WICKED Adelaide Youth Theatre The Arts Theatre Until 23 Dec 2018 Review by Paige Mulholland “Wicked” blew into the musical theatre world some 15 years ago like a house in a cyclone, and quickly cemented itself into the hearts of musical theatre lovers young and old. Now that the show has fallen out of vogue, it’s easy to forget what a gem (or emerald?) the show is – how it portrays strong, independent female characters, how seamlessly the laugh-out-loud comedy sits alongside the tearjerker moments, and, of course, just how good some of the songs are. Adelaide Youth Theatre’s production is introducing a new generation of young theatregoers to “Wicked”, but it’s also reuniting older theatre goers with an old friend. Based on the seminal “The Wizard of Oz”, “Wicked” follows Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West, Glinda, the Good Witch of the North, and, to a lesser extent, Nessarose, the Wicked Witch of the East from their time at university right up to Elphaba’s final confrontation with Dorothy. Each character grapples with what it means to be good, what it means to be evil, and what it means to care for someone. Adelaide Youth Theatre’s performers are mostly children and young adults, and are split into two casts – the Emerald cast and the Ruby cast. The performance being reviewed here was by the Emerald cast. Serena Martino-Williams and Georgia Broomhall lead the cast spectacularly as Elphaba and Glinda respectively, performing two vocally demanding roles with tenacity and excellent pitch and harmony. These two are clear standouts, but the whole cast performs with outstanding energy and enthusiasm, executing tricky lyrics and challenging choreography with gusto and precision. The only element in their performance that needed improvement was timing – across the board, from the leading roles to the ensemble and even the more experienced guest artist, the performers were too fast. Some dialogue was sped through so quickly that jokes didn’t land as well as they could have, pregnant pauses were abandoned before the audience had the chance to register them, and the cast were often racing ahead of the band when singing. The audience didn’t seem bothered by this – they clapped, cheered and laughed along more than most Adelaide audiences I’ve seen – but those who know the show well could see that some opportunities were missed. The costumes were slick and looked excellent onstage (aside from a few wardrobe malfunctions, all of which involved hats – some more pins or other fasteners wouldn’t have gone astray), and the designers had some nifty alternatives to the high tech, expensive special effects in the original show. Lighting, though, was a little hit-and-miss – although it was effective at enhancing Elphaba’s green skin and the projections looked excellent, at times the stage was lit so that soloist’s faces were in severe shadow while they were singing and, during the opening of Act II, there was a bizarre incident with the curtain and the lights both either malfunctioning or being operated incorrectly that resulted in a visibly confused cast and audience. Aside from some technical mishaps, the show was highly enjoyable – half the neighbourhood could probably hear the applause by the end. Adelaide has seen many productions of “Wicked” in the past ten years, ranging from professional to semi-professional, adult to youth. And even if you’re a “Wicked” purist, this production defies gravity along with the best of them.