I thought I knew the story of Dorothy and her little dog, but it turns out I missed a lot of the politics going on in the background. If only there was another musical that explored the characters of Oz in more depth. Luckily there is and Wicked is playing at the Liverpool Empire for the next month.
And audiences are in the safe hands of Laura Pick as Elphaba and Sarah O'Connor as Glinda as they take you back to Oz to redeem the name of the Wicked Witch of The West. With an incredible cast, beautiful staging and detailed, steampunk-inspired costumes, this displays musicals at their best. Wicked is filled with songs you will know and songs that will challenge even the most experienced of performers and we get our first taste of that as we go back in time to when Elphaba wasn't known as the Wicked Witch of The West and was instead a wide-eyed student hoping for her chance to meet the Wizard of Oz himself in 'The Wizard and I'.
On a warm summer evening at Liverpool's Empire Theatre, both Sarah and Laura navigate the close harmonies and emotions of 'What is this Feeling' with skill and passion as Glinda and Elphaba before becoming friends in this reimagining of the witch's origin story that has themes of being true to yourself and finding beauty by 'looking at things a different way'. The first half includes the well-loved (and well meme'd) 'Popular', but for me, the real highlight of the show comes at the end of the first act with 'Defying Gravity', it really can't be topped and.
