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The musical witches of this “Wizard of Oz” prequel still cast a spell over the West End.
The movie world loves werewolves, vampires, and all things “Twilight.” But theater people have always known that witches are all the rage. The 2006 prequel to Oz, “Wicked,” opened at the Apollo Victoria and still fills the vast theater with international audiences who gorge themselves on the play (who wants a glass of champagne and a piece of chocolate for 16 pounds?). But this contemporary and bombastic musical still convinces and overplays its patchy score thanks to a stunning performance by current leading lady Lucie Jones, who plays the green-skinned student who later becomes the Wicked Witch of the West.
Wicked is a spectacle that stands or falls with its central performance. Amid a gigantic production full of bangs, bells, and whistles, Jones simply flies away with the show with her resonant voice, followed closely by Helen Woolf, who plays the good witch, Glinda. The relationship between Glinda and Elphaba is the heart of the story. As the good witch, Woolf is a consummate buffoon, playing up her character’s silliness at every turn. But she can also move you to tears, and her final duet with Jones, “For Good,” is heartbreaking.
The Tim Burton-inspired ensemble vacillates between the hypnotic and the grotesque, and a sweet but thin-voiced Ryan Reid charms as the somewhat superfluous Prince. But, as in classical ballet, it’s all about women. They’re in top form even by the standards of former leading lady Idina Menzel.
I saw the show on April 2, 2022. The cast of “Wicked” includes Lucie Jones (Elphaba), Helen Woolf (Glinda), Ryan Reid (Fiyero), Sophie-Louise Dann (Madame Morrible), and Gary Wilmot (The Wizard).
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