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Do you often go to see a stage musical? If you do, perhaps you would not be as confused as I am...
Earlier this week we went to see Wicked -- the live, stage musical -- at Burswood. It was almost a full house. We spoke briefly to a staff member; he told us that there had already been a Sunday show. Plus a matinee on the day that we were there.
Imagine our surprise at the front page of The West Australian the next day:
Perth-born actress Lucy Durack, 28, marks her triumphant return home tonight as the star of Broadway musical Wicked, which opens at Burswood Theatre.Let me highlight the words which surprised me:
... tonight ... Wicked ... opensWicked opens tonight?! But what about the three performances which had already happened? Were they just dress rehearsals?!?
Where are our discounts for watching the practice run of a musical which is not yet ready to open?!
What a load of rubbish.
Speaking of rubbish...
So what did I think of the pre-release version of Wicked?Absolute rubbish.
I have a separate blog where I do reviews, so I won't confuse my reader by reviewing Wicked here.
But it was rubbish.
It opens with people dancing and singing and a dragon roaring... Which is interesting, now I come to think about it.
The roaring dragon -- every other time that it appeared -- was a sign that the Wicked Witch was doing wicked magic. The story opens with celebrations of the death of the witch... So what was the relevance of the roaring dragon? Perhaps: we have it, why waste it...
In a similar fashion, the opening dance was clever choreography. But it told us nothing about the story... At the start, the dance represented -- I guess -- citizens celebrating. I couldn't understand the words -- I hope the sound was clearer by the time the show "really opened" -- but celebration seemed to fit the story.
The same -- clever, unusual -- style of dance appeared regularly. To represent fighting. Sorrow. Weddings, funerals... you name it. Okay, so it was clever dancing. Interesting, almost. And the singer/dancers never needed to pause for breath as they sang and danced in their frenzies.
But the dancing did nothing to help us to understand the story. It was just dancing... thrown in to keep us entertained as we tried to work out what was supposed to be happening.
Then Glinda the Good Witch appeared. Took a while to work this out: the sound was very unclear. Still, enough words here and there and the story began to unfold.
Severely hampered by more problems with the quality of sound.
The chorus singing was 90% incomprehensible.
The star -- Glinda -- is supposed to be an idiot. (More idiotic than in the book, I'm told.) She supported this idiocy with a squeeky voice and speech mannerisms which would be funny in a book -- but confusing in a hard-enough-to-understand song.
When two soloists were singing, it was worse. The sound came from front and centre -- for everyone. Who said that? Was that Glinda or Elpheba? What's going on?! We were being introduced to the story -- so, presumably, did not know the characters. We couldn't tell who was saying what -- so it was very difficult to guess what sorts of characters they were.
Though it was very clear -- all through the first half -- that they were all rather nasty. Yuk! A story where there is no character that you can like!
Going back to the idiocy of Glinda... As a shallow, self-centered egotist, Glinda did a lot of cutesy, childish skipping. Was it good acting that allowed to skip in such an awkward fashion? Or is the actress simply an ungraceful person... Who knows. Perhaps the graceless skipping is the mark of really good acting.
Did I say that I would not turn this blog into a review?
Oh well.
There was one good song. For the rest...
The song writer had a standard approach: I can't think of a melody -- so I'll get them to sing louder and higher.
On a better note...
We enjoyed our night out. Not for the musical. Not for the meal before. Not for the hordes of people and cars... It was the same night, same venue, as Kylie Minogue. But we do enjoying going out.When we left, there was a solid block of traffic. Our only option was, to drive across the road and break into a solid line of cars.
No worries!
Other drivers gave way. We edged into a tiny gap -- and the gap was opened. No honking, no shouting. Just polite, after-you, good driving.
Thank you to all the good drivers of Perth!
And my next posting will be... Perth drivers are good, it's just that our approach to driving is different.
Agamedes Consulting. Support for your thought: email nick leth at gmail dot com |
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