Written by Ririn Oscarin
“Welcome to Ozmopolitan!”
Hey Diaspora! was cordially invited to a full preview of Wicked! The Broadway Musical, and boy, were we impressed! Enticed by its tagline “The Most Successful Broadway Musical in the U.S.” (no gimmicks!), we sat at P 40-41 at the Marina Bay Sands Theatre. Even the seats were exciting; it was reasonably near the stage, allowing us to have a clear, full view of the whole stage perimeter. Many people had queued to watch the preview of this Grammy- and Tony Award-winning musical, so we were pleased to get such great seats.
The stage was phenomenal. There was a map of Oz as the stage background, a 3D dragon on the top of the stage, and from the left and right there were small stairs to go into chambers. During the show itself, there were moving backgrounds that change depending on the act and setting. They also brought a wizard-machine-face! Two thumbs up for the lightning and the stage crew who managed to run everything smoothly. The atmosphere definitely did not feel like a preview; we felt as if we were transported to Oz.
The amazing setting aside, it is the story and the performances that are top notch, worthy of every compliment given to the musical. We haven’t watched Wicked before, so we did assume that it would be a fairy tale similar to the Wizard of Oz, which, while entertaining, might be a bit blah. However, we were wrong; the story is very relatable to our daily lives. Described as “satiric, magical, and light”, Wicked taught us about real friendship, true love, chasing dreams. Every act, every character had their own moral lessons, and they were able to put it across without being preachy.
A couple of lessons that I learned from Wicked is that firstly, not all bad wizards are bad. Maybe they were just too sensitive, or misunderstood by society. They may be lovable, with great attitudes, although you can’t see it at first. And vice versa, not all good witches are good. They may fake their smiles, and obsessed with popularity. Just like our day-to-day lives, amirite? While love may not always see appearance, inner beauty does matter. Perhaps not all prince charmings are happy with their princesses; who knows? The most important lesson, though, was about having your dreams come true. Obviously, we won’t cover too much detail, or we’ll spoil your experience!
The most breathtaking perfomance of the night was the famous “Defying Gravity” song. Finally, we heard it performed live and we have to tell you, I have never seen anyone perform that song with such emotion, beautiful voice, and amazing character. (Not even Rachel Berry!)
The musical was rather long; it took three hours, but we were so deeply immersed by the musical, story, performances, that we didn’t really realize that! We can’t stand not to give a standing ovation. We really have to agree that this is definitely the greatest Broadway musical we’ve seen so far.
Just a hint, reading or even knowing just a little about the Wizard of Oz before watching the show would help you acknowledge some of the characters inside. 
So what are you waiting for? Go get your tickets now! Definitely worth every single penny. And to those who have watched it, let us know your opinion in the comments section!
Buy tickets here.
Read our interview with the cast members here.
