Chicago Tribune - Highly Recommended
"...Since my last visit, I’ve seen several other Broadway musicals that have tried to adapt other sources to the stage and fallen flat on their faces. It will always have its detractors, but “Wicked,” by contrast, is the very model of narrative clarity, theatrical definition, and empathetic point of entry. You know what the green girl wants, you feel her verdant pain, and you want her to defy whatever it is she needs to defy to snag it. And a lot of people want her to do so again and again."
Chicago Sun Times - Recommended
"...As for the girls at the center of the story, this time around it’s Chandra Lee Schwartz as Glinda the Good Witch and Jackie Burns as Elphaba the Wicked and very green Witch, and what a fine pair they make. Schwartz’ soprano serves her well, and her comedic timing is spot-on. (She gives Elle Woods a serious run for her ditzy blonde money.) Burns is very good as the outcast Elphaba, endearing herself from the get-go. We feel her bullied pain and her desperate descent into wickedness, and that’s no small feat in a 2,500-seat theater."
Daily Herald - Highly Recommended
"...
Playwright Winnie Holzman's book is at its best when depicting the school-age battles between the goth-like outcast of Elphaba sparring with the sunny backbiting of popular girl Glinda. And the show's message of how people can be unfairly demonized as “others” by those who are only concerned with gaining power and dominance remain unfortunately very timely."
Chicago Reader - Highly Recommended
"...his lyrics and Winnie Holzman's book based on Gregory Maguire's revisionist retelling of the Wizard of Oz story are witty and intriguing. Joe Mantello's staging, moreover, is full of stunning effects that are solidly tied to the emotional content of the narrative. And the cast here is more than strong enough to carry it all. I'm just sorry it took me so long to come around."
Examiner - Highly Recommended
"...Both juggernaut and finely tuned machine, Wicked shows no signs of aging some seven years after Elphie first discovered the power of defying gravity while belting. The production is also a rarity – a mass-marketed mega-musical that is a joy from start to finish. Usually at this level of commercial appeal, shows tend to lose some of the luster of authentic artfulness. Not Wicked. Beyond the multi-million dollar spectacle (there are at least five Wicked casts performing about the world right now) and the After School Special-worthy messages, Wicked is an example of heart-felt story-telling, transcendent music and top-of-the-line stagecraft."
Windy City Times - Highly Recommended
"...Repeat viewers will find most of the lyrics more intelligible than in the show's recent incarnation at the Ford Oriental, an improvement owing less to the wider, shallower stage at the Cadillac Palace than to the soloists' propensity for delivering key lines straight downstage into our faces—or as close to it as can be accomplished in a 2,500-seat auditorium. Jackie Burns and Chandra Lee Schwartz make a nicely contrasting belter and chirpier duo (though the latter's bubbliness sometimes overwhelms her enunciation). And in a score with not a single tenor-baritone duet, Richard H. Blake's Fiyero, Paul Slade Smith's Dr. Dillamond and Gene Weygandt's Wizard pull their weight with cheerful alacrity."
Copley News Service - Highly Recommended
"...This is my third exposure to the musical and my reaction remains the same. The music is terrific, the production values are remarkable, and the book is shaky at best. But what happens on stage is so eye and ear catching that the inconsistencies of the narrative can be tolerated."
Talkin Broadway - Highly Recommended
"...There's no question audiences have connected with the story of friendship between the two young witches. That, together with the "spare no expense" philosophy of the producers and director Joe Mantello's ability to pull all this together into a unified if overstuffed show, are reasons for coming back to Wicked. There's just so much in it that it remains new and continues to amaze on each viewing."
Chicago Stage Review - Recommended
"...Wicked returns to Chicago on the wings of its flying monkeys to provide and evening of grand emerald green spectacle. This is a shiny happy-ever-after musical adaptation of Gregory Maguire’s brilliantly dark book Wicked: the Life and Times if the Wicked Witch of the West, that took us to Oz before Dorothy’s visit and presented an innovative emotional evolution of the familiar characters from fascinating a point of view."
Time Out Chicago - Recommended
"...Wicked stays aloft, and at times even soars, on the strength of bravura showmanship by leads Burns and Schwartz, as soon-to-be-witchy Elphaba and her opposite number Glinda, respectively. The first-rate first act develops their evolving friendship along lines familiar from teen-angst epics from Grease to Carrie, but it’s enduringly potent nonetheless. The big set pieces—“Dancing Through Life,” “Popular” and, above all, “Defying Gravity”—take wing on the two leads’ winning chemistry and thunderous pipes. They can rely on solid backing from a stellar supporting cast, including Barbara Robertson’s acidic Madame Morrible and Gene Weygandt’s genially authoritarian Wizard."
ChicagoCritic - Recommended
"...As an arts reporter, let me say that the national tour of Wicked has fabulous production values and enough energy to makes for a stimulating evening of musical theatre. Barbara Robertson, as Madame Morrible and Gene Weygandt, as the Wizard of Oz demonstrated the deep talent pool in Chicago. The dazzling look, lighting, costumes, and special effects propel the show as a commercial treat. The show is fun and light weight entertainment. The story of friendship and tolerance for anyone who is “different” is a worthy lesson. It seems that the $105 top ticket doesn’t seem to deter audiences since the show usually sells out. Amazing!"
Chicago Stage and Screen - Highly Recommended
"...Fortunately, Mantello's spectacular production is so vigorously entertaining it can withstand the occasional one-dimensional performance. Burns has good support from several high profile Chicagoans, including Gene Weygandt, Barbara Robertson and Paul Slade Smith. Just as he did for much of the original Chicago run, Weygandt presides over Oz as a Wizard who is equal parts shyster and showman. As this master manipulator suggests, you have to give people what they want, and Weygandt is delicious in the role, as is Robertson, who makes a regal grand dame of sorcery expert Madame Morrible. It's also nice to see Smith back on a Chicago stage, in a sympathetic turn as the maligned goat professor at the fictitious Shiz University. And Richard H. Blake is a perfect heartthrob as the object of both witches desires. "
Around The Town Chicago - Highly Recommended
"...With a “road company” it is pretty much the same set design as the original as well as costumes and all the do is modify the things that need to be done to accomodate a different venue. The show is directed by Joe Mantello and I am sure that with the exception of a change here and there , it pretty much follows what we had on stage at our Oriental theater some five years ago. “Wicked” is more than a musical theater production- it is a special theatrical experience with lots of great visuals and while the music, for the most part is not memorable, there are a few songs that you will recall and perhaps even hum as you exit the theater, “Popular” ( Ms Schwartz truly nails this one ), “Defying Gravity” ( Ms Burns is amazing and her voice fills the auditorium as she flys above the townspeople of Oz) and other songs such as “I’m Not That Girl” and “One Short Day are among these. But even if you are not a hummer or do not remember one word of the lyrics, you will remember the show- it will be a memory that might even last a lifetime."
