This isn't the first non-professional production. The first non-professional production was performed by CLOC in Melbourne in May.
I saw the CLOC production and they essentially threw as much money as it as possible to make the show as close to the original staging as possible. The Glinda was probably one of the best I'd ever seen, I saw Savannah Stevenson early in her run and she wasn't completely comfortable in the role yet plus I saw Lucy Durak in Sydney... less said about that, the better. I saw the third performance and Glinda was losing her voice already.
Would love to hear a review of the Sydney production!
I'm going next week. I was hoping that someone would 'radically reinvent' rather than carbon copy. I want the John Doyle approach!!
"You can't overrate Bernadette Peters. She is such a genius. There's a moment in "Too Many Mornings" and Bernadette doing 'I wore green the last time' - It's a voice that is just already given up - it is so sorrowful. Tragic. You can see from that moment the show is going to be headed into such dark territory and it hinges on this tiny throwaway moment of the voice." - Ben Brantley (2022)
"Bernadette's whole, stunning performance [as Rose in Gypsy] galvanized the actors capable of letting loose with her. Bernadette's Rose did take its rightful place, but too late, and unseen by too many who should have seen it" Arthur Laurents (2009)
"Sondheim's own favorite star performances? [Bernadette] Peters in ''Sunday in the Park,'' Lansbury in ''Sweeney Todd'' and ''obviously, Ethel was thrilling in 'Gypsy.'' Nytimes, 2000
Tag said: "I remember there being a non-professional version years ago. I think somewhere in Europe, that had a drastic re-design. Anyone remember?
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I think you are referring to the Danish or Finnish production, which were both professional but were non-replica. The Finnish production, in particular, incorporated a lot of Nazi imagery into the set design
90 per cent of the first act should be thrown away, that would help this over bloated pile of crap
Well I didn't want to get into it, but he's a Satanist.
Every full moon he sacrifices 4 puppies to the Dark Lord and smears their blood on his paino.
This should help you understand the score for Wicked a little bit more.
Tazber's: Reply to
Is Stephen Schwartz a Practicing Christian
So saw this show last night. I was a little shocked because it was surprisingly very well polished - I was expecting amateur hour and it was anything but. I've since discovered that perhaps semi-professional is a better term to describe the production rather than non-professional because they are paid actors and they have clearly poured a lot of money into the production!
Overall, it felt like a 'lite'/'scaled' version of the original production. Very similar direction, very similar sets and costumes. Everything was just a bit 'less' (including singing and acting ability, sound design, orchestra ability). If you had never seen the show before, it would have been a very similar experience to seeing the real thing.
As I said earlier, the kind of Wicked experience I'm looking for is a black box theatre/John Doyle style - something radically different. This was anything but.
"You can't overrate Bernadette Peters. She is such a genius. There's a moment in "Too Many Mornings" and Bernadette doing 'I wore green the last time' - It's a voice that is just already given up - it is so sorrowful. Tragic. You can see from that moment the show is going to be headed into such dark territory and it hinges on this tiny throwaway moment of the voice." - Ben Brantley (2022)
"Bernadette's whole, stunning performance [as Rose in Gypsy] galvanized the actors capable of letting loose with her. Bernadette's Rose did take its rightful place, but too late, and unseen by too many who should have seen it" Arthur Laurents (2009)
"Sondheim's own favorite star performances? [Bernadette] Peters in ''Sunday in the Park,'' Lansbury in ''Sweeney Todd'' and ''obviously, Ethel was thrilling in 'Gypsy.'' Nytimes, 2000