Theatre: Wicked (★★★½)

Suzie Mathers is good

By Stephen Schwartz and Winnie Holtzman
Directed by Lisa Leguillou
Original Direction Joe Mantello
Musical Staging Wayne Cilento
Burswood Theatre
On sale until June 28

Wicked, the world’s biggest commercial musical, returns to Perth with its mix of the very good and the less than overwhelming pretty much intact.
One thing doesn’t change: it’s a very clever story, based on the novel Gregory Maguire spun from L Frank Baum’s timeless masterpiece of American heartland fantasy, The Wizard of Oz, in a way that both expands and undercuts it.
It gives the two witches – Glinda and Elphaba, the wicked witch of the title – a back story, and the personalities to drive it.
The story precedes, and then parallels, the adventures of Dorothy in the original Oz. It’s an ingenious, expertly crafted book (by Winnie Holzman), with effective messages about intolerance, oppression and the manipulation of public perception, that remains the best thing about the show.
 
Link here to the complete review in The West Australian