Reviews

This sumptuous production, transplanted by Director Gale Edwards from Paris to the decadence of the Weimar Republic, will dazzle anyone who has not seen it before – but on opening night the performances did not generate the ‘fireworks’ that exploded over the Harbour a few days before.

Wicked was first performed in San Francisco, USA, in the summer of 2003, before transferring to Broadway later that year, where it is still running. It opened in the West End of London in 2006, arriving on our shores in Melbourne in 2008. It’s an alternative telling of the backstories in the land of Oz, which first came to fame through the L Frank Baum children’s book The Wonderful Wizard of Oz in 1900, and then through the immensely popular 1939 film The Wizard of Oz.

Peter Pan Goes Wrong?  It certainly does.  In this show, what can go wrong, goes wrong.  Think of any disaster, mishap, mistake, scenery disaster, wardrobe malfunction, inept and talentless cast, missed cue or dropped line - anything that can befall a live theatre show and in this show it does.  Hilarious.  I don’t think I have laughed so much in the theatre for years.   

The Queensland Ballet, the Queensland Symphony Orchestra and The Nutcracker are a perfect fit and yesterday’s full-house at the Lyric Theatre showed why Ben Stevenson’s version of this classical ballet has become an annual treat. Fairy tale characters and toys coming to life is the ultimate child’s fantasy and this production delivers on all fronts including a magical snow-storm onstage and in the auditorium as a first-act finale. For many kids, and there were many, it was their first experience of magic in the theatre and they were agog with wonder.