Ben Apfelbaum

WICKED : JOYOUS WIZADRY COMES TO SYDNEY

Liam Head, Courtney Monsma and Robyn Nevin in WICKED Pic Jeff Busby

Since premiering on Broadway in 2003, WICKED has been enjoyed by more than 65,000,000 people across 16 countries.  It is the winner of more than one hundred major awards, including Grammy, Olivier and Tony awards. This is borne out of the fact that it is currently the fourth longest running show in Broadway history.

This current production more than fulfils the legacy of previous productions.

Based on the novel by Gregory Maguire and adapted for the Broadway  stage with music and lyrics by Stephen Schwatz  with a book by Winnie Holzman and directed by Lisa Leguillou, this musical  is a feast for the senses.

The sets are spectacular, the costumes striking,  and he vocals both by the principals and the ensemble perfectly in synch with the musical direction of David Young and his accomplished  orchestra.lh

WICKED is the prequel to ‘The Wizard Of Oz’. It is intended to show why  Glinda became known as the Good Witch and why Elphaba became branded with the reputation as the Wicked Witch.

Ostensibly it is a musical about sisterhood but there are many more strands to the show that are highly relevant today.  It powerfully deals with the politics of tyranny  with the propaganda and the misinformation that accompanies it, evil and deceitful manipulation, delusional narcissism, and the cruelty of exclusion and scapegoating, especially in the case of the ‘green’ Elphaba.

Courtney Monsma is perfect as the sugary sweet  and loveable Glinda. At the start of the show that loveable quality is mainly self love with a burning need to be popular.

Monsma seamlessly transitions to becoming a Wise Witch, enriched by her friendship and admiration of Elphaba. This demonstrates another theme of the show, the power of transformation.

Courtney Monsma has a  soaring soprano voice which combines with Sheridan Adams’s radiant voice to create duets that are aurally shimmering.

As Elphaba,  Sheridan Adams has the more physically demanding role, cowering from other people due to her verdant colouring, and seeking to suppress a potentially destructive power within her which can  be harnessed for  good or evil. Elphaba, too, transforms in to a confident and intelligent woman, secure in the knowledge of her moral compass and ready to use her inner power for good. As a result there are some special effects demonstrating Elphaba’s magical powers that brought gasps from the audience.

Liam Head as Fiyero is effective as the pampered Prince who, to his astonishment falls passionately in love with Elphaba and embraces her ideals of kindness and an enemy  of injustice.

Adding to further appeal is the inclusion of veterans Todd McKenney as the Wizard who  has forty one shows to his credit, and Robyn Nevin as Madame Morrible.  They are the villains of the piece and one can see that they relish in the deliciousness of their villainy. They seek to harness Elphaba’s powers and, if unable to so,  they will kill her.

Adding to the aural and thespian  heft, Adam Murphy as Doctor Dillamond , the pitiful, intelligent goat,  who loses his speaking voice, Shewit Belay  as Nessarose, Elphaba’s wheelchair bound sister  to whom  Elphaba is fiercely  devoted, and Kurtis Papadinis  as the lovelorn Boq, pining for Glinda.

The ensemble are stunning using their physical athleticism and gorgeous voices to  create a magical world of vibrancy and colour.

The themes that I have set out above combined with the superb professionalism of the cast and creative allows WICKED to sit alongside  the great moral musicals of Broadway such as ‘Fiddler On The Roof’ with its anti Semitic motif. ‘The Sound Of Music’ with its condemnation of narcissism, ‘South Pacific’ with racism at the heart of the story, and even ‘The Wizard Of Oz’ itself with its subject that a loving home is the  best place  to be.

There are effective comic turns from Glinda and sly references to ‘The WizardOf Oz’ which include a lion, a tin man and a straw man who accompany Dorothy  (Judy  Garland) along the Yellow Brick Road, as well as the mention pf her dog, Toto.

This show is a must see,  and a fertile harvest  of enjoyment, Those who miss it  will be green with envy;

WICKED is playing the Lyric Theatre at Star City.

Production photography by Jeff Busby 

 

 

 

 

 

Published by Ben Apfelbaum

My photography began when my father handed me the proverbial brownie box camera as a child. As cameras developed I went through Fujica and Olympus range finders graduating to my first single lens reflex camera, the Minolta SRT101, the latter being the greatest facilitator to my growth as a photographer. Digital photography has only added to this. I was a regular contributor to Camera Craft magazine (Australian Camera ) for over three years. During Australia’s Bicentennial year (1988) I made it a personal project to document the celebrations. This culminated in the creation of a book of my photos which was published in 1989. The book was called CELEBRATING AUSTRALIA and came with an accompanying calendar. My works have appeared in a number of publications including the coffee book entitled MY AUSTRALIA (1989), publisher Robertsbridge Severn. This book had a preface by the then Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke. I was a co-photographer on a book entitled SYDNEY- DISCOVER THE CITY with text written by Robert Treborlang. Major Mitchell Press was the publisher. Also for two years I was the photographer for calendars celebrating Sydney’s multicultural communities. The two calendars were entitled MULTICULTURAL SYDNEY. My work appeared in a group exhibition held at Sydney’s Town Hall pertaining to the diversity of life in South America to raise money for orphanages there. I have over one hundred photos stored in the New South Wales State Library archive. I had a solo exhibition held in 2007 entitled Ben’s Lens at the Sydney Jewish Museum which celebrated the vibrancy of the Sydney Jewish community. Some of these photos are on the Museum’s permanent display. I have exhibited internationally firstly at the Spruill Gallery in Atlanta Georgia, United States, and in an exhibition entitled Kosher and Co at the Jewish Museum in Berlin. Currently I am a regular contributor to J-Wire and this esteemed publication. To celebrate the opening of a permanent Photography Gallery, the State Library of New South Wales selected 400 shots from its archive of over 2,000,000 images to display in the new gallery. An image of mine was plucked out of the multi million photo archive to be part of the inaugural exhibition.