So, I saw Wicked this afternoon and thought I'd post a review. I'm not very good at these so sorry if I get start rambling!

Full Cast apart from three swings which were Brenda Hamilton on for Lindsay Northern and then two men I can't remember.

Katie Rose Clarke
Katie was absolute perfection as Glinda. As soon as she said her first line I knew I was going to love her! Her comic timing is superb and I love all the little things she did when the focus of the scene wasn't on her such as clapping and jumping up and down when the Wizard is talking to Elphaba. Her "Popular" is the funniest one I've seen, I was laughing all the way through it however I think she acted it very well and made it seem like she wasn't just playing for the laughs, she made it seen as just something Glinda would do. Her "Thank Goodness" was heartbreaking, she is one incredibnle actress. I didn't think her chemistry with Mandy was as good as it could have been but there was definately a connection. Her voice is beautiful both soprano and belt. The best Glinda I have seen.
Slight blooper: Katie slipped during popular when jumping from one bed to the other and sort of when "Oooooh" and Mandy caught her whilst giggling.

Mandy Gonzolez
I enojoyed Mandy's Elphaba but I was slightly dissapointed. She wasn't as good as I hoped she would be. She played the role extremely angrily and shouty and I prefer my Elphaba to be a bit more cocky and sarcastic. I also felt like she was rushing all her lines and talking really fast so that sometimes you couldn't understand what she was saying. It wasn't as if she was bored and wanted the show to finish, it just seemed like a character choice of being quite exhilerated and angry. Her belt is incredible and she did a few really nice riffs. The end section of "Defying Gravity" blew me away although I think she may have done one riff too many for my liking. Her "Fiyero" in "No Good Deed" was also very good, she went up to the G and stayed on it instead of coming back down again...wow! I did feel, however, that her lower register wasn't as strong an she struggled with the very low notes in "I'm Not That Girl" and the low note in "The Wizard and I". Her Act Two was definately better than her Act One where the "Angry Elphaba" seemed to work much better.

Andy Karl
I really liked Andy's Fiyero. His acting was perfectly shallow and his danicing was great. I did, however feel his voice wasn't too amazing. He has great comic timing and definatley got plenty of laughs, especially for his classic "Let the green girl go". Slight blooper during that, he swung a little bit too far and nearly fell over! He also definatly looked the part and had great chemistry with both Katie and Mandy.

Other Characters
PJ Benjamin was great as the Wizard. I love to see a Wizard who can actually sing and dance rather than the celebritys we get in London who can act it well but can't necessarily sing and they cut the dancing out altogether.
Kathy Fitzgerald could have played Morrible a little scarier but never-the-less she was very good.
Alex Brightman was a great Boq, his "You're touching me" was delivered really well and he was also very lovely at the stage door. He asked where I was from and I told him Yorkshire and he got really excited because he's done a play "The History Boys" where he had to learn my accent!
Jenny was a good Nessa, she has a really lovely voice and he "Wicked Witch of The East" was spine chilling.

Other points
-I think the microphones needed turning up a little bit because it was all very quiet, maybe it's louder in London?
-The opening overture is much faster in London.
-I'm sure the tinman stays on stage for quite a while when he wakes up but he seemed to run off pretty much straight away.
-The stage is much bigger on Broadway than in London.
-The american accents didn't bug me as much as I thought they would being so used to the show being in an English accent.

Any questions feel free to ask!

Woo, glad you liked the Broadway cast Caity! Great review, have fun for the rest of your New York trip! The differences you noticed between Broadway and London were interesting, and you're making me wanna see Katie!

(Oh, and when you get back to England, you definitely need to see Clive, FINALLY a London Wizard who can sing and dance!)

Hmm, Mandy wasn't "Angry Elphaba" at all when I saw her. I'm glad you loved Katie. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

I have quite a lot more "Broadway London differences" that I'll tell you in detail when I get home on tuesday! I'm in an internet cafe and there's a queue behind me



Maybe she was having an "off day". It was mainly the beginning I thought was extremely angry.