Wicked

After our burgers at Eva Pub, we went along to St James Theatre to see Wicked. This musical has been around for 20 years, and has finally come to Wellington! It’s a lavish production, so we went along to see it. 

Before staring we headed along to Eva Pub for a burger, then made our way to the theatre. This is a sell-out season, and by the time I got around to looking for tickets the only ones still available were up in the nosebleed seats. Fortunately we were in the front row of a section so had leg room in front of us. Even so, the seats at SJT aren’t the most comfortable, and the first half of the show went on for 1½ hours before a break, by which time my bum was thoroughly numbed!

The show is the back story of the witches of Oz, and focuses on Elphaba, the green, so-called “wicked” witch. Along the way it fills in the backstory of all the things in The Wizard of Oz that never get explained, i.e. where the tin man, lion and scarecrow came from, flying monkeys, the wizard himself. I haven’t actually watched TWOO for a few decades, so I’m a bit rusty on the details, but it always seemed a bit vapid. This story packs far more of an emotional punch as the actual characters and their motivations are filled in.

It doesn’t quite end up “happily ever after”, but all the loose ends get tied up, and you end up knowing much more about TWOO than the original film ever gave you.