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Post by daniel on May 12, 2016 8:15:27 GMT
I totally agree with this! Aside from my own personal view about Jackie being an amazing Elphaba, with the show being overseas/visas needing to be held to work in the country etc, if there's an issue with a cast member you can't just have someone from London drive up the M1 like we did last year to provide emergency cover. The producers have gone for stability with a tried & tested Elphie, yes of course you can never tell if the tour will take its toll like it did with the previous leads, but at least they know they've got someone who has proven she can lead that role and with Zoe and Natasha back too as u/s and a brand new Standby the show should be in safe hands - with all other main parts (Wizard aside) being new to role! Who was it that provided emergency cover last year? Did they send in one of the understudies or the standby? I know that right at the start of the tour Chloe Taylor was Emergency Standby Glinda, and a bit later on Michelle Pentecost was covering Elphaba, though as far as I'm aware neither went on. If I remember correctly, towards the end of the tour Maria Coyne was covering Nessa (and Glinda?) and went on as the former. |
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Post by welsh_tenor on May 12, 2016 8:18:23 GMT
I totally agree with this! Aside from my own personal view about Jackie being an amazing Elphaba, with the show being overseas/visas needing to be held to work in the country etc, if there's an issue with a cast member you can't just have someone from London drive up the M1 like we did last year to provide emergency cover. The producers have gone for stability with a tried & tested Elphie, yes of course you can never tell if the tour will take its toll like it did with the previous leads, but at least they know they've got someone who has proven she can lead that role and with Zoe and Natasha back too as u/s and a brand new Standby the show should be in safe hands - with all other main parts (Wizard aside) being new to role! Who was it that provided emergency cover last year? Did they send in one of the understudies or the standby? They sent Natalie McQueen (1st u/s in London) up for cover of Elphie and also Maz Coyne (2nd u/s Nessa in London) if I remember correctly. Can't remember all the details why they were needed but they went through a patch of illness I think where u/s were covering leads and they didn't have any cover. Natalie didn't go on but Maz did and made her Nessa debut! |
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Post by welsh_tenor on May 12, 2016 8:20:11 GMT
Who was it that provided emergency cover last year? Did they send in one of the understudies or the standby? I know that right at the start of the tour Chloe Taylor was Emergency Standby Glinda, and a bit later on Michelle Pentecost was covering Elphaba, though as far as I'm aware neither went on. If I remember correctly, towards the end of the tour Maria Coyne was covering Nessa (and Glinda?) and went on as the former. I forgot about Chloe Taylor! Carina as Nessa was unwell for the launch so didn't start the tour! |
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Post by Deleted on May 12, 2016 8:24:24 GMT
Who was it that provided emergency cover last year? Did they send in one of the understudies or the standby? They sent Natalie McQueen (1st u/s in London) up for cover of Elphie and also Maz Coyne (2nd u/s Nessa in London) if I remember correctly. Can't remember all the details why they were needed but they went through a patch of illness I think where u/s were covering leads and they didn't have any cover. Natalie didn't go on but Maz did and made her Nessa debut! I was at Maz's debut in Salford! What a great debut it was! |
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Post by Deleted on May 12, 2016 8:26:49 GMT
Good thing they had people from the London production to come over. If that happened in Asia they'd be in big trouble. If it happened somewhere in Western Europe, say France or Germany, they might be able to fly someone out there. But if they were in Singapore, that's a 13 hour flight.
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Post by Michael on May 12, 2016 8:31:30 GMT
Happy to read all your enthusiasm about the tour cast, but I'm afraid that I can't share it. And the more I think about it, the less I like this cast. Maybe I'm getting old and grumpy, who knows  The producers have gone for stability with a tried & tested Elphie, yes of course you can never tell if the tour will take its toll like it did with the previous leads, but at least they know they've got someone who has proven she can lead that role and with Zoe and Natasha back too as u/s and a brand new Standby the show should be in safe hands - with all other main parts (Wizard aside) being new to role! Both Nikki and Ashleigh had also proven that they can lead that role (IMO, more than Jackie), and yet the tour took its toll and both had to either pull out early or take some time off. Jackie has never played that part (or another lead role) full-time, so if they wanted someone reliable they should have rather cast someone who has played this or a comparable lead role for at least a year (e.g. Scaramouche (WWRY), Felicia (Memphis), Sherrie (Rock of Ages)). |
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Post by Michael on May 12, 2016 8:33:05 GMT
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Post by candela on May 12, 2016 8:38:18 GMT
Natalie and Maria were sent as emergency cover as both Zoe and Natasha was ill. Ashleigh wasn't very well during this stage and when i visited Jackie had been Elphie majority of the week. Nataiie/Maria were sent twice to Salford for emergency covering on the tour.
