#elphaba tropp | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

gkelsey · 7 years

Text

Theatre Review of the Westend production “Wicked”

On the Wednesday 1st February 16, 2017 at 2:30pm my class and I went to see a Musical performance called Wicked at the Apollo Victoria Theatre. Gregory Maguire that wrote the novel Wicked: The Life and Time of the Wicked Witch of the West whilst he was living in London in 1990 made Wicked one of the most popular musicals that is ever performed today and it was first opened on Broadway on October 30th 2003. The plot of the play is a similar story to The Wonderful Wizard Oz which was written by L. Frank Baum, but this play represents “The Untold story of the Wizard of Oz” where the events, characters and situations taken from the book written by Baum. The play was set in the Land of “Oz” in 1900 where the story is told about a friendship between two girls who first meet as sorcery students at Shiz University who are Glinda and Elphaba. They are totally different from each other. Following a meeting with The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, their friendship throughout the play becomes stronger but lives are taken into different paths.

The practitioners they mainly use was Constantin Stanislavski (1863-1938) who is Russian theatre practitioner, the method that was use was based on the seven steps on developing a believable character and the actors used it where they got in the character’s shoes and made it believable.

The main characters in this play were Elphaba, Glinda, Madame Morrible, Fiyero, Dr. Dillamond, Nessarose, Boq and the Wonderful Wizard of Oz and the rest of the other characters were the witch’s mother and father, the midwife, monkeys, students, palace guards, Denizens of the Emerald City and other Citizens of Oz. Elphaba Tropp was played by Willemijn Verkaiki, she is a female with black hair who was born in Rush Margins, Wend Hardings, Munchkinland but what was unusual of her is that she was born green and later in the play she was known as the “the wicked witch of the West. She is seen different from others and she want people to accept her as a natural human like themselves. She is a daughter to Melena Tropp and The Wizard of Oz (who you would find out later in the play) and half-sister to Nessarose.

Glinda Upland was played by Suzie Mathers, she is a female who has strawberry blond hair born and grew up in Frottica, Upper Uplands in Northwest Gillikin. She is known as The Good Witch, makes sure she gets everything and it is perfect, the prettiest girl, and VERY Popular. She gets married to Fiyero (but unfortunately it did not last long) and becomes best friend with Elphaba during the play. Madame Morrible was played by Sue Kelvin who is a female known as the headmistress at Shiz University with white, blondish hair, grew up in Gilikin. In the musical, she has powers that changes the weather. Nessarose Tropp was played by Sarah McNicholas, she is a female with brown hair who grew up in Munchkinland. In the musical, she is the girl in a wheelchair due to the storm that made the building fall on her but later was able to walk again due to Elphaba’s powers. She is a half-sister to Elphaba and daughter to Melena Tropp but Elphaba and Nessarose think they are both have the same dad. Boq was played by Idriss Kargbo, he is a short male with black hair and grew up in Munchkinland. He is a very bubbly character and smiled a lot to get people’s attention, he likes Glinda but has to put up with his relationship with Nessarose. Later in the play he turned into a Tin Woodman which came from the story of Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Doctor Dillamond was Martin Ball, he is a goat that can speak to communicate with humans. He is known as the professor at Shiz University and during the play he lose his power of speech which therefore Elphaba does everything in her power to get him back to normal with Glinda’s help. Fiyero was played by Oliver Savile, who was a male with brown hair, very flirty, popular and a ladies man. He was married to Glinda in the play but later broke up with her and got with Elphaba. In the musical he turned into a scarecrow but everyone thought he was dead. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz was played by Mark Curry who is an old man with white hair and a father to Elphaba but does not know till near the end of the play. He uses Elphaba and Madame Morrible’s powers but use Elphaba’s book spell to give his monkey called Chistery (played by Will Lucas) wings.

