wicked

Issue #44

Last Update March 2, 2006

Reviews Wicked Sound by Gert Innsry Technology does not always offer improvements over older ways of doing things. Once again, a Broadway show has proven that a bad sound system can counteract a good book, pleasant music, excellent sets and costumes and spectacularly good performances. In the olden days, performers in a Broadway musical sang loudly, projected their spoken voices, and provided audiences with an aliveness and immediacy that no sound system, however good, can reproduce. "Wicked", a cleverly written Wizard of Oz prequel, came out looking like life-sized puppets were lip-syncing to a recorded sound track.

Amplification does three things to the sound: it generally makes it uncomfortably loud; it distorts tone (usually by moving it towards tinniness); and it removes all directionality. At one point in the show, with a very busy stage on which the last speakers were center-right, two people started talking and singing. It took me almost a minute to locate them, because, although the sound came from the center of the stage, the singers were on the left apron. In general, the speakers boosted the highs and diminished the lows, making the performers sound flat and unreal, robbing them of the richness of their speaking and singing voices. The volume was set at a level that, while not insufferably loud during most moments of the show, was painful when the singer was really belting.

While producers of Broadway musicals may genuinely believe that amplified sound is a necessity, especially for the larger theaters, there is no excuse for the sound systems being bad. With proper placement of microphones and speakers the sound could have shown some recognizable directionality. Good speakers and a properly set sound board could have maintained timbre at an acceptable quality. Correctly attended to, the climactic moments of a dramatic song could have been reduced from ear-splitting volume to something the audience could enjoy. Movies have better sound (though always much too loud); how hard could it be to get it right in a Broadway theater? The fault lies with the producers.

It is particularly sad for the performers to have their best efforts diminished. The lead players in "Wicked" (Melissa Bell Chait as Glinda the Good, Idina Menzel as Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West, Michelle Federer as Elphaba's sister Nessarose, who is killed by Dorothy's house, Joel Gray as the Wizard, and Norbert Leo Butz as Fiyero, loved by both Elphaba and Glinda) gave terrific performances. Melissa Bell Chait, standing in for Kristen Chenoweth, and Idina Menzel as Elphaba were particularly good, but all of the principals were exciting performers. Watching Joel Gray as the Wizard, I realized I would pay almost any amount to see him as Koko, or the Major General, or the Lord Chancellor, or in any of the other Gilbert and Sullivan comic roles.

The sets and costumes were clever and colorful. The flying monkeys were a particularly nice touch. The few throw-away references to the original Wizard of Oz dialogue were funny. With better sound, the show would have been perfection.