Wicked In Australia - Melbourne Opening Night

I used to think musicals were rather silly, with the actors singing the words they would otherwise say. But nowadays, I'm hooked to musicals. One of the first musicals I ever saw was Wicked The Musical. I somehow heard the soundtrack from the Broadway recording and was totally captured by the story and the amazing singing of Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth. Then, by pure chance, the musical was coming to Melbourne. So I quickly bought a ticket and went to see it. I was completely captivated and went to see it a second time during it's first Melbourne run. Like most people, I then got onto the Internet and watched more videos from various productions around the world. There were some great casts around the world but the Australian cast is right up there in terms of quality.

If you don't know, the story of Wicked proceeds the Wizard of Oz story, both the book and the movie. It explains how Elphaba (the Wicked Witch of the West) and Glinda (the Good Witch of the North) became who they were. The story gives an insight into how people become good or bad and how perception is not always a reality. It's a really touching story and will leave you totally enthralled due to the writing, acting, singing and dancing. It definitely made me change my mind about the Wicked Witch of the West who I used to hate from the movie.

The production on this show is huge, with massive elaborate sets, lighting and music by a great symphony. I was lucky enough to be invited to the return of Wicked to Melbourne for the opening night show. Jemma Rix reprises her role as Elphaba and Lucy Durack as Glinda. Taking over from Rob Mills (who I saw the last two times) as Fiyero is Steve Danielsen. Reg Livermore is The Wizard in place of Bert Newton. The opening night performance was absolutely on-song and was so amazing. There were no jittery moments or mistakes at all. Jemma's voice is still stunning and she hits the spine tingling high notes during Defying Gravity and No Good Deeds that have the crowd cheering. Yes, we cheered like a football match. Lucy Durack also hit some brilliant falsetto high notes during her songs and was so funny. I liked Steve Danielsen way more as Fiyero as he has a better voice than Rob Mills and just encapsulated the character better.

The show has so many highlights and you'll be laughing, crying and cheering when different things happen. I was also singing along as I know all the songs so well. Despite knowing the story so well and the songs, it was still so enjoying. The singing was great, but the acting was so believable. Even the different pronunciations and emphasis on different words really made helped to draw out the drama.

The Melbourne run of Wicked only goes until the end of June, so I implore you to quickly book some tickets and go along and see it. It's a world class production and you will kick yourself for missing it. It's such a wonderful experience and I defy you to not have fun at it.
Photo credits: Jess Busby

I attended the opening night performance courtesy of an invite from ACMN.