Miranda Gets WICKED

Miranda Musical Society will be Sydney’s first community theatre company to bring to the stage one of the most popular musical theatre productions of all time. In March, Sutherland Entertainment Centre will play host to a big budget, spectacular production of WICKED.  

When Dorothy famously triumphed over the Wicked Witch, we only ever heard one side of the story. This musical, based upon Gregory Maguire’s ‘Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West’, is an ingenious and clever reimagining of the Land of Oz, with the creation of a universe parallel to L. Frank Baum’s familiar story first published as ‘The Wonderful Wizard of Oz’ in 1900. WICKED has been recognised as “the best musical of the decade” (Entertainment Weekly), “the defining musical of the decade” (The New York Times), “a cultural phenomenon” (Variety) and “a breathtaking success story of a magnitude not witnessed since the peak years of The Phantom of the Opera” (The Washington Post).

Wicked in The Shire

Miranda Musical Society was overwhelmed with the amount of high quality auditions for their upcoming production. Director Tim Dennis said, “This cast is truly sensational. I can’t wait to show our audiences this production, it’s already shaping up to be phenomenal. James Worner’s costumes and Bob Peet’s scenery are simply spectacular. Add to that Andrew Howie at the helm musically, and I believe we have all the elements of an event that Shire audiences will remember for a very long time!”

The Cast

Miranda Musical Society has assembled an all-star cast of mostly local favourites, including Leonie Johnson as Madame Morrible. Leonie said, “Morrible is such an interesting character. She is eccentric, formidable, evil and ambitious! It’s so much fun to play these character roles”. Misha Williamson will play the hilarious Galinda: “This role is a huge challenge for me, and in a sense has given me the confidence to continue with performing. Galinda is such a fun quirky character to play, I love her never-ending ditsy-ness, and the contrast between her character in Act 1 and Act 2 is really interesting to explore”. Daniel O’Connell plays Fiero: “Wicked is one of those shows I feel most performers want to do, and it's so much fun to play a confident self-loving prince!”

The iconic role of Elphaba will be played by Emma Taviani, who stated, “I've always wanted to play Elphaba! Is there any girl involved in music theatre who doesn't? My parents met doing theatre and for most of my life they tried to convince me it was cool (I hated it). One day, when I was 16, my mum locked me in the car and said, ‘you're not leaving until you listen to this song.’ I knew it was theatre so I was ready to hate it but I listened. When the song finished, I sat there in silence for a few seconds and then said, ‘can you play that again, please?’ That was the beginning of me falling in love with music theatre. That song was ‘Defying Gravity’ from WICKED!”

Miranda made the decision to include two understudies (pictured left) for the roles of Galinda and Elphaba, who will perform at the Saturday matinee. We asked Tim what the idea behind this was. “WICKED is a very big sing for the two lead roles. Elphaba has 3 huge songs in the show – Defying Gravity, The Wizard and I, and No Good Deed; in addition to seven other songs and all the dramatic needs of the role. Meanwhile, the Galinda score has a massive range to cover and, as mentioned, a very important character journey. Our two incredible alternates, Rachel Thomas (Elphaba) and Rebecca Carter Galinda) are quite amazing and the rapport they have developed in performance with each other is beautiful to watch.”

Due to the popularity of this show, Miranda Musical Society has added 2 extra performances to their usual 6-show season with 2 extra matinees.

MIRANDA MUSICAL SOCIETY PRESENTS WICKED

SUTHERLAND ENTERTAINMENT CENTRE
MARCH 22nd @ 8pm, 23rd @ 8pm, 24th@ 11am & 8pm, 25^th @2pm & 8pm, 26^th @ 11am & 5pm
www.mirandamusicalsociety.com.au

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