SAN DIEGO— Warning, if you go see Wicked at Broadway San Diego, you will leave with ear worms. For me that’s alternately “Popular” sung by Glinda (Austen Danielle Bohmer) and “Defy Gravity” sung by Elphaba (Lauren Samuels). Member of the tribe Stephen Schwartz who wrote the multiple award-winning music and lyrics sure knew what he was doing. And it’s not a simple ear worm either, oh no, this one lasts and lasts. The good news is that you probably won’t actually mind that much.
If you’ve never seen the movie which was just recently out in theaters, you may be wondering what I’m even talking about. So, to quickly catch you up, Wicked is a parallel story to L. Frank Baum’s Wizard of Oz. It’s really the story of friendship. In this version, Glinda, whom we know as the “good witch” from the original 1939 movie starring Judy Garland, and Elphaba, whom we know as the “wicked witch,” become friends in college. The first half of the show happens before Dorothy lands in Oz, and the second half happens during and after Dorothy’s visit. We never see Dorothy, but we do learn the “origins” of the Tin Man, The Scarecrow and the Cowardly Lion. There are allusions to things that happen in the movie.
In this production, neither Glinda nor Elphaba are actually good or evil. Elphaba is misunderstood and feared because she’s green and a powerful sorceress. Glinda on the other hand is somewhat vapid but turns out to be a loyal friend. The wizard (Blake Hammond) is still a con man, and the real villain is head mistress Madame Morrible (Aymee Garcia). Elphaba wants to rescue and set free the talking animals, who are being caged and tortured into non speech by Madame Morrible and the wizard for reasons unknown- literal scapegoating, as the goat professor Dr. Dillamond (Kingsley Leggs) says before he is caged and has the power of speech removed. (That is the professor is a goat, not that he teaches about them). Because she is going against the wishes of Madame Morrible, Elphaba is deemed evil, and that is how she gets the title that we know her by from the original. There’s also a bit of a love triangle between her, Glinda and Fiyero (Xavier McKinnon).
The original 2003 Broadway production starred Kristen Chenowith as Glinda and Idina Mendel as Elphaba. It’s currently the 4th longest running show in Broadway history, having just celebrated its 21st birthday in October. It’s also racked up an impressive number of awards (over 100) including Grammy’s and Tony’s.
I really liked the show, and preferred Bohmer’s Glinda to Ariana Grande’s (who played the role in the 2024 movie). The entire cast is very talented, but shout outs are especially due to Bohmer, Samuels, McKinnon, Leggs, Garcia, and Hammond.
The sets are amazing, multi-layered and make use of fog, lights, and steam punk style backdrops and facades. It was a great mix of building physical pieces and making use of modern technology without it feeling overly digital. There were so many little details in the set that even once you thought you had taken it all in you would notice something new. Like the patterns on the wings of the dragon that hangs above the curtain, or that the clock starts on 1 and ends on 13.
On the night I saw the show, there were several noticeable audio issues, beyond the usual issues we hear at the civic. A few times mics dropped out during the dialogue. It’s unclear if the issue were mics not being turned on in time or if they were somehow moved and didn’t catch the line. Since it’s a long run (playing through March 2) I have no doubt that they will get the bugs worked out. It was disruptive enough that I would be remiss in not mentioning it though.
Audio issues notwithstanding, it’s a fun watch for the entire family. And, good news, there’s a daily lottery for $30 tickets via the Broadway San Diego app. The lottery opens at 10am each day and closes at 3, so plenty of time to enter.
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Sandi Masori is a theater and restaurant reviewer for San Diego Jewish World