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The retail world is suddenly awash in pink and green.
The film adaptation of Wicked doesn’t come out until Nov. 22, but the marketing machine has already cranked into a gear not used since last summer’s Barbie takeover. As of this week, Starbucks customers can order Elphaba’s Green Elixir or Glinda’s Pink Potion, made with matcha tea and mango dragonfruit, respectively. Target shoppers can get their hands on dueling pink and green makeup sets, wireless headphones, vegan scented candles and Stanley tumblers.
Portland fortunately has access to the movie’s greatest hype vehicle of all. Wicked’s traveling Broadway production makes its 18-day stop at Keller Auditorium now through Nov. 3, allowing Rose City audiences the chance to see the Tony-winning musical just weeks before seeing Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo soar across the big screen.
Wicked premiered on Broadway 21 years ago, as an early example of a classic villain’s case relitigated for a more understanding generation, paving the way for baddies like Cruella, Maleficent and the Joker to rehab their images. She’s aging nicely. There are some quibbles—a few sleepy songs and some ableist representation that should be rethought—but they are not deal breakers for a night at the theater that’s a total blast.
It’s a flashy, expensive-looking production with a live orchestra, costume and set changes galore and an animatronic wizard head. Glinda the Good Witch (Austen Danielle Bohmer) floats down from the rafters in a bubble, a red-eyed metal dragon at the top of the stage exhales smoke, and confetti poppers shoot streamers into the audience—and that’s all in the first 60 seconds.
“Are people born wicked? Or do they have wickedness thrust upon them?” asks Glinda the Good Witch in Act I, and that’s as good a thematic statement as any for this production, which tells the origin story of the Wicked Witch of the West character from The Wizard of Oz. A quick synopsis: She was born green, shunned by her family and peers, and driven to free the Wizard’s army of flying monkeys with a level of conviction that would make PETA proud.
People who have already seen Wicked in the two decades since its premiere—or read the 1995 Gregory Maguire novel that it’s based on—already know all this, but the musical’s brilliance is showing the origins of all of the Wizard of Oz tropes that have delighted (or haunted) us since childhood. Audiences get to see how the Tin Man, the Scarecrow, the Cowardly Lion, flying monkeys, Elphaba’s pointed hat and Dorothy’s ruby slippers all came to be.
The songs? Nothing special here except for “Defying Gravity,” which closes Act I with Elphaba (Lauren Samuels) flying on her broomstick for the first time and reaching similarly stellar vocal heights. It’s full-body chills for anyone but a Tin Man with no heart. Bohmer’s Glinda has charm for days and precise comedic timing. Extra credit to Bohmer’s funny little trail-offs at the end of sentences like “We are both so happyyyyy.” Are you, Glinda?
One thing that has changed in the 21 years since Wicked, with music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz and book by Winnie Holzman, premiered on Broadway is our attention spans. A three-hour commitment, including intermission, is a big ask for 2024 brains that are so distraction-happy that pop songs have been slimmed down to under three minutes. Traveling Broadway productions can’t just slice out whole scenes—surely there are entertainment lawyers to prevent that sort of thing—but I doubt audiences would miss the Wizard’s “A Sentimental Man” or “The Wizard and I,” save Elphaba’s final notes.
It’s also time to rethink the role of Nessarose (Erica Ito), Elphaba’s spoiled younger sister. It’s a problematic representation of disability in a few ways, including pity from other characters that she uses a wheelchair (Glinda: “See that tragically beautiful girl?/The one in the chair?/It seems so unfair”) and a redemption arc that relies on her being “cured.”
The show wrestles with the idea of good versus wicked and nature versus nurture (or, to translate into Target terms, pink Stanley versus green Stanley), and it teaches a nice lesson about the power of humanizing a so-called villain. When you really dig into the Wicked Witch of the West’s childhood, it makes total sense why she went ballistic on Dorothy. Perhaps an important takeaway as we move into family-gathering season?
But the show offers enough eye candy and technical oohs and aahs to serve as a solid escape from all of that, too. The Wizard says it best: “People expect this sort of thing. You have to give people what they want.”
SEE IT: Wicked at Keller Auditorium, 222 SW Clay St. 503-248-4335, portland5.com/keller-auditorium. 7:30 pm Tuesday–Friday, 2 and 7:30 pm Saturday, 1 and 6:30 pm Sunday, through Nov. 3. $59-$229.