I tried. Honest to god, I really, really tried.
Wicked is terrible.
P.Rekk
2008
Thursday, June 26, 2008
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--That sinking feeling--
About Me
- Paul Rekk
- Chicago via George, Iowa
- Chicago writer, director, conceptualist, voice of dissent.
What next?
The Nine, Part One:
SubUrbia
by Eric Bogosian
directed by Bries Vannon
February 19th - March 6th
Admission: Free!
Reservations info coming soon!
-----------------------------
WNEP Theater presents:
The (edward) Hopper Project
by members of WNEP's Write Club
directed by Don Hall
January 15th - February 21st
Tickets info to come!
The Best of the Best
Here's where I list the finest in Chicago Theatre as I see them. Hit these shows while you still have a chance. (I'll even include the closing date so you know just how little time you have.)
The Blogroll.
- 99 Seats
- Bilal Dardai
- Chainsaw Calligraphy
- Chicago Reader - Onstage
- Chris Jones
- Devilvet
- Don Hall
- From The Ledge
- I, Homunculus
- Just Enough Shame To Wear Clothes
- Life Is Wasted On The Living
- Parabasis
- Pheidio Eimi
- Rob Kozlowski
- Signal EnsemBlog
- Storefront Rebellion
- Theater For The Future
- Theatre Is Territory
- Tony Adams
4 comments:
Uh oh.
'Wicked' is a big guilty pleasure of mine.
Can we still be friends?
I mean, I'm well aware the book is a hot mess, especially as it tries to resolve a bunch of half-baked plot points in act two.
I'm also well aware that many of the songs are mediocre at best, with banal melodies, mixed metaphors, and false rhymes.
But put the green bitch on a cherry picker with a big chorus underneath and it gets me everytime.
As P.T. Barnum said, "There's a sucker born every minute."
Chris
Beware my wrath, Chris!
Nah, we cool. See, I've got zilch musical theatre background, so I approach musicals without the nostalgia or the preconceptions (both good and bad) that I know many do. And, for better or for worse, I tend to hold every show, from Broadway in Chicago to the smallest storefront, to the same standards in terms of performance honesty and presence.
And as much as the musical itself didn't do much of anything for me, the people on stage drove the final nail in. (Except for the lead flying monkey. He was great. Honestly.)
Oddly enough, the most frustrating thing was the giant dragon puppet hanging out on top of the proscenium. It was sooo fucking cool and ended up having nothing to do with the show -- just a big, flashy object to draw audience attention during a couple of scene changes. I was frustrated by everything else I saw, but that pissed me off.
I think you hit the nail on the head. My background (until the last four years when I've been in Chicago) was almost entirely musical theatre. So with any musical I see, I'm operating on a HUGE nostalgia factor.
But I agree that the huge dragon is a completely unwarranted design element.
Though I do wish you could have seen Ana Gasteyer as Elphaba--in addition to her powerhouse vocals, she really brought some depth (seriously!) to the role. Of the *gulp* five times I've seen it, she was by far my favorite.
I'm just one of those theatre-goers though: I found as much to enjoy in JERSEY BOYS as I did in THE COAST OF UTOPIA.
I beg to differ. The dragon's actual use during the show is to flap its wings, snort smoke, and declare, loudly, "I AM WHY YOU SPENT SO MUCH MONEY ON YOUR TICKET!!!"
Didn't catch that line? It's there. It's in Million-Dollar-Dragonese.
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