Main Menu

Musical Review Thread - WICKED

Started by Tiplodocus, 19 April, 2010, 12:32:44 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

Tiplodocus

I'm not sure if we've had reviews of musical before but while I was down in that London recently, the Tips clan visited the Victoria Apollo to see WICKED - the story of the witches of Oz before you know who showed up.

It must be said, I pretty much thought it sucked.  I'm partial to the odd showtune and have previously enjoyed other musicals I've been to but this one seemed way off the mark.

Problems included:
-having no decent tunes (the biggie, really) or at least not delivered in a decent way. They really could have made more of the ones that were at least slightly memorable (One Short Day, The Wizard and I) but kept doing that annoying thing where they interrupt a climax of the song, do a bit of dialogue, do a bit more of the climax of the song, a bit more dialogue etc.  Oh and just about all the other songs were dirges.
-not being funny (some attempts at humour falling mostly flat)
-leading man that can't dance (admittedly, he was the stand-in)
- everything we know was a lie! (I don't want to sound like John Byrne but this really did feel like they were saying "Everything you know is a lie" just for the sake of it)
- it reads like the worst kind of fan-wank (characters suddenly morph into characters from the film, many references shoe-horned, bad referencing of lines from original movie etc. etc.)
- leading ladies not remotely sexy (again, surely a must have)
- some of the set design was fun but the costumes were terrible.
- tall munchkins.
Be excellent to each other. And party on!

Grant Goggans

Tips, on the subject of the tunes, your mouth is full of wrong.  Defying Gravity and As Long as You're Mine are both completely wonderful.

Professor Bear

Defying Gravity is only as good as the singer.

If it's a family outing, Seussical the Musical and Hairspray are pretty good fun.

Pete Wells

Aye Tips, your mouth is full of wrong. It's as camp as Christmas but the whole family love it here!

Can't believe I've admitted that...

Tiplodocus

Well, it was only me out of our crowd that didn't really like it.  Maybe I was in the wrong mood but I certainly didn't see too much camp - it just came over as poorly executed and not sure what it wanted to be.

I stand by my assertion that nearly all the songs are dirges; there didn't seem to be anything uptempo and fun that a) I remembered or b) was done well.
Be excellent to each other. And party on!

CraveNoir

When the album first came out I wasn't impressed, finding nothing of interest, but I gave it another chance a couple of months ago and it quickly grew on me. Then I became a little obesessed!

Thanks to the dimly-lit back-alleys of the internet I've seen a few different productions of the show, and the right cast can make it amazing, but the wrong cast can make it mundane. Okay, maybe the second act stumbles from one clumsy scene to another, but it's built up enough good will by then to survive that.

What's surprising is how the original broadway cast were blown away by the touring group. When they make the film version they should use Carmen Cusack and Katie Rose Clarke as their performances are peerless.

Tiplodocus

Billy Elliot
That was more like it. Never seen the film so was expecting a story about a ballet dancing boy set against the backdrop of Miners Strike.

In fact it was a musical about the miners strike with a ballet dancing boy in it.

Ps: this was ages ago and I still mean to drag out the programme again and check whether Spidey Tom Holland was our Billy.
Be excellent to each other. And party on!

shaolin_monkey

It had shitloads of flying monkeys in it, so I was 100% satisfied.

sheridan

Quote from: shaolin_monkey on 07 September, 2019, 11:27:09 AM
It had shitloads of flying monkeys in it, so I was 100% satisfied.

I've still got my green flying monkey somewhere - need to dig it out and attach it to a door or something!  As for the review - I saw it about twelve years ago and thought it was great back then - Miriam Margolyes and Nigel Planer were stars - though Nigel's part had a stand-in :-(