Wicked

Saturday, October 27, 2007
8:00pm evening
Pantages Theatre
Los Angeles, CA

General

• Julie Reiber -- while fantastic -- actually sounded a little tired and a bit sluggish at times. Vocally, she was still gorgeous and very powerful, but it's like she had to channel some of the energy she'd normally use for hand gestures, body language, facial expressions, etc., for singing. Again, NOT a lot. If you were seeing her for the first time, you wouldn't have noticed. But the fact that this was my sixth (?) time seeing Julie, it wasn't quite the same as what she's usually done.
   
• This was my first time seeing Megan Hilty again in a month and a half, after having seen Kendra three times, Christina once, and Emily once during that span of time. I'd kind of forgotten some of the little things that Megan has adopted to make the role absolutely her own, most of which I really love and adore. Perhaps some of the comedy comes across too strongly (like she's trying a bit too hard for the laughs), but I really do love how her portrayal of the role has evolved SO much just in her time in Los Angeles.
  
  Also, Megan has been coming off having been fairly ill (it sounds like she'd been out of the show an awful lot in the last couple weeks, and was why we got Emily last week), and while she really didn't sound sick at all, there were slight instances where you could tell she was being careful with her voice (very few optional notes).

• For quite some time, I've known Megan to do that incoherent mumbling of something when one of the Ozians shouts "Glinda!" to ask if it was true she was the Wicked Witch's friend. This time, however, Megan just did a simple, "Hmm?"
   
• Laura plays the Midwife a bit older than I think Natalie does when she's swinging the role.
   
• Just to keep score, unlike Kristen's Witch's Mother, Gina doesn't faint when she sees that her baby is green.
   
• During the progression of different reactions/emotions that Julie progresses through during "Dear Old Shiz", she gets VERY exasperated when Melissa faints.
   
• Just as a comparison to Julia (who sort of gently places the suitcase down), Julie (like Eden) practically tosses the suitcase to the ground when she goes off on her rant, "All right fine! Might as well get this over with ..."
   
• Brian playes the Witch's Father in the room assignments scene very young -- like he hasn't really aged in the twenty years since we first see him.
   
• Linda really draws out "linnnnnnnguification".
   
• Megan's delivery of "magic wands -- need they have a point" is very musical sounding (though, still spoken).
   
• I love how Megan is completely and utterly appalled that she's lost Morrible's attention to her when Linda turns away.
   
• When Julie's powers unleash, Julie's fingers actually kind of quiver, and she stares at them intently and almost horrified at what's happening.
   
• The wheelchair was moving much more slowly than it usually does, and it took a few seconds longer for it to back up toward Julie. (And after the chair lands in her hands, Julie again looks at her hands in horror.)
   
• I love the way Julie is utterly confused when Linda reaches out to touch her face, like she's a little taken aback that she'd even want to touch her at all.
   
• The beginning of "The Wizard and I" was just a tad sluggish in terms of Julie's physical energy, although her voice sounded great, and she REALLY ramped up the energy at the end of the song. I LOVE how she practically exploded with uncontrollable joy by literally galloping in the air when she sang "so happy I could MELT". Seriously, SO CUTE.
   
• Usually Megan sings "I'll rise above it" in a half-whispered voice, but she did not this time.
   
• After Julie says "blonde", she literally shakes her body out like she's trying to shake off the creeps or something.
   
• Very mocking, high-pitched "your voice" -- which I love, but also love Megan's reaction of leaning backwards (by arching her back) away from Julie.
   
• Julie actually did a very similar mocking of Megan as she did with Emily at "every little trait" -- holding the purse with her fingers, pointing, and doing the little leg kick that turned into a side kick (not really a back kick anymore).
   
• After Megan "attacks" Julie with her reflection using the compact mirror, and Julie holds her hand up to block it, Megan kept the mirror out but circled her arm a bit, which Julie also mocked.
   
