Wicked Question

[musicaltheatreman2]

Posted: 3/9/15 at 6:58pm

"But not every hit comes without a hitch. The Toronto premiere of The Emerald City tour was forced to postpone performances by a day after the show's star, Stephanie J. Block, was injured during a final dress rehearsal. The now-cut moment, which was to feature Elphaba flying onto stage prior to "No Good Deed," went awry – sidelining Block from the premiere for nearly three weeks."

Having Elphaba fly in was this added in just for the Toronto premier and then taken out when Stephanie got hurt or has Elphaba always flown on to the stage for this scene in the Broadway production? Whats the history behind the staging of this particular scene? I have only seen the tour so I am not sure how it is staged on Broadway. Thanks

taken from this playbill.com article
http://www.playbill.com/news/article/two-dozen-witches-and-790-million-later-wicked-first-national-tour-reaches-final-bow-343712

[SharoninB]

Posted: 3/9/15 at 7:09pm

She walked on the stage in Australia. I think she comes out a trap door for Broadway I think

[musicaltheatreman2]

Posted: 3/9/15 at 7:12pm

if the broadway production was before the Toronto production why did they add in her flying onto the stage?

[SharoninB]

Posted: 3/9/15 at 7:19pm

I think it was a trial to see if they could do it for touring as opposed to trap door.

[SharoninB]

Posted: 3/9/15 at 7:19pm

I think it was a trial to see if they could do it for touring as opposed to trap door.

[atuomala]

Posted: 3/9/15 at 8:06pm

Not all theatres have the same backstage amenities. The Gershwin Theatre has a built-in space for a trap door, whereas maybe the theatre in Toronto didn't have a trap door so they needed to change the choreography for that scene. When Aladdin performed at the Tony Awards at Radio City Musical Hall, some of the choreography differed from what is performed nightly at the New Amsterdam Theatre because one sequence of "Friend Like Me" required the use of a trap door (for which Radio City doesn't have), so it was omitted from the Tony performance

[musicaltheatreman2]

Posted: 3/9/15 at 8:40pm

Thanks! :)

[Call_me_jorge]

Posted: 3/9/15 at 9:11pm

They only use the trap door for open-ended productions. And for the tony awards comment, thats the same for every show. You could make that statement for any show.

[sabrelady]

Posted: 3/9/15 at 9:20pm

I think it was a trial to see if they could do it for touring as opposed to trap door.-
The above was correct. One of the wire broke/dropped and she had her neck badly dislocated tho she did not hit the ground.
And it occurred prior to the 1st performance. The standby was not even familiar enough to go on, instead they flew the understudy out from New York for a put in.



For the record, The Toronto Theatre had the trap door.

[Call_me_jorge]

Posted: 3/9/15 at 9:23pm

How does the well in the 2NT work. I've seen videos and it still looks like she's coming out of the ground. And with the trap door in toronto above. The trap door also would need to include an elevator and that would be a hassle for the tours to carry around.

[SharoninB]

Posted: 3/9/15 at 9:32pm

Sorry I was confusing the above comments is what I meant.

[asmith0307]

Posted: 3/9/15 at 9:45pm

Tours tend to add elements at some point. With Wicked especially, there were a few changes. The Broadway production originally had a large witches' hat that was omitted for the tour. After the 1NT opened, they re-teched the Broadway company to reflect this and a few other changes.

[Tag]

Posted: 3/9/15 at 11:22pm

As mentioned above, it's not feasible to build a trap door (and more importantly the under-structure) into touring venues. On Broadway, where the set is more 'permanently' built-in, at the beginning of No Good Deed Elphaba rises from a trap door that is downstage centre (also used to disappear the male dancer during 'Have a little drink…"). The creative team wanted an effect for her entrance on tour, so the solution was to fly her in from the side of the stage. During tech rehearsals in Toronto, a computer error started moving one of the wires attached to Block's waist, and not the other on her opposite side. Pulling her in one direction, and keeping her in place by the other. This damaged her midsection/ribs quite badly. The opening preview was cancelled and Kristy Cates (a Broadway understudy/ensemble member) was flown in to take over for the first few weeks.

[JamesBroadwayWiner]

Posted: 3/9/15 at 11:46pm

I am also very curious as to how the well works. I saw the 2nd tour 4 times in the past three weeks and could never figure out how she gets out from behind it so gracefully.

[WickedAwesome]

Posted: 3/10/15 at 12:56am

Saw the 2NT this past fall multiple times as an usher. The second time, I saw a change in light in a crack between the well and the door. Basically, Elphaba is behind the well when it is rolled out onto the stage. When Fiyero opens up the door, she is able to crawl out and shape shift her body to appear that she is coming up from under. Definitely not 100% sure but after seeing it a good amount of times, I am pretty confident something along the lines of this happens.

[broadwayguy2]

Posted: 3/10/15 at 3:35am

This will reflect several above posts.

1. On Broadway / in sit downs, the entrance before "No Good Deed" is via trap door. Traps and elevators are not easily toured.thebsmount of time, money and man power to custom build that in each theatre is impossible for a tour, and that is before addressing that many theatres simply will not ALLOW you to do that. They wanted to give her a "magical" entrance.

2. Wicked has numerous changes made over the years as new companies are staged, and often they are then folded into existing companies for consistency.

3. Yes, Elphaba is hidden behind the well. The trap door folds up toward the audience and the actress simply crawls behind it and pops her head up.

[Justin D]

Posted: 3/10/15 at 1:54pm

another minor difference that I sort of prefer on tour is the broom flying in from the wings before defying gravity rather that being passed up wiggling from the orchestra pit. Although, Elphaba and Glinda coming in from the pit is also a nice touch on Broadway rather than just walking on, so its a tit for tat for me, I just think the broomstick in the pit looks kinda silly.

Another nice little touch on Broadway are the poppies popping up from the stage deck.

[sabrelady]

Posted: 3/10/15 at 7:52pm

This damaged her midsection/ribs quite badly.

Thanks for the clarification Tag. I had heard neck but maybe I was mixing it up w Cheno and the neck brace.