The costumes were designed by Susan Hilferty, they represented the different places that was set and the character’s personality. For example, looking at the difference between Glinda and Elphaba, there is a good and a bad witch shown from their costumes. Glinda would dress in light colours such as sky-blue bubble dress, light pink ball party dress, white school outfit and other costumes with rainbow colours with glitter and stars that allow her to shine on stage. It also shows her character where she wants to shine, feel special and look prettier than everyone to make her popular, where Elphaba didn’t know how to, by looking at her costume they were the same colours which were green, black or dark blue. Their headpieces they wore also shows their personality and characters where Glinda would wear a sparkly crown and Elphaba would wear a black pointy witch hat that is shaped as a traffic cone and from looking at their headpieces, it shows good and bad witches. Madame Morrible wore gold in every costume she has, which represents her magic and who she is as her character. At the start of the musical she wore a red dress that has gold designs on it and later when she is part of the Emerald city, she wore green which also had gold in it. I notice that both dresses were designed the same but were different colours where it was long to her feet with long wide sleeves that was hanging from her wrist to the floor. The Wizard of the Oz wore a grey suit with a black high top hat to represent his age, and his character where his jacket looked like a cap that can swing from his side when he went off to do his job. Another character’s costume that represent their personality and who they are is Fiyero where his costume change colours throughout the play where we see him entre the stage he is wearing a white polo shirt with a vest waist coat over it and tight cream coloured trousers and high brown boots, an outfit that looked like he rides a horse. This outfit shows that he is charming, good looking man that draws Glinda’s attention but I noticed that the costume was a different colour (green) shirt and trousers when he was with Elphaba when they fell in love. This means that when he changed his costume colour it shows that he has different interactions with both the characters, Glinda and Elphaba.

The play settings, each costume that represented each character or settings. For example, when they were at Shiz University the characters where dressed up as students with blue and white stripy shirts, trousers, skirts, blazers and ties as if it was a school uniform, the characters that were those who were part of the emerald city wore light green and mint colours costume, during the clock of the time dragon they wore dark red, green and black. When they were looking for the witch they wore autumn colours. During the play, I spotted that every character has the same hairstyle and costumes when the setting is change. What I mean by this, there was a character that had her hair shaped as a upside down shoe in both Emerald City and when she was hunting for the witch with the same costume but a different colour. Another example on a character who did this during the play was Madame Morrible. Also, I notice that all the animals apart from the flying monkeys wear human costumes with their face shaped as the animal so the audience know what was what, such as the goats and Dr Dillamond, lion, and other animals on stage. Monkey’s costume was quite different where they would be full shoulders to feet leotard that looked multi-colour brownish skin with a monkey mask face that had wires that was curls from their head to represent the hair and wings attach to the back where in the play, Elphaba ask the Wizard to set them free and that is where the wings come out from their backs.

Props were also use to represent the characters such as Elphaba’s Broom to show that she is a witch with a broom to travel to where she need to go and carry it around with her, Glinda’s mirror that shows that she is pretty and loves the way she looked, old fashion suit cases that justifies the time the play is set in, forks and spades the people use in the ensemble to show that they are ready to find the witch, a bike and a carrier to show that it was outside and guns that the palace guards use to threaten who they going to kill. This made the play more naturalistic because it made it look real in terms of where it was taken place, it made the audience believe in the characters more and allow them to connect with them. Looking at the mirror that Glinda has closely, there was not mirror on it, this is because it avoids technical issues, reflecting light into the audience or into places that can go on fire and distraction to the actors on stage. The staging was well managed, set design and a lot of techniques was involves such as the use of space, timing and rhythmic accuracy, impetus and etc. Some of the actors had their back to the audience when listening to Glinda telling the story of her best friend but to allow them to project their voices which singing they turned around to face the audience so their projection is not blocked. When they had finished they looked back at Glinda. Because of where I was sitting which was very close to the stage I could see most of the transitions that was happening when the characters were coming from the ground or being lifts the flooring would move down or up. When Glinda was going up with the clock wheel, there would be a clip at the back of her dress would to stop her from falling off. There were no blackouts during the play, the actors would be going to a different setting by singing whilst the transition is changing to distract the audience from noticing the change or walking on a spot whilst the staging is moving or a new setting is transitioning on stage and the colour change to represents time of the day such morning or night which was on point. The noise of the dragon was loud and gloomy to represent the evil and something bad happening and the sound of every movement they make happened when they are about to sing. During the welcoming Elphaba and Glinda to Emerald City, there was a woman with an old fashion camera, and once she clicked that camera to take a picture, it made a click sound and a light flash. This was impressive because it happened so quickly that it shows that it was well rehearse where the woman would have to make sure she clicked the camera just in time with the music, sound and the light. This also showed that they work well with the technicians and musicians to ensure that they do it at the exact same time.

