I’ve always wanted to use today’s post title, but never quite found a good enough reason to do so. However, today I think I have a good enough reason.
I am privileged to announce that I am going out on a very lengthy tour, for the first time in many a year, as Musical Director for the first UK/Eire tour of Wicked. This Musical is undoubtedy a phenomenon having now been running on Broadway for ten years and here in London’s West End for seven, but it’s longevity; so often put down to the favour it is held in by a broad audience demographic and the portrayal of two feisty, strong women, actually belies the fact that the piece is supremely crafted in every detail. In actuality its immediate popularity, with that sense of easy familiarity for audiences, is an illusion of finely wrought and beautifully disguised narrative genius through its three contingent structural aspects: music, lyrics and book. Continue Reading →
Having spent some time previously musing about the relative non-success of ALW’s The Woman in White, I thought I’d turn to a brief reflection on the Musical phenomenon that opened the year before TWIW on Broadway: Stephen Schwartz and Winnie Holzman’s Wicked – The Untold Story of the Witches of Oz.
