Wicked

This is my seventh time seeing Wicked but my first time seeing it on Broadway. I saw it for the first time in 2007 at the Hollywood Pantages, then I did not see it again until the national tour came to Seattle in 2019. I then saw it three more times when the national tour was in Seattle in 2024. My sixth time was just a few weeks ago when the national tour was in Indianapolis.

The national tour is so good - this is one of the better quality national tours - that I have been curious how the show on Broadway would compare.

Without giving spoilers, I will just say there are numerous enhancements to the experience in New York, and given the choice, it is definitely advantageous to see the show on Broadway. That said, the current national tour is very good (and reviewed here). For comparison, the Hamilton national tour is fairly similar to Hamilton on Broadway (I primarily noticed better lighting on Broadway), but Wicked is more enhanced on Broadway.

The Gershwin Theatre is a large theatre (the largest Broadway theatre), so you do not get the typical Broadway intimacy you get at other venues, but it is still smaller than many tour venues. For example, the Gershwin Theatre seats 1933 patrons for Wicked on Broadway, while the Paramount Theatre in Seattle seats 2807 patrons. But Hadestown on Broadway at the Walter Kerr Theatre seats just 975 patrons. Just In Time (the show in Wicked’s basement, as Jonathan Groff says) seats just 690 patrons at Circle in the Square Theatre. These are large differences. Consider the size when you are selecting your seat. Unlike the national tour, where I recommended the mezzanine, up close in orchestra is very fun at this show on Broadway.

When you are at the Gershwin Theatre, you do feel a bit like you are in Oz. There is green carpeting at the entrance, green themes everywhere, and they have done a nice job with the branding. It is a nice venue.

A recurring theme for all of the shows I have seen this week in New York has been how the costumes are popping out at me more than they usually do. I have been attributing this partially to the superior lighting in NYC versus tour shows. Wicked is yet another show this week with excellent lighting and costumes. The sound engineering was also excellent, which has not been the case at all of my shows this trip.

Sometimes when you are seeing an older show, the cast can be inconsistent, and some performers might be great singers but not the best actors. At Wicked, despite the show’s age, this cast was consistently excellent. Even though this is the seventh time I have seen Wicked, this might be there first time when I left thinking both Glinda and Elphaba were equally outstanding throughout the entire show. Usually one stands out over the other, either for the entire show or for one of the acts. It can flip from night to night even with the exact same cast (everyone has their great nights and their just good nights).

My show’s excellent Elphaba was played by Lencia Kebede, and the excellent Glinda was played by Allie Trimm. They were not just good individually, but they also had good stage chemistry together.

There were three understudies in my show. Christianne Tisdale covered Madame Morrible, David Scott Purdy played the Witch’s Father and the Ozian Official, and Micaela Martinez played the role of the midwife. This is the first time I have noticed the characters referred to as “Witch’s Father” and “Ozian Official.” It took me a minute to understand why, and it would be a spoiler to explain the reason. These understudies performed flawlessly, and I did not know they were understudies until I looked at the Playbill later after the show.

Jenna Bainbridge is so good as Nessarose, and it is the best performance I have ever seen of this character really portraying the evil later in the show. It was excellent acting showing us how the character evolved over time. Her brief moment of showing us the evil in Act 2 was a standout moment in the show for me.

Daniel Quadrino is also the best Boq I have ever seen, and he similarly had excellent acting expressing his emotions.

Jordan Litz as Fiyero is excellent casting, and I also very much enjoyed his performance.

William Youmans as Doctor Dillamond was also excellent.

David Scott Purdy is outstanding, and at times I felt like I was listening to Joel Gray. I never got to see Joel in the role, but I listen to his vocals all the time on the cast recording.

Christianne Tisdale is the best Madame Morrible I have seen on stage, and similar to Jenna, she did such a good job portraying her evil.

The flying monkeys were also so much more present for me in this Broadway production versus the national tours. How scary that one was flying right over me! They all did a great job.

This entire cast and ensemble were consistently excellent across the board. The production is high quality, and it is one I highly recommend.

If you are not able to see the show on Broadway, the national tour is also very good. But see it in New York if you can!

See more show reviews from 2025.