Wicked - A Smash Hit For The Alhambra

For those of you who crave a night of songs, a funny, poignant re-telling of a classic adventure story with glittering costumes, talented performers then choose a night at the Alhambra Theatre to see Wicked, which features the hit song Defying Gravity now playing until Sunday 21 August 2016.

Bradford is the only UK city to host the spectacular musical outside London this year before the critically acclaimed, multi record-breaking touring production travels directly to the MasterCard Theatres at Marina Bay Sands in Singapore, where it opens on 29 September 2016. Wicked will then continue touring internationally until January 2018. Based on the best-selling novel by Gregory Maguire that ingeniously re-imagined the stories and characters created by L. Frank Baum in ‘The Wonderful Wizard of Oz’, Wicked tells the incredible untold story of an unlikely but profound friendship between two sorcery students. Their extraordinary adventures in Oz will ultimately see them fulfil their destinies as Glinda The Good and the Wicked Witch of the West.

Acclaimed as “a wicked and wonderful vision of Oz” (London Evening Standard), “a magical story of friendship, love and growing up” (OfficialLondonTheatre.com) and “pure magic” (Time Out London), the multi award-winning London production of Wicked is now in its 10th year and already is the 19th longest-running show in West End theatre history. Around the world, Wicked has now been seen by 50 million people in 14 countries, and won over 100 major awards and it is not hard to see why.

Here in West Yorkshire we are very fortunate in the shows that theatres like The Alhambra manage to attract but sitting in the audience last night for the press opening the show just seemed a cut above, the songs apart from the major hit Defying Gravity although not immediately catchy were so powerfully performed at one point I could feel the hairs on the back of my neck tingle in response. The show was a feast for the eyes as well, so colourful in the staging and the costumes for both Glinda (with the Gah silent!) and Elphaba were fabulous, made me want to be a little girl again and swirl around in the sparkly ball gowns.

In terms of performances the whole cast was wonderful but the biggest cheers of the night were shared equally for the oh so talented Jacqueline Hughes (Elphaba) and Carly Anderson (Glinda) and I loved that there were even pantomime boos as well as deserved applause for Kim Ismay (Madame Morrible) who was great at being bad! The show runs until the 21 August and it would be….wicked to miss it!