Wicked Marquee at the Ford Center for the Performing Arts Oriental Theatre, Theater District, Chicago
Rachelle & Mom, Theater District, Chicago
Inside the Ford Center for the Performing Arts Oriental Theatre, Theater District, Chicago
Last year my mom came down and we had dinner at Petterino’s, saw the Field’s windows and then went to Mama Mia. This year, we had dinner at HUE, saw the Field’s windows and went to Wicked.
Ana Gasteyer has the lead role, playing Elphaba aka The Wicked Witch of the West. You’re probably familiar with Ana, since she was on SNL for 6 years. She gave an amazing performance, who knew she had such a great singing voice.. especially at the end of the song “Defying Gravity,” right before intermission. People were cheering and crying and going crazy. I think my mom even slipped a curse word or two.
Kate Reinders also gave a great performance as Glinda (The Good Witch), who, in the musical, was way more “Legally Blonde” than I remember her being in the book. I thought her best performance was during the song “Popular.”
Speaking of the book, it was interesting to see how the musical differed from it. Like all book adaptations, a lot of detail was left out and a lot of things happened in the book that were just skipped or changed for the play. To be expected. Both are great works of art in their own seperate ways.