After years of encountering, and failing to seize, opportunities to see productions of Wicked in New York and London, I finally get to see it in Showbiz Christchurch’s lavish and spectacular production at the Isaac Theatre Royal. Almost everything about the production and the stage and pit performances is slickly impressive and breathtakingly dazzling.

Director Stephen Robertson certainly knows how to get the absolute best from his large and talented cast, ensemble and production team. If there are occasional weaknesses in characterisation from individual performers, Robertson knows how to disguise them with visual spectacle and creative staging, helped by Glen Harris’s effective choreography. The range of instrumental textures and effects is fully and masterfully realised by the pit orchestra, and Musical Director Richard Marrett draws lively and consistently idiomatic playing from his notably accomplished musicians.

The costumes (especially the hats) are nothing short of astonishing. Equally astonishing is the fact that, although Diane Brodie is credited in the programme as Wardrobe Manager, no designer is mentioned! In a production that draws so much of its positive effect from visual elements, tonight’s line-up of costumes almost makes the show – truly amazing!

No less effective is Harold Moot’s set design which, assisted by Dave Spark’s stunningly atmospheric videography and Grant Robertson’s beautifully detailed lighting, is another of the production’s greatest strengths. The exceptionally striking masks and wigs also need to be acknowledged, especially Dr Dillamond’s goat mask.

With all this talent in evidence, what a pity about the show itself! Although the concept is clever, at times almost thought-provoking on a rather superficial level, and littered with witty puns and wordplays, it tends to take itself too seriously for much of the time. Too often I feel I am being lectured about, for example, tolerance, perspectives or political corruption, and the running theme of flawed personality traits lacks enough believable consistency to make any worthwhile point, although I do find myself laughing willingly at the show’s sprinkling of genuine humour and admiring the brilliance of the ensemble staging, especially in the earlier scenes of Act 1. 

But I find nothing to enjoy in Stephen Schwartz’s actual musical conception. While the lyrics are often cleverly inventive and sharp-witted, the music itself is so cliché-ridden and lacking in genuine originality that any number of Broadway hack-writers could have penned it. Some of the more well-known songs such as ‘Popular’ and ‘Defying Gravity’ certainly benefit from their dramatic context, but while ‘Popular’ relies on its lyrics and, in this performance, Ellie Neal’s (Glinda) superb vocal and visual delivery – a real cameo highlight – ‘Defying Gravity’ is a typical example of overhyped climaxes and inflated impact-by-sledgehammer. In this song, Jane Leonard (Elphaba) is certainly up to its vocal demands, as she is throughout the show.

The two witches alternate from night-to-night, so this second performance is opening night for Jane Leonard and Ellie Neal. If the previous night’s pair of witches is anything like as good as these two, then no-one need worry about which cast to choose to see. But tonight the house does seem to be peppered with Jane Leonard’s friends, family and fellow NASDA graduates, because the response (scattered throughout the stalls) to almost her every note and move is greeted by cheers and whistles as OTT as the overwrought music. 

Schwartz’s songs rely heavily on the craft and imagination of his orchestrators and arrangers, but even they seem to find little alternative to giving the music its impact except through relentless and wearing volume. Throughout the whole of the long first half of the show, I feel I’m being shouted at, “full of sound and fury signifying nothing” as Macbeth might have observed.

At times the amplification of the vocal ensemble is so saturated that any possibility of hearing the words is hopeless. The second half seems a little better in this respect, but whether I’ve now been beaten into submission or if some adjustment has been made is hard to say.

When I consider the wide range of music theatre that I’ve seen in Christchurch over the last year or so, the blunt force nature of this show compares unfavourably with much else; most recently a production in this same theatre where unamplified singers and musicians projected easily, effectively and with plenty of decibel impact throughout the auditorium. 

I was once involved in a production of an earlier Schwartz musical called Working, which exhibited similar traits in its rather preaching philosophy, spectacular stage requirements and lack of any truly memorable music. Of Schwartz’s other work, ‘Day by Day’ from Godspell comes to mind as having an element of character and memorability, but despite this Broadway writer’s huge success, especially with Wicked, he could hardly be described as a hit-maker (in a long-term sense) which, for me, is an essential ingredient for a great composer of musicals.

Despite my misgivings about the work itself, Stephen Robertson’s production maintains the impressive level of professionalism and detail that is his hallmark – Court Theatre’s recent Chicago remains an especially memorable example. The cast for this production of Wicked is consistently strong, and although perhaps all deserve to be mentioned individually, a highlight is Chris Goodyear’s (the Wizard) performance of ‘Wonderful’ – rather suggestive of a different style of musical, but also somehow equally derivative in its limited originality – a welcome oasis in a desert of sameness. 

The curtain calls elicit a renewal of the audience’s demonstrations of enthusiasm for the production and the performers, but the rather scattered standing ovation as the two witches take their bow, demonstrates, I think, that many in the audience share my reservations about the effectiveness of the piece itself. Perhaps the golden age of Broadway musicals has given way to an industrial age where the ‘production’ is the star of the show with high octane spectacle and sound being the key elements. 

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