Things better left unsaid

Beyond the Yellow Brick Road Concert Series to Feature Bean, Espinosa and Schwartz

By Andrew Gans
April 8, 2009

Upright Cabaret's Wicked Summer Nights: Beyond the Yellow Brick Road concert series will play Los Angeles' Ford Amphitheatre beginning June 2009 and will boast the talents of Wicked composer-lyricist Stephen Schwartz and former Elphabas Shoshana Bean and Eden Espinosa.

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Kassebaum and Wicks Will Head Cast of San Francisco Wicked

By Andrew Gans
December 16, 2008

Initial casting has been announced for the open-ended San Francisco engagement of Wicked, which begins performances Jan. 27, 2009, at the Orpheum Theatre.

Teal Wicks (L.A. Wicked, national tour of Pippin) and Kendra Kassebaum (Broadway's Wicked, Off-Broadway's The Receptionist), will head the cast as, respectively, the green-faced, misunderstood Elphaba and the curly-locked Glinda.

Wicks and Kassebaum will be joined onstage by Carol Kane as Madame Morrible and David Garrison as The Wizard.

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"Madtv" Star Parker Will Be Broadway's Elphaba in 2009

By Andrew Gans
November 5, 2008

Nicole Parker, who recently wrapped her seventh season on Fox's "MADtv," will join the Broadway company of Stephen Schwartz and Winnie Holzman's Wicked in 2009.

Parker, according to her press rep, will begin performances as the misunderstood, green-faced Elphaba Jan. 13, 2009, at the Gershwin Theatre.

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Wicked Playbill Will Go Green for Oct. 30 Anniversary Performance

By Andrew Gans
October 17, 2008

To celebrate the fifth anniversary of the Broadway hit Wicked on Oct. 30, the trademark yellow masthead of the musical's Playbill cover will be printed green for one performance only.

The green Playbill banner will mark the first time in the publication's history that the color has been changed for a particular production.

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August 17, 2008

Off the Stage, What's Behind the Music
By SUSAN ELLIOTT

YOU can hear the collective gasp from the audience as the stage of the Vivian Beaumont slides back to the opening bars of “Bali Ha’i,” revealing 30 formally attired musicians reveling in the lush, exotic hues of the overture to “South Pacific.”

The melodies that roll seamlessly by — “There Is Nothing Like a Dame,” “A Wonderful Guy,” “Some Enchanted Evening” — are all classic Richard Rodgers. But the instruments playing them, the elaborate counter lines, shifting harmonies and alternating rhythmic contexts, are the work of Robert Russell Bennett, his orchestrator. Mr. Bennett wrote the overture, too (as he did for virtually all of his clients, including Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, George Gershwin and Frederick Loewe), weaving together excerpts of the score’s famous melodies to create a seamless potpourri of its greatest hits. Similarly, Sid Ramin’s original orchestrations bring to life Jule Styne’s score for “Gypsy,” now playing with the full complement of 25 pieces at the St. James Theater.

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