An astounding twist on ‘The Wizard of Oz’ and it’s super WICKED awesome!
Last weekend, I caught the best musical ever – Wicked, the untold story of the witches of Oz.
As the title suggests, it tells the story of the Wicked Witch of the West and Glinda the Good Witch way before Dorothy came into the picture. It is basically a prequel of the famous childhood story, The Wizard of Oz.
To be honest, The Wizard of Oz has never made sense to me when I was a little girl.
Let me break it down for you. Dorothy’s house lands on a witch and kills her, then D wears the dead witch’s slippers, and she meets cute friends on the way and arrives in a brightly lit green city and meets this weirdo, I mean balloonist (Wizard of Oz) who couldn’t even get her home. All that trouble for nothing. Well, it was not until I got older that I realized the possibility of the story being a political satire.
Anyway, the point I am trying to make is, I’m glad Gregory Maguire ‘cleared the air’ by writing this story. Now everything makes more sense. (Though it could have other political connotations but that’s another story.)
By the way, I need to clarify that this is NOT a sponsored review. I’m doing this review because it is not everyday that a world renowned broadway musical performs in Singapore and I really think you guys should go catch it, especially if you are a tyro in musicals. Of course, the existence of Honeyz is to justify your purchase decisions and hence I decided to do a pictorial review on this world class musical and show you why it truly deserves all the plaudits it has received so far. 🙂
Here goes!
Before I leave the house…
Make up? Checked!
Tickets? Checked!
One more photo before I leave??
Checked!!!
I arrived at the Marina Bay Sands theater and was greeted by this gift shop that sold mostly Wicked souvenir merchandise and some of The Lion King’s ‘leftover’ gifts.
Wicked musical soundtracks!
Spotted a buncha enthusiastic kids who got me more excited about the musical!
Yay!
I bought the Emerald tickets which entitles me to…
… a nice drink
You can choose to have soda or alcoholic beverages.
And I chose champagne!
… and a secret souvenir.
I was hoping they would give me the musical soundtrack.
Well….
Fat hope! It’s a WICKED cap! (Which is just as great, really.)
Oh no, It’s a WICKED VIP cap!
Now that’s better.
They sold programme booklets at SGD20 at the entrance.
Is it worth the 20 bucks? Well, you judge for yourself.
It includes beautiful photos from the musical (both Australian and American production).
Actors’ profiles.
Sidetrack: I really love Jemma Rix’s peachy singing voice!
Also, a very interesting read on the inspirations behind Wicked by its author, Gregory Maguire.
Profile of the creative team.
And summarized information on the WICKED cast, the musical orchestra and the songs on the soundtrack.
The back cover is a photo of the famous Wizard of Oz!
Alright, back to the musical.
Giant WICKED poster outside the theater.
It’s photo time!
The Marina Bay Sands Theater
And then, it was time to enter the theater for the musical.
Oh wait! I need to remind you that the musical is 2 hours and 30 minutes long with a 15-minute intermisson. This means toilet break is not until 1 hour and 45 minutes later so you might want to visit the restroom before you enter the theater.
Also, good news. You are allowed to bring food and drinks purchased from concession stands into the theater.
On the way in, you’ll see another souvenir merchandise stall that is all out to entice you to buy more.
Run!!
In the theaters, finally.
The famous Time Dragon Clock
No more videos and photos allowed so fast forward…
I have a penchant for travel and musical souvenirs so naturally, I was also lured into the souvenir store which retails quirky and eye-popping emerald WICKED merchandise.
Bought a wicked glitter globe!
It features Glinda and Elphaba on their first day in the Emerald City of Oz and it plays “One Short Day” when its wind-up musical mechanism is wound.
Here’s ‘One Short Day’.
Close ups
The back of the glitter globe.
I thought the experience at Marina Bay Sands was splendid except the non-existent tardiness policy. 10 minutes into the musical, I was shocked to see human shadows in front of me. Yes. There were still people strolling into the theater. The MBS theater website mentioned that late admission is not permitted so I totally don’t get that at all.
Overall, I was impressed with the great performance, excellent venue, incredible lighting effects and amazing soundtrack even though it’s the touring troupe.
It is undisputedly the best musical in the world.
4.5 Honeyz crowns for the experience at MBS!
(0.5 crowns for the punctuality problem, otherwise, the musical is perfect.)
It’s closes on 22 April 2012 and tickets are selling like hot cakes so.. you know what you have to do. 🙂
Before I sign off, I thought you might be interested to see how Jemma Rix turn into green beauty, Elphaba.
More photos of Wicked at WICKED’s Facebook Page.
Thanks for reading!
Cheers!