I believe that the play was both non-naturalistic and naturalistic because there were things that happened now a days and somethings do not exist. For example, the play showed non-naturalistic where the animals apart from the monkeys were acting like humans, walking around stage and talking to communicate, however the naturalistic aspect of this is that in the scene where Elphaba asked Dr Dillamond to share her lunch, she ate the sandwich but Dr Dillamond ate the paper that sandwich was wrapped in which demonstrated as a goat, they eat paper which was realistic. Another example where it shows naturalism, the wheelchair that Nessarose was not the wheelchairs we use now days but her wheelchair represents the period time of the play which was in the 1900s. Also, the naturalistic aspect overall to demonstrate the characters were the costumes and the props they used, this relates back to Stanislavski’s method to make a believable character which is important as I have mentioned before, to allow the audience to connect with the characters on stage to know who they are and what their personality is like.

In conclusion, overall the play was satisfactory in my opinion but I did like some parts of the play which got my attention but some part didn’t. I preferred the character Elphaba, the woman herself has an amazing voice that just blew me in the audience, it was strong and you could hear the emotions that she had and what it was like to be fed up, seen in the way she is. I connected with her character more because I put myself into her shoes and felt the way she felt, she was funny, out-going and wanted what was best for her and other people around her.

I liked how they set out the staging for Glinda and Elphaba’s bed room, it allowed me to connect with the characters more, their two beds were center stage with shelves at the side of them, one was on stage left that belonged to Glinda and one was on stage right which belonged to Elphaba, but about this setting related so much to the character’s personality where on Elphaba’s shelf it was dull, dark colours with a lot of books that was neatly piled on top of each other to show that Elphaba loves to read as well as her character being really smart where on Glinda’s shelf there were different colours and type of shoes laid out from top to bottom which looks like different outfits that goes with every single shoe, the colours shows her personality and her character it represents that she is a good witch and loves wearing bright colours. Along with this, their bed sheets were different Elphaba’s bed sheet was dull and dark coloured sheet and Glinda’s were pink and nicely made. As to Glinda’s character she likes to get attention, it showed in the play to what she was wearing and what her valuable things looked like. It drew the audience’s attention on her more because she lights up the stage but it gave Elphaba more work to get people’s attention that she wanted.

What made the play even more lively was the special effect of the rain, it made the show feel real which at one point felt like it was raining in the theatre. Towards the (nearly to) end I found it emotional, they showed Elphaba’s death: as the to where she was growing up they thought she was an actual witch where they thought her soul was unclean and they purred water on her to melt her but the water didn’t melt her because she is a human. This was shown behind a backdrop that has shadows of the action happening which made it more powerful.

The skills and attributes of the performers in Wicked, would need to have vocal skills due to the singing and to what they were saying on stage; they need to ensure they know how to project their voice on stage, practice the timing, pitch and tempo of their voice when it comes to group singing, motivation where they are willing to come in to the theatre, rehearse, be ready for the matinee slot and then when that is over, they have a quick break and warm-up for their evening slot as well as having the flexibly of time and discipline to ensure they are on time, the ability to work independently on scripts, their own songs and movements, dancing skills due it being a musical; dance is always involves where the performers should be willing to pick up the moves quickly and remember it on stage.

Relating to vocal skills, a performer would need to do a lot of warm-ups such as tongue twisters and breathing control to know when to breath in between the line when singing to allow the performer to project their voice, practice on different pitch, intonation and the volume to ensure it matched the song and sounds right. Some actors travel from different countries, therefore may have different accents such as Scottish, British, Australian and American. I believe that because the play was written in an American accent and British, the actors would have to play around with the accent to merge with the play which means they have to work on the pronunciations due to different country pronounce their words differently from others and allowing them to have the ability to speak fluently and coherently when being their character. Also, it is important that the actors, eat healthy and drink enough water and avoid the food or drinks that may damage the vocal cords.

References Characters . (2011). Retrieved February 14, 2017, from Wicked wikia: http://wicked.wikia.com/wiki/The_Wizard Wicked The Souvenir Programme. (2017). New York: The Araca Group. Retrieved February 1, 2017, from www.WickedTheMusical.co.uk

0 notes