5 June 2009
First of all: if you have the slightest chance to see Wicked in Stuttgart, do not hesitate! You won’t be disappointed - the German cast is amazing.
So I went to Wicked in Stuttgart mainly for Willemijn Verkaik. When we were allowed in the foyer it was certain: she would be playing Elphaba today! I can’t describe how incredibly happy that made me.
I really love the photos of the cast in the foyer, btw. And there was a little table with a candle, photo and explanation what happened to the cast member in the plain crash.
This review will be everything I still remember about this show and what I want to write down so it won’t be very coherent. For your information: we were first row, number 8 and 9 (a little to the right; in front of Elphaba during WITF). My first front row experience
The cast:
Glinda - Valerie Link
Valerie makes such a great Glinda! She’s really “spoilt” but I love her little ways. The way she’s waiting by the Wizard until Elphaba’s ready and the spotlight is on her again is great. She and her voice are both so pretty! She said “Elphie” so many times, but it was really sweet. She was shallow, but you could see she really growed to love Elphaba.
Fiyero - Mathias Edenborn
I can still see the expression on his face during the Ozdust Ballroom, it was so funny
He and Glinda were off on the side, dancing and he looks at someone and puts his thumb in the air, but a little bit sarcastic. And when he got the wand from Glinda to put away, he tried it which made me crack up. Although I kinda was the only one; the audience seemed pretty dead. ALAYM was really hot and they kissed in the middle of the song. Unfortunately I couldn’t really see Willemijns face from my seat but it was by far the best ALAYM I’ve seen.
Madame Akaber - Barbara Raunegger
She was nice, but a little too nice if you get what I mean
Der Zauberer von Oz - Carlo Lauber
The Wizard is still my least favourite part, but he looked good for the part. But it’s kinda hard because every scene he’s in, Willemijn steals the show…
Nessarose - Janine Tippl
I don’t believe they say ‘Nessarose’ in the show, it’s always ‘Nessa’ (they also happen to say a lot of ‘Dorothy’ and in the beginning they explain in 3 lines the story of Wizard of Oz). Her WWotE was really good, although she stood up a little bit too fast to be believable.
Dr. Dillamonth - Michael Günther
He had a nice bèèè, haha. In the classroom the board says (translated to English) “Animals are not worth speech” and I liked the translation. Willemijn did not enjoy her sandwich, she only took one little bite with a face I-don’t-like-this. She has a really lovely, green writing-feather, by the way. Do they have that in other versions too?
Moq - Stephan Luethy
Gosh. He looked really like I imagine Boq/Moq, he’s SO small. Vocally he’s not the strongest but I find his acting very believable. He flubbed his line ‘I have a personal score to settle with Elph-’ but I can’t really remember what went wrong.
Mathias Edenborn and Valerie Link are both taller than he is. He always keeps his eyes on Glinda and he shoots some jealous/mean looks at Fiyero. Best part: just before the line “We’ve been studying” DTL. Glinda and Fiyero are standing very close and he tries to get between them… I don’t know how to describe it, lol. He puts his hand like he’s going to dive and tries to split them and then continues to push Fiyero away. Priceless when he looks up to Fiyero and he looks back, hardly even noticing he was being pushed away.
Elphaba - Willemijn Verkaik
So it was nice all the other characters where on stage. But Willemijn blows them all away. It’s not like all the others were not good, but Willemijn is unbelievable. Her acting… she’s perfect. I Can’t describe it. She delivers all her lines the way I think they should be delivered. In the beginning it’s like she’s not allowing herself to have fun. When Glinda and Elphaba dance it’s like she realises: maybe this could be for me too. In the sharing secrets parts she picks up her pillow and looks her old self again.
My heart was pounding when she ran out – I couldn’t believe I was finally seeing her. She didn’t disappoint (which Kerry Ellis did, 2 May…). She riffed a little bit in the Wizard and I but I can’t remember where exactly. Her voice sounds so pure.
Defying Gravity… both acting wise and vocally perfect. Lack of synonyms? Yes. SHE. IS. PERFECTION. My heart was pounding so hard when she was in the air. I didn’t want it to end, I could listen to her voice endlessly. The lift does seem very close to the front of the stage.
Then there is NGD… WOW. The ‘Fiyero’s’ blended very well and she owns that song. During the second ‘Fiyero’ she doesn’t keep her arms in the air like most Elphaba’s, but puts them down which, to me, looks like she knows she can’t really save him. After this she fell down which was also very believable.
Oh my.
I also love her dress, by the way. It seems a little bit different (the top) but she looks gorgeous.
Well done if you read all that, I have some last comments left.
- The woesj-woesj is great! Especially how Willemijn does it and she tries to practice, lol. Also the mocking: she was just Valerie, only green.
- The ensemble was very strong. I believe a few costumes/wigs were different, I don’t remember those from London. One ensemble member was my favourite, it was a joy to watch her. During the Shiz scenes she had a short, red wig. Does anyone know her name? She was often right in front of me and her smile is gorgeous!
- The decor is a little bit different, it stretches through the theatre. It looks great! Love the flying monkeys, although they were a little bit Tarzan-like
Their Grimmerie is beautiful. I don’t know if it’s different, but there were words marked in it and it looked like an old, handwritten book.
The pile of… what is it? In the catfight, I believe it’s normally a wheel? It’s different and white, I think it were a few chairs.
Willemijn broke out of character once, which was understandable because what was happening was great. In the catfight (oh! Her cackle is amazing!) after the “fight” Glinda grabbed Elphaba’s hat, but she couldn’t grab it and it falls between Elphaba and the Guards. So the hat is there, on the middle of the stage and Glinda screams “Let me go I almost had her” (maybe she said something else, too, but my German isn’t that good). The guards let her go indeed and she tries to pick up the hat. But she doesn’t hold it properly… so it falls again. Everyone one stage was laughing but they got it together quickly and the guards grabbed Glinda again. I’m so bad at explaining, but believe me: it was very funny.
One of my favourite parts was the curtain call. In London it’s like: the curtain goes down and stays down. Here everyone take their bows, and the curtain goes down. When the curtain goes op again, only the two Witches are standing to take their bows alone
Then everyone runs up again and they all bow again. The curtain goes up one more time, although the audience didn’t really deserve it. During the shows there were not many laughs and, although I’m not good at German, I loved the translation (especially Defying Gravity and their take on ‘Unlimited’ Den Träumen nach) and thought the line delivery was great. But apparently the rest didn’t think so. There was a very scattered standing ovation at the end, which is a shame, because I thought they truly deserved it. If they don’t recognize Willemijns incredible talent, she’s more than welcome in The Netherlands…
Afterwards we wanted to go to the stage door, but we couldn’t find it. Pathetic, I know. We saw almost the whole building but we left before we got lost. There was some sort of party in the building with very loud music, which is not something I prefer after a musical.
Overall Wicked in Stuttgart is amazing. Especially Willemijn. I can’t say it often enough but she’s astonishing
I’m going to stop now but I have one last thing which I though was funny. After Tanz der Vampire in Oberhausen, outside the CentrO building, was a Wicked commercial on a very large screen. In London they have the Stuttgart promo with Idina’s voice. Here they had a German Voice over a London promo which I had never seen, with Idina, Helen and Adam! Lol.
That’s it. I already typed way too much. Conclusion? I love Willemijn Verkaik even more now. Please, if you’re anywhere near Stuttgart: GO SEE IT!
And if Wicked finally comes to Holland and they are smart enough to cast Willemijn, I’d be happy to go with you
If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask
