iTunes Exclusive Episode Wicked

The following is a sooner orgator production.
The following is a sooner orgator production.
The following is a sooner orgator production.
Greetings, Empire member and door members.
If you are hearing the sound of my voice currently the following conditions have been met,
it means you, at least once in your lifetime, have listened to the Clubhouse podcast live every
Sunday night 7 Eastern 4 Pacific, your one-stop shop for all-things, sports, and entertainment,
but it also means you subscribe on iTunes because this time, for another, I'm John DeCloshing!
The 206th one of these things, we welcome you.
My name is Rob, I am the executive producer of the Clubhouse podcast, and I don't have
any superpowers that's why I like Batman.
But I'm not alone for this particular episode.
Joining me across the desk, as he tends to do, is a man, he may have hit somebody with a broomstick
every once in a game, but he will not have to confirm nor deny that, he is chat, welcome
sir.
No, I can deny that, that's never happened.
Also, joining us as the official fact checker of this show, and a man who is not a fan of
the Wizard of Bos, but he does like what's taken from.
You may know I'm as fun, don, go, but his mom and even Don Ford, I'm going to call him
Don Ford.
Welcome, sir.
Are you talking about Bos guy who did that bad movie?
The Stoss World.
Whenever we do one of these things, it is to review something, and this particular episode
is no different.
One of the most popular stage productions in the world, as we know it, has come to our
fair burger on its tour, and we got to check it out, you might know it is wicked.
We got to see it the other night, and we are here to talk about it, Don.
Before we start this whole thing, we have to think the man, Francesco, for a minute, and
still awesome.
Yeah, tell us some of the musicals, musical, for a part for a right-ness to this thing.
Thank you so, so very much, everybody.
There's 76th season, got about three more productions to go before we wrap it up.
But this is the one that everybody has been, that everybody has had circled on
their calendar.
It's got a month long run at a musical at Fair Park in Dallas.
Okay, first of all, if you don't know what it's about, as we'd like to say, welcome back
from the cave.
If you've seen the Wizard of Oz, this is, I guess you should call it the spiritual
prequel, because it's not like an official prequel.
Yeah, it's not like an elf rank bomb didn't write it, but it ties everything up relatively
nicely.
And it kind of segues it's more than a prequel, because it plays with the original storyline
as well.
That cross is over into the Wizard of Oz proper.
The wicked witch of the West is known as Elfava.
I always think of that old Jeff Dunham at Jeff, whenever they would say her name.
Well, and it took it, whenever the explanation finally came to me as to why she's named
that.
I'm like, I can't believe I didn't pick up on that sooner.
You got me there.
Elfava, phonetically, L, F, B, L, Frank, bomb, Elfava, you know, I completely missed that.
And it got explained.
I was like, how did I not see that?
I don't know.
I'm going to totally make sense stuff.
It really does.
She has played by Emily Koch.
It's more about the story of the Glenda and the wicked witch of the West as they meet
in their high school years and things go forward into the actual Wizard of Oz story.
Glenda played by Amanda Jane Cooper.
And you really kind of get an interesting backstory, as Chad said, when we were coming
out of the production, and I quoted you in my written review, which is at www.theclubhousepodcast.com.
Which is our website?
Were you said they basically molesta, or molesta?
Maleficent at a space.
And you're absolutely right.
And I, because I don't want to give too much away from people that haven't seen it.
Like I had never seen it going.
None of us have, right?
I knew it was about.
But I had never actually seen it.
Like, I know that there's been different things that you can.
I've never watched footage, and I went into this pretty much cold.
I've got the book.
I had started reading a book about the year ago.
I never had finished it.
I didn't really want to finish it.
The lovely and talented Mrs. Irvin is a big fan of the book as well.
She owns the book.
It's actually over there in the master suite as it's the master suite.
I just want to say on the plot, the one thing that caught me is I didn't expect it when it
would be.
I think it showed a really good light on someone we thought always thought as an evil character.
Which surprised, and that's all I want to say to be spoiler free.
For me, which I enjoyed, you know, I guess we can start with the storytelling.
I felt the first 25% of this moved really slow, and kind of a full disclosure, and this
is well documented on our show, but I am not a big wizard of Oz fan.
And not because it's a bad film, because it's a beautiful film, but it was on every holiday
when I was a kid.
It was the one movie everybody showed, Easter, the Wizard of Oz, Christmas, the Wizard of
Oz, Thanksgiving, the Wizard of Oz, Arbor Day, the Wizard of Oz, I was like, I've seen
this movie so many times, I'm just done with it.
Before the advent of home video, yeah, well, again, when I was a kid, yeah, the video wasn't
a thing.
Yeah, it was like, it was always offered as the counter programming for more, like, it was
a default.
Usually, like, I recall once it was aired during the Super Bowl, so kids would have something
to watch while the grownups were watching the Super Bowl in the other room.
So going in, I really had to kind of clear my mind of my bias.
But still, the first 25% of this thing was so slow.
And it seems like I have found that kind of being a recurring theme in a lot of the musicals
that we've seen, because you're doing character setup.
So there's really not a lot of, you know, quote, unquote, action, I really moved the story
along quickly.
But I want you to get a relationship with these.
But I will say, once it picked up, we were off to the road, yeah, I mean, I really
enjoyed the plot overall.
And overall, I thought it flowed well, too.
You know, I see you're slow in the beginning, but after that, it was good.
And it didn't bore me.
I wasn't thinking there was any Drake times really.
So overall, and I did like the twist.
It's just a different twist of the character.
Yeah.
Performance wise, I can't complain about anybody.
Oh, no.
This, this cast is tight as a drum.
The chemistry between Cooper and Koch is absolutely amazing.
You really believe they've known each other since they were toddlers.
I mean, because it is just as much galinda story as it is, elephant story.
It really is.
It's, the title is kind of misleading, but is it or is it?
Yeah.
I think Cooper really channels, Glenn to the good, which really, really well did very well.
And it was kind of, I never felt like she was trying too hard to be the movie version.
It was still her, but she really took it on herself.
And you could really, you really felt comfortable with her in the role.
Koch absolutely destroys it without a doubt.
She is absolutely amazing in this film.
And you really, you really buy her in the role.
And if you go to my written review at the www.covastpacast.com, that is still our website.
My non-leaning role shout out has to go to Wendy Worthington, who played the Matamata
more.
Yeah.
I just had, I thought she rocked it and also who played the little munchkin who had
the crush on.
What was that character?
That's Sam Semperi and played Bach, Bach and Bach, yeah.
Those two are really enjoyed of the non-leaning roles.
But the Matam, she just played that, you know, the headmaster of a school so well.
He made me think a lot about Helen Abonum Carter and Alice in Wonderland.
Oh, it her portrayal of the way, which is not a bad thing.
It's just reminded me a lot of it.
She did have an off with her head's kind of a kind of presentation.
I kind of got to give it up to Megan Masako Haley for Nessarose that she kind of was kind
of like an emotional anchor that tied both of these worlds together.
And I don't know why her role in it didn't even click with me until almost the very
ends.
Like it didn't.
And the clues are all there.
Yeah.
That staring you right in the face.
It's bashing you over there.
This, this musical is a whole lot of hindsight being 2020.
Does it make not, my, my, the obvious question for me to use specifically wrong?
Does this make you want to go back and watch wizard and see, ah, I see where this comes
from.
Where the inspiration for the author to write wicked where he would have gotten the inspiration
to write this book.
I can see that I will watch that next time I watch that the original film, I will kind
of keep that mind.
So no, no, nothing really, it, it makes, it makes, I, I really enjoyed wicked.
I really, really did, but it doesn't make me go, ooh, I want to go watch the wizard
of Oz now.
I want to go and rewatch wizard with this new fresh perspective and see, wow, okay,
I can see why this went this way.
I mean, I thought it was cool how everything tied in, especially the ending of the
musical because I don't want to give anything away.
But there's some really cool moments, especially when you get into the last 15 minutes
where you really get into them highlighting how each part works into the actual wizard of
Oz tale itself.
It becomes an origin story and I thought that was so many really well done, but it doesn't
make me want to go because I know what that film does.
So I can go, okay, so that's what that is.
That's how just not a fan of that film.
I am anymore, it's just, it was, it's like, hey, we're going to tell you the story of George
Bailey as a kid.
Does I mean, you want to watch it's a wonderful life again?
No, it really doesn't.
I respect it for what it is.
And again, I really enjoyed the musical from a technological standpoint.
Oh, this is bad.
It's gorgeous.
Oh, but my problem was in the very beginning and towards the very end.
When you had 20 people on stage, I couldn't understand anything.
I don't know, I don't know if it's because everybody wasn't mic'd because that's what
it sounded like to me.
You mean, just from a chorus, to a chorus damn, okay, absolutely.
It was kind of weird for me.
I do want to send a shout out, we had a lot of local musicians that were involved in this
as well, which I thought, I'm always a fan of that, but I mean, really, if that's my
biggest problem with it, you know, from a lighting standpoint and from a presentation
standpoint, it was absolutely gorgeous, flying, fricking, grab it.
And I'm glad you said that because that's where I was going to go next.
Oh, my God.
That number was wonderful.
Even if you didn't have the effects involved, that number is wonderful.
I don't want to say something.
Yeah, but I was the scenes where in the emerald city, what those LED green lights,
beautiful.
I mean, it, it, it, they, that entire hall in a club, yes, and then that one scene
works raining.
Yeah.
Yeah, I'm every, I'm a, I'm a, I'm a, I'm a, I'm a, I'm a, I'm a, I'm a, I'm a, I'm a, I'm one
of the best sets I've ever seen great movement of the sets and everything like that.
The animatronics of the wizard, the wizard head itself was in present a little weird and
the dragon though, too.
I mean, oh, the dragon over the percenium arch.
That was weird for me.
I guess, maybe because I was expecting more than I got from that.
What the wizard of the dragon both.
I wasn't expecting the dragon.
I mean, I really don't know how much it plays into the storyline.
It really didn't.
It was just, it was kind of just a cool decoration.
It was like an added a good trot.
But it would move and the eyes would glow.
So yeah, like there's going to be something to this.
But it really wasn't.
It was more or less, I mean, but they referred to the clock as the dragon clock.
Oh, maybe so.
I mean, so maybe the top or for the clock, you know, I was expecting more of like, like,
you probably were a more of a phantom shandleer type thing to be of how that thing was
going to play a role in this in the production of stuff because it's obviously pretty expensive
props.
Stand out numbers for me.
We've already talked about defying gravity as long as you're mine.
Yeah.
Oh, my god.
And maybe I'm just becoming a softy as I'm getting older.
But that was that humor was just, you know, Jake Boyd is Fierro to
care of that.
I need to, you guys go ahead and talk about the music for just a minute.
Yeah.
I mean, that when I heard that, that's as long as your mind, how could you have two people
or just sing a song and you felt like the emotion was so real between the two when
they were singing that probably not since when we saw Kinky Boots that that, oh, okay,
when he was talking about not in his father's son, yes, was probably the last time something
hit me that hard at Fierro Park Music Hall from a lyrical standpoint of like, because
you know, kind of like Rob said, more often than not, there's so much going on in these
big production numbers that a lot of it gets lost in translation when they're singing,
but you heard every word, you, you, you shed tears along with them during something
like this.
It's, it's an absolute emotional ride they take you on and you definitely feel it.
Yeah, I, I can't think of one number that just I thought was not spot on on this thing.
I mean, from start to finish and I loved how the flow of the music, you know, I thought
it went great with what it was going on in the production at the time.
I thought the music backdrop really had the mood of what's going on with this production.
I mean, it carries a lot of weight with it, you know, it's because this thing has such a
mistake about it that, you know, you either, you either seen it or you know somebody that has
seen it or you want to go see it. You're following one of those three categories. You know,
if you have any passing interest in Broadway musicals at all, at all, this is almost something
that if you haven't seen it, you're not a true. Yeah, if you have no desire, then you might want
to check your head and define gravity too, though. I mean, that up there, how could you
sing perfectly whilst suspended in the air? She hadn't spot on. I'm still trying to figure out
how they did it because it didn't look like she was ever on any kind of a wire. I don't know,
I didn't see it either. It just, I'm assuming that she was on some sort of a platform.
And it was just, it was just masked very well, because like you notice like when she's up there,
she's not like rocking back and forth. She doesn't look like she's suspended from anything.
She looked like she was on some sort of a stable platform that we just couldn't even if she's on
wires, our platform, she hit that. Yeah, I mean, it's gutsy. The fine gravity was just beyond
volume. That is a defining moment. It's probably the defining moment of the musical. I believe so.
It's, it's something that's, it's, the true definition of a showstopper in, in a musical is the
fine gravity. I, I really can't think of anything bad about this production. I can't either.
I'm at a loss. And that's rare. We, you know, you really have to, kind of like Rob said,
you really have to dig really dig to find something that you did wasn't just mind blowingly
amazed. Which, when you have a musical that's this popular, because you're bound to find flaws
and it's somewhere, even, there's a reason this is popular. Yeah, I really, I mean, I, I would just
can't say enough on this set design. Those things were so, there's a reason this thing is
playing a fair park musical for the better part of a month. And you're probably lucky to find
tickets. Well, and even multiple showings like when we went, it was a Thursday and there had been
a matinee showing that day because that whole parking lot was full of school buses. Good. So yeah.
Anything else we want to say if you're going to the final analysis? No, I think we said it. I don't
know what more can we said. We've been heaping praise on it since we turned the mics on pretty
much. All right, the way we do the final analysis on this show. We're not going to give you
thumbs up thumbs down. We're not going to give you rankings. We're not going to give you any of
that kind of stuff. Our audience whom we love to refer to as the Empire lovingly, they want us to
dig deeper than that. So we're going to do that. Two questions will be asked. Question number one
is, would you see this production again? If the answer's no, we're done here. Don't think that's
okay. Can we just roll that out right now? The follow-up question will be in this case because
it's a stage production. The question will be, how much it will end to pay for your tickets?
Where you want to sit? Don't let's start with you. Would you see this production again?
It's a definite. Were you going to sit? Find a ticket anywhere. Anyway, if you can find a ticket
ticket by Donna's adopting my philosophy, I don't care if you sit on the road. Well, I mean,
I heard a lot of these things are sold out. Absolutely. So if whatever production you see it
ticket open, grab it, just go in. And that makes us that much more thankful that Francisco was able
to get us in here. Oh, I believe Chad. Like a popular meme often says screw it, take all my money.
I'm going to be a little bit different. I would see it again, but I'll tell you where I want to sit.
I want to sit dead center front row of the balcony. I want that view. Because I feel like like
where we sat, probably back towards the center orchestra section. Great seats. They we always
get great seats from the people with down with summer. We never can play. But I think I want to
sit a little bit higher off the ground. There's one kind of get more of a view of everything.
I don't know if because I think if you sit too close, you're really going to miss stuff in this
process. Yeah, yeah, you're going to, your peripheral vision is going to get cut off or, you know,
it's, I agree with you. I wish that you could sit a little bit closer higher, but you're
really can't sit closer higher. Because if for no or the reason, like you mentioned earlier,
the end of the first act. Yeah. Because I think where we sat, I think there may be a couple of
angles that could have been better for that shot alone. It's because it's just a spine tingling.
Yeah, it was, it's a gorgeous, absolutely gorgeous moment. And again, we cannot recommend
wicked enough. Yeah, I believe. And again, Francesco and in other shocking news, the sky is blue.
The sun does rise in the east and the city is emerald. Again, thank you to Francesco,
Dalsam and musicals and musical for a park. And one thing I want to add
rest and peace to Gary Murray. And if you keep subscribing on iTunes, you're going to find out
later on in another episode, more about that. All right, Joan, see the plugs.
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do yourself a favor witness the loudest pop you will ever hear at Fair Park Music. All by going to
this thing. Okay, and I'm a fondongo and you can email me at Don at the clubhousepodcast.com.
Email Don for information on how we can come to a live show at your establishment. Like we did
for Dallas summer musicals just a week before we saw Wicked. You can email me if you'd like questions,
comments, concerns tell me to go out and say and I am Rob at the clubhousepodcast.com. I am
Chad at the clubhousepodcast.com. Charlotte Parker is on Pinterest because we are morally obligated to say
that and Jules Womack wearing her Wicked T-shirt today. No, this is we were having lunch earlier.
Our normal show every Sunday night, 70's turned for Pacific is your one stop shop for all things
sports and entertainment. So until next time, for Don, for Chad, for the Empire, I'm Rob,
clubhouse is closed and pretty Palmer really is the good witch.
We're going to go get a little bit of a go. Why? Because I have to.