• In the first classroom scene, Megan says "it's Galinda ... with a gaahhhhhh" -- not like Emily's goat-like sound, but just very drawn out. And then when Timothy does the second attempt, spitting in Dioni's eye, Megan lets out this exasperated sigh.
   
• Julie's rant about perfecting pronunciation of Galinda's name was not quite as lividly angry as she's done in the past. But then after Megan's "artichoke" comment, I love how Julie is completely appalled and hurt, and on top of that, Dioni was pointing and laughing at her, too. Aww.
   
• The second time Megan said "it's Galinda with a gah!", she said it in a very whining and frustrated tone (much more so than she used to) -- like a little child.
   
• After nearly being run over by Fiyero's cart, Julie picks up her books and rather than smacking the back of the cart with her books (kind of from the side), Julie slammed the books on the top of the back rest (from above), which actually looked really funny because it's just the slightest bit awkward.
   
• And again, like the last time I saw Megan, right before Kris sang "they want you to be less callow, less ... shallow", Megan bent forward at the hips and peered up at Kris kind of from below which is hilariously cute. And while Megan still does the slightly delayed giggle at "shallow", she swings her purse in his direction, but she has scooted far back enough away from Kris that she does actually hit him.
   
• During the entire "Dancing Through Life" scene (in the courtyard of Shiz), Megan has a new habit of holding her purse on her wrist with her fist on her hip. She is also kind of allowing herself to be tossed and twirled around a lot more than she used to.
   
• At one point a month or so ago, I'd noted that Megan was deliberately putting her hands on Adam's chest to entice him to ask Nessa to the ball. This time, Megan went and linked arms with him and stood there really close to him.
   
• Megan practically spat in Kris' face when she over-emphasized the "p" sound in "you're PER-fect!".
   
• As Nessa explains why she's grateful for Galinda's help in getting Boq to ask her out, I love how Julie keeps a look of disdain on her face for quite some time, even sighing at one point, before finally giving in and deciding to feel at least a little happy for her sister.
   
• After Megan has given Julie the black hat and turns to go off-stage, she holds the sides of her dress out and shuffles her feet to go off-stage. (As opposed to Emily who held her dress out and literally galloped off-stage.)
   
• I only caught a glimpse as Megan was standing up, but I think she had to bend over and fix her shoe or something upon her and Kris' entrance to the Ozdust ball.
   
• After Kris and Megan go off to the side during Ozdust, it looked like Kris got some of Megan's hair in his mouth and was trying to fish it out.
   
• Something didn't quite look right with the ensemble's dance ... somebody was slightly off.
   
• When Linda handed the wand to Megan, Megan flung it violently and Linda (like Carol) reached a hand out to keep her from hurting anyone with it.
   
• I love how completely mortified Megan looks when Julie starts to dance by herself.
   
• Julie REALLY got into the dance, especially circling her arms all over the place.
   
• After Megan cuts in, she kind of glances over her shoulder, unsure of herself.
   
• Absolutely hilarious the way Megan flops herself over her bed on her stomach after she says "I told you a really good one" -- the funniest part of it is that her arms are draped over the side of the bed as well, which just looks absurd, but hilariously so.
   
• Megan is always so comforting during the sharing secrets scene -- she almost always takes Elphaba's hand and cradles it in hers when she says, "That might be your secret, Elphaba, but that doesn't make it true."
   
• When Megan giggles after "oh, look -- it's tomorrow", she literally bends over sideways.
   
• I love that Julie leans in with extreme apprehension but also curiosity as Megan half-whispers "you ... will ... be".
   
• Julie's braid didn't get undone as quickly as usual, and Megan didn't get to do her girl-ish imaginary ball-toss at "you'll be good at sports".
   
• Megan is still leaning back and shaking her hair out in Elphaba's face when she sings "I know about popular", and Julie reels back and leans away from her.
   
• Megan takes a handful of Julie's hair and flings it over Julie's shoulder before she takes off to do her leaps across the stage.
   
• Megan actually did a half-squat as she was opening the lipstick. And I love how Julie (having had her glasses taken off) squints really hard to make out what the lipstick is, and when she realizes, she jerks back and shakes her head frantically.
   
• When Julie is copying Megan's toss-toss (and especially with the no-hands part), Julie actually briefly stands up off the bed and then sits back down. And with the no-hands part, Julie was pretty much going up and down, barely touching the bed. And I love how Julie over-exaggerates Megan's use of her shoulders, and I'm surprised Julie hasn't hurt her back tossing herself and her shoulders that far to the sides so violently. ;)
   
• After the second "ball gown" attempt, there was a really long pause and Megan very slowly crept the wand closer and closer to poke Julie in the belly button.
   
• I love Linda's encouraging of the students to say "good afternoon" to the new teacher taking over for Dillamond. She kind of waved her arms around to get the students to join her.
   
• It was so cute/adorable the way Julie took the lion cub's paw in her hand (through the cage) when she says "if it's so good for him, then why is he trembling?"
   
• Just to note a comparison to Julia, when Julie's powers unleash in the second classroom scene, it is kind of premeditated -- or at least directed at the other students and the new teacher. (With Julia, it was completely accidental and she had no clue her anger would actually erupt into her powers unleashing.)
   
• I think I've made some note of this in past reviews, but Kris really forces his portrayal of ANGRY!Fiyero ... or even ABUSIVE!Fiyero (like he might get violent with Elphaba or Glinda if they don't do what he says). Other examples coming later, but with Kris screaming VERY angrily "well, are you coming?!" it makes me want to cringe.
   
• Julie's is probably the best Elpahba-near-collision-with-Fiyero in the lion cub scene I've seen. And it all has to do with the way she holds her hands and stops short with the rest of her body -- perfect awkwardness.
   
• Again, "I'm Not That Girl" was downright heart-breaking. Julie even sang "wishing only wounds the heart" with a bit more anger and hurt in her voice than usual. And I really wish she would sing that last note an octave higher -- that is one case where the "optional" note is good, because it is pretty close to impossible to hear the low note she tries to sing.
   
• I'm not sure if Linda's microphone wasn't working or if she stumbled at the start of her lines, but I only heard Linda say "thrillifying news" and not anything before that (although I did hear her calling for Elphaba during the applause of INTG). If she did indeed mess up her lines, she tried to play it off like she was completely out of breath.
   
• As mentioned the last time I saw Linda, she slipped in a southern accent when she said "weathuh is ma specialtee". Ha.
   
• Wow, Kris really makes a point of it to completely ignore and run past Megan during the train station scene. I love Megan's "WTF?" reaction when he does so.
   
• Megan dropped her jaw like she was expecting both Julie and Kris to be amazed when she announced that she was changing her name. (She didn't do the jaw-drop on Sunday.)
   
• And after Megan does the whole spiel with changing her name, and Kris says "that's very admirable of you ... uh, Glinda", Megan gets completely tickled that she got his attention back to her, and then completely appalled when he quickly ran off.
   
• John changed his greeting with Julie and Megan a bit -- he didn't look down at Julie's hand like he usually does with Elphaba, and he didn't snap his finger and struggled to remember Galinda/Glinda's name like he's done in the past.
   
• Also FANTASTIC about their first meeting was after Megan said "Glinda ... the 'ga' is silent." Usually John gets this completely confused expression on his face as Megan walks past him, but this time, John kind of put his finger to his lips (a silent "shhh") and smiled and nodded ... like he was thinking it was just best to humor the crazy woman.
   
• I always like to make a note of the different things that Chistery does to Elphaba upon their greeting. This time, he tried to open Julie's bag and rifle through it, and Julie giggled and playfully shooed him away. So cute.
   
• I love Linda's really long and drawn out "noooooo" after Megan asks, "Can I touch it?" as she reaches for the Grimmerie.
   
• Twice Julie tried to flip through the Grimmerie to try to fix things -- once after she realized the levitation spell was hurting Chistery, and again after she saw all the monkeys the Wizard had transformed and kept in captivity.
   
• As Julie was trying to cast the levitation spell again during "Defying Gravity", she slammed her hand on the book a couple times rather violently.
   
• Julie almost tripped as she was getting up to retrieve the flying broom. Luckily, she caught her balance pretty quickly and tried to make it look like she meant to do it.
   
• I noticed (both nights) that Julie doesn't actually seem to be trembling as much (as, say, Julia) when Megan says "Elphie, you're trembling" and goes to put the black cloak around her.

• It's actually quite fitting that Kris tries to make an escape after the engagement was sprung on him, but Megan pulls him back to stay on the platform. And he reacts with an almost fed-up expression when Megan goes to pinch his cheek when she sings "true, dear?".
   
• And again, the return of abusive!Fiyero when he yells at Megan during "Thank Goodness" -- which I don't like, but I do like the way he suddenly realizes the only way out is to give Glinda what she wants.
   
• It was lovely and glorious to hear Megan go up on the higher note at "crossed UN-til you've crossed". Megan sounded pretty good, although she did sound slightly congested for a good chunk of the rest of the song.
   
• The audience reacted quite sharply when Adam said extremely coldly, "Yes. MADAM."
   
• Jenna didn't go too far with the "he's dead" line like she did the week before.
   
• Julie looked down at her hands and wiggled her fingers when she sang "from these powers something good".
   
• Julie makes it very obvious that she's listening in on Jenna and Adam's conversation, and then spins around when she hears Adam say "Glinda is engaged to Fiyero".
   
• I'm pretty sure Julie was much less livid than she typically is when she storms out on Nessa and when first arriving at the Wizard's lair.
   
• John went back to shaking his head out after he did the big "balloon" gesture in "Wonderful".
   
• Julie REALLY got into John's face when she demanded "set those monkeys free".
   
• There was a nice long, stunned pause when Kris ran in when John called for the guards. But then the return of abusive!Fiyero when he was practically screaming at Elphaba to leave, and for Glinda to go back to the ball. And then the worst was when he screamed "LET'S GO!" and practically yanked Julie's arm out of her shoulder socket as he pulled her off-stage.
   
• Julie is usually very involved during "As Long As You're Mine", and Kris is usually doing next to nothing. This time, though, Julie did very little ... which made ALAYM somewhat low on the chemistry scale. (And Kris did that riff at the end ... which actually kind of sounded forced.)
   
• There are a few times where Megan overdoes the huge gasps -- a few of them are during sharing secrets/"Popular", but those aren't too bad since they're during a somewhat comical scene. But in the witch fight scene, Megan doesn't even do a gasp all that huge and it kind of seems out of place.
   
• I love how Julie kind of deliberately stutters when she says "a-and n-now that wretched little farm girl has walked off with them!"
   
• Megan's wand almost slipped as she was using it for leverage to stand up from kneeling. (Good thing it didn't or should could have faceplanted ...)
   
• The Tarzan yell when Kris swings in on the rope ... REALLY? At the beginning it wasn't as loud or as long, but now ... it's kind of obtrusive.
   
• Julie did a high "Fiyero!" riff in "No Good Deed", but it didn't sound like the usual one she does. In fact, it kind of resembled Eden's where she goes up on the "o" vowel, and then Julie added a riff from there.
   
• Usually after Elphaba (whether it be Julie or Eden) tells Megan to hide after "For Good", Megan nods and holds a finger up to her lips, promising she'll be quiet. She didn't this time.
   
• Linda had a great expression and body position as the guards were dragging her off-stage. She stuck her arms out kind of in front of her but also angled down toward the floor, completely straight and locked out.
   
• I LOVE how rich Julie's voice actually sounded when she sang "because I knew you" along with Megan singing an octave higher. It was gorgeous.

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