The Wonder Behind Wicked

The Wonder Behind Wicked

The eyes of community theatres around Australia were on CLOC Musical Theatre for its Australian Non-Professional Premiere of Wicked. The set and costