Soaring Music, Interesting Tale

If you have not yet seen the spellbinding Broadway musical “Wicked,†you might want to get on your broomstick and fly onto the Proctor’s Theatre’s Web site. You might still be able to score a ticket to the Tony-award-nominated show, which is on tour at the beautiful, historic performing arts palace in Schenectady.

   “Wicked†has two things going for it: a soaring score and an interesting story.  The latter, from a novel by Gregory Maguire, is the imagined backstory of the Wicked Witch of the West, “Elphaba,† from “The Wizard of Oz†(or, “How an ordinary, misunderstood, green-skinned girl came to be a raging, monkey-taming harridanâ€).

   Much like the fairy tales that make up Stephen Sondheim’s “Into the Woods,†the story of “Wicked†is set in a kind of gray zone between the source’s magical world and the mundane “real†world.  Thus there is a high-school-prom-queen version of Glinda (the Good Witch of the North), a feckless wizard, petty jealousies and a subplot, apparently from the PETA playbook, that has to do with liberating animals.

    Still, despite some of the more caricaturish portrayals, the show’s ruminations on good and evil give it uncommon depth, especially as embodied in the moral and personal struggles of Elphaba, who becomes an appealingly complex character.

    The music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz (“Pippin,†“Godspellâ€) map the action with increasing urgency, particularly in my favorite song, “No Good Deed,†furiously sung by Elphaba.  And while this is not Sondheim, the best numbers (including “For Good,†“Defying Gravity,†and “What Is This Feeling?â€) have enough verve, wit and tunefulness to thoroughly captivate audiences of all ages.  (The worst, alas, veer dangerously into “High School Musical†waters.)

   The cast for our matinee, featuring Carrie Manolakos as Elphaba and Helene Yorke as Glinda, was top notch.

“Wicked†is at Proctor’s Theatre in Schenectady through Jan. 3.  Call 518- 346-6208 or go to www.proctors.org.  It is also continuing its run, now in its seventh year, at the George Gershwin Theatre in New York City.

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