Natalie - Elphie Standby
Maria- Glinda/Nessarose standby
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Post by cathyfromlex on May 12, 2016 8:42:43 GMT
Genuinely baffled at this thread. Except for the short stint in Bradford while this tour is put on its feet, 99.9% of you are never going to see this company when it heads to Asia. Nor will 99.9% of the people this tour will be playing to have seen any of these performers.
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Post by Deleted on May 12, 2016 8:54:08 GMT
Genuinely baffled at this thread. Except for the short stint in Bradford while this tour is put on its feet, 99.9% of you are never going to see this company when it heads to Asia. Nor will 99.9% of the people this tour will be playing to have seen any of these performers. Exactly! Most people who will see the tour will just be excited to have this big production in their country. If this were to come to my country I would be so happy, regardless of the fact that one of the performers has already played it before. You people in the UK have an abundance of theatre to pick from. Even us in Belgium, let alone people in poor Asian countries, hardly ever get to see shows of a West End standard. Maybe we should all be glad for them that they get the chance to discover this amazing thing called musical theatre through one of its greatest shows. And with some cast members that have already proven themselves in those roles. |
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Post by Michael on May 12, 2016 8:56:58 GMT
Genuinely baffled at this thread. Except for the short stint in Bradford while this tour is put on its feet, 99.9% of you are never going to see this company when it heads to Asia. Nor will 99.9% of the people this tour will be playing to have seen any of these performers. Well, it's labelled as International tour and not as pure Asia/Australian tour, so we assume that there will be at least a few stops in Europe. That said, had the casting been different (and, in my eyes, better), I'd have so flown to Asia to see the show again. But on the other hand I should be thankful for this casting as it saves me a lot of money. |
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Post by daniel on May 12, 2016 12:00:12 GMT
The tour is scheduled to continue at least into 2018 so there are more to be announced - there ar definitely future UK dates to come, and I would be highly surprised if there weren't some mainland Europe dates as well.
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Post by Deleted on May 12, 2016 12:17:55 GMT
As I said a while ago I was told by a member of staff at the Bord Gais in Dublin that they had wicked returning in late 2017/ early 2018 so assuming there information was correct im fairly certain Dublin will be added.
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Post by daniel on May 12, 2016 12:40:39 GMT
And there's Birmingham in 2018 aswell, so there's a couple of UK dates  |
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Post by Deleted on May 12, 2016 13:39:15 GMT
The tour definitely should come to Europe. Otherwise they should have called it Asian tour with pre-tour engagement in UK instead of International tour. It would be a big mistake not to tour Europe. So far, the only European countries who have had a production of Wicked are The Netherlands, Germany, UK, Ireland and Finland (non-replica production). There's so many countries with the will and infrastructure to accommodate a production of Wicked.
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Post by Deleted on May 12, 2016 16:09:44 GMT
If the news about the tour coming to Dublin in 2018 is true (which I really really really really) hope it will, I will be booking several shows! It would be great to see Wicked at the Bord Gais again, especially since the stage is so low the front row would be stunning!
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Post by Deleted on May 12, 2016 16:40:41 GMT
I was just wondering, how would they fix it if the theatre they were in didn't have a hatch in the stage for Elphaba's melting scene? Because I want them to come to Belgium and there's this 2000 seat theatre here which would be perfect for Wicked, but I don't think it has any hatches. Would that be something that could prevent the show from going into a particular theatre? I know how they fix it if there isn't a hatch for No Good Deed. Elphaba just runs onto the stage either holding the Grimmerie herself or Chistery holding it up for her. But I can't see how they'd fix the melting scene. Have they ever been in a theatre without hatches before?
