WICKED is the untold story of the Witches of Oz, in other words what happened before The Wizard Of Oz.
Actors like to come up with a back story for their characters, but here novelist Gregory Maguire has done their work for them in Wicked: The Life And Times Of The Wicked Witch Of The West, re-imagining L Frank Baum's stories and characters to chart the unlikely but potent friendship of green-skinned outsider Elphaba (Amy Ross/Nikki Bentley on press night) and her blonde-bombshell nemesis, Glinda (Helen Woolf), two girls who first meet as sorcery students.
Their subsequent adventures in Oz lead them to fulfil their destinies as the Wicked Witch of the West and Glinda The Good White Witch, while the characters of the Cowardly Lion, the Scarecow and the Tin Man emerge too.
Green days: Amy Ross as Elphaba in Wicked. Picture: Matt Crockett
The "untold story" is not so untold now: beginning life on Broadway 15 years ago and playing to 42,000 predominantly female theatregoers on its previous Leeds run in June and July 2014. No doubt they are returning en masse in 2018, adding to Wicked's status as the Grand's third biggest box-office draw of all time.
The show draws a devotion not dissimilar to the lure of Les Miserables, with Stephen Schwartz's songs sharing an intensity with those of the Boublil and Schonberg epic, and once more they are performed with the same operatic passion, particularly in the thunderous ensemble numbers.
The tunes remain the least memorable element of a dazzling production – not so much Defying Gravity as defying musicality – that nevertheless fuses the exuberance of Priscilla Queen Of The Desert's camp rock opera to the wizardry of a Pink Floyd stage and light show, topped off by the fabulously subversive wit, social comment and bravura spirit of Winnie Holzman's book.
Steven Pinder and the statuesque Kim Ismay have their moments as The Wizard and Madame Morrible respectively, but what really makes this twisted drama worthwhile are the fantastic lead turns, Ross's Elphaba being that rare creature, a rounded, empathetic villain who is far more than meets the eye, while Woolf's Glinda is part bubbly, perky Reese Witherspoon in Legally Blonde, part Kylie fairy, part vamp, and all delivered with exquisite comic timing.
Wicked, Leeds Grand Theatre, until July 7; box office: 0844 848 2700 or leedsgrandtheatre.com
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