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Elphaba is introduced to the audience when Galinda begins to tell the Citizens of Oz about her. Caissie Levy played Elphaba in Friday’s performance. Caissie just replaced Eden Espinosa as Elphaba in January. Like Hilty, Eden had been playing Elphaba since the show opened at the Pantages and from what I’ve read she left some very large shoes to fill. I thought that Caissie did a great job of stepping up to that challenge. Her performance seemed flawless and she hit some beautiful notes. I felt that Elphaba is clearly the character who has the best songs to perform. From The Wizard and I, to the expressive Defying Gravity and finally As Long as You’re Mine and No Good Deed, these songs catch the listener up into the world that Elphaba is living in and take you on a roller coaster ride of emotion. Because Elphaba has such great songs it is difficult to know if I enjoyed the performance so much because of the way Caissie sang or just because of the songs. We are planning to go back and see Wicked a second time when Teal Wicks, the current standby for Elphaba performs.  Hopefully that will give me some basis for comparison. I just have to say - Teal Wicks? Could there be a more perfect name for a person cast as Elphaba in the musical Wicked?

Jo Anne Worley played the imposing Madame Morrible, headmistress of Shiz University - the school Galinda and Elphaba attended together. According to the Playbill biography she has an impressive number of acting credits. Unfortunately, Madame Morrible appears to be the one role that doesn’t have at least one dedicated song. I am not sure how Worley sings but I can say she was convincing as the crotchety, old Morrible. In person she was also extremely kind as she helped out all of the fans waiting for autographs. Brian Munn, the standby for John Rubenstein, played the Wizard in this performance and he quickly tried to escape the crowd without signing. (He looked a lot different in person than he had in his Wizard wig and no one immediately recognized him.) Jo Anne caught him leaving and made him go back to the beginning of the line and sign for all of us.  Brian delivered a stellar performance as the Wizard and we had a hard time believing that he was the understudy.

Prince Fiyero lights up the show in the middle of the first act and he wins the audience (and Galinda) over with his boyish charm. Kristoffer Cusick did a magnificent job of creating this character on stage. He comes across just like the Disney Prince you might remember from your favorite fairy tales. Kristoffer just launched his solo singing career and from the way he delivered the songs in Wicked I think he will go far!

Nessarose, Elphaba’s wheelchair-bound sister, was played by Marcie Dodd. And Boq, Nessa’s munchkin love interest was played by Michael Drolet. Marcie wasn’t on stage enough for us to get a feel for all that she had to offer. She walked the autograph line with her dog Diva at the end and seemed like a genuinely warm person.  I didn’t find Boq all that exciting but it could be that I disliked the character. He also was very friendly in the line.

Galinda and Elphaba received a standing ovation from the audience and except for getting autographs that concluded our Wicked experience.

Rating: (Wickedly Spectacular!)

I’ve tried to include a detailed enough summary of the characters and story. Continue reading only if you don’t mind having some surprises spoiled… SPOILER ALERT

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