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Post by welsh_tenor on May 12, 2016 16:48:19 GMT
I was just wondering, how would they fix it if the theatre they were in didn't have a hatch in the stage for Elphaba's melting scene? Because I want them to come to Belgium and there's this 2000 seat theatre here which would be perfect for Wicked, but I don't think it has any hatches. Would that be something that could prevent the show from going into a particular theatre? I know how they fix it if there isn't a hatch for No Good Deed. Elphaba just runs onto the stage either holding the Grimmerie herself or Chistery holding it up for her. But I can't see how they'd fix the melting scene. Have they ever been in a theatre without hatches before? *spoiler alert* Yes they have a prop that is wheeled on stage and Elphie comes out of that when Fiero knocks. It's the same in every theatre regardless of a hatch or not. I think it's a wishing well, but it could be a wheelbarrow... Can't recall a minute what it is..... |
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Post by theatre-turtle on May 12, 2016 16:53:53 GMT
The tour definitely should come to Europe. Otherwise they should have called it Asian tour with pre-tour engagement in UK instead of International tour. It would be a big mistake not to tour Europe. So far, the only European countries who have had a production of Wicked are The Netherlands, Germany, UK, Ireland and Finland (non-replica production). There's so many countries with the will and infrastructure to accommodate a production of Wicked. Denmark had a non replica too. The Glinda was about 40 years old and sounded it too |
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Post by Deleted on May 12, 2016 17:00:01 GMT
I was just wondering, how would they fix it if the theatre they were in didn't have a hatch in the stage for Elphaba's melting scene? Because I want them to come to Belgium and there's this 2000 seat theatre here which would be perfect for Wicked, but I don't think it has any hatches. Would that be something that could prevent the show from going into a particular theatre? I know how they fix it if there isn't a hatch for No Good Deed. Elphaba just runs onto the stage either holding the Grimmerie herself or Chistery holding it up for her. But I can't see how they'd fix the melting scene. Have they ever been in a theatre without hatches before? *spoiler alert* Yes they have a prop that is wheeled on stage and Elphie comes out of that when Fiero knocks. It's the same in every theatre regardless of a hatch or not. I think it's a wishing well, but it could be a wheelbarrow... Can't recall a minute what it is..... Oh good, it would really suck if the absence of just one hatch could prevent the show from coming here. I just watched a 360° tour of the stage and there really seems to be no hatch. The stage does seem pretty big. Is 1075 m² big for a stage? |
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Post by Deleted on May 12, 2016 17:01:48 GMT
The tour definitely should come to Europe. Otherwise they should have called it Asian tour with pre-tour engagement in UK instead of International tour. It would be a big mistake not to tour Europe. So far, the only European countries who have had a production of Wicked are The Netherlands, Germany, UK, Ireland and Finland (non-replica production). There's so many countries with the will and infrastructure to accommodate a production of Wicked. Denmark had a non replica too. The Glinda was about 40 years old and sounded it too Oh, I didn't know that. Anyway, not many countries have had a production and many of the ones that did had it quite a while ago. So they could even go back to the countries that have had a production before. And the Danish people deserve to get a good Glinda too  |
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Post by shady23 on May 12, 2016 21:05:30 GMT
My point exactly. They need someone who they know can play the role a lot for such an exhausting production. Also, I can't see why some people on this forum don't like the cast. I think it's a brilliant cast. Having just 2 principles in it who played the role before is not a lot. And the ones they did recycle were very popular last rime round. Jackie deserves this promotion. The reactions on twitter were almost all very positive. There is a big difference between a few shows here and there and most of the matinees to doing eight shows a week for a month. It is a very hard sing. However, I am a big Jackie fan and saw her as Elphaba nine times on Tour and really loved her portrayal. The best for years for me. So thrilled to shreads she is back. I don't know much about the new Glinda but looking forward to seeing her. Likewise the new Fiyero, who is a very beautiful man indeed! A new Boq and Nessa is also very welcome. Really looking forward to opening night now I have to say. |
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Post by Deleted on May 12, 2016 21:34:28 GMT
Oh Shady definitely put up a review of the opening night on here when you see the show! I would love to hear your thoughts on the lead cast, ensemble and the production itself!
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Post by Deleted on May 14, 2016 9:53:00 GMT
Our new Glinda |
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Post by Deleted on May 14, 2016 12:46:10 GMT
For those who don't like the fact that they didn't cast a completely new lead Elphaba, we're gonna have a fabulous new standby
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