Sarah O’Connor Archives - North West End UK

5Dec

By Hannah WildeNo Comments

North West

Wicked – Palace Theatre

Wicked is - and for the last 20+ years has been - a musical theatre smash hit, with indefinite residencies on Broadway and the West End, plus touring productions in more than 130 cities worldwide. And now, with the Universal Pictures motion picture just hitting cinemas, it seems that Wicked-mania has hit fever pitch. So as Wicked is taking the world by storm once more, I willingly took a seat to watch the magic happen in the place where it began… the theatre. This particular touring production - led by Production Manager Matt Towell - has all the hallmarks of a show flown straight from the West End: sublime staging, iridescent costumes, and scintillating set design. This production is a testament to the beauty and brilliance of musical theatre, with seamless musical and visual transi...

Wicked – Bradford Alhambra

If you’ve ever wondered how those red shoes came to be sticking out from under Dorothy’s house in The Wizard of Oz this prequel to that classic movie will give you the answer. It goes back to before Dorothy crash landed in the land of Oz ruled by a mysterious wizard to reveal the backstory of Elphaba – better known to us The Wicked Witch of the West - and her nemesis Glinda the Good. Based on Gregory Maguire’s revisionist novel ‘Wicked – The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of West’ rather than L. Frank Baum’s original text we firstly meet Elphaba and Glinda as they start life at Shiz University as sworn enemies. The brilliant twist in this version is that Elphaba's skin is green thanks to an accident of birth so is the outsider and blonde rich brat Glinda is her exact opposite. Bu...

Wicked – Birmingham Hippodrome

“There’s No Place Like Brum!” There’s certainly no place Brum for the next few weeks as the international green-faced, broomstick-wielding, hit-stuffed mega-musical drops its house on the stage of the Birmingham Hippodrome which it will be calling no place like home until the 7th April. “Wicked” erupted on Broadway in a flume of green smoke 21 years ago and has been dazzling us with a rainbow of pizzazz ever since. Stemming from Gregory Maguire’s 1995 revisionist exploration of the characters from L.Frank Baum’s 1900 novel “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” itself adapted into the cloyingly sentimental and techo-surrealist 1939 movie starring Judy “Slippers” Garland, “Wicked” has become the mainstay of both West End and Broadway with many an actress donning the Shrek-hued make-up and defyi...