. After my adventurous journey with a London Midlands rail replacement service from Bletchley to London in 2014 (a clueless driver who completely ignored his sat nav's instructions), I had expected the worst.

And on a completely unrelated side note: I love the dialect up here. I have no idea what you were saying to me, but it sounded beautifully

Wicked has visited Singapore before. Not sure about the other locations though.

The only change to the London production I don't like is the musical interlude to Wonderful with the soldier's slightly awkward dance then March off. In the London production it's soldiers and Glinda's friends and it works much better as well as giving you time to appreciate the ladies' lovely costumes.

Why they haven't introduced the flying in the lion cub scene into the London production and the moon I do not know. They are great improvements. They did change the way they walk off the stage when the Wizard arrives though, the only tour change I can think of that's been adopted by the London production.

Someone from the cast told me once that the scene with those glorious costumes is one of the most expensive in musical theatre. No wonder they wanted to omit it!

Thanks very much for your response Michael, it was great to clarify those few parts that I was curious about!

Yes I agree Shady, everyone has different opinions and different tastes, it's what makes it interesting. My personal favourite Elphaba is Nikki Davis-Jones, and I think not a majority of the fandom like her as Elphaba and they're entitled to their own reasons for not liking her, but for me she defined the role, she acted the role perfectly and her vocals when I saw her were out of this world. Jackie is my next favourite Elphaba and funnily enough the majority of people I know also don't like her as Elphaba. Just shows how people have different tastes and just make connections with some Elphabas and not with others.

How long in advance do they usually announce new venues for tours? It's seems ages ago since they last announced a new one.

I'm just so anxious to find out if they're going to do stops in Europe, so I can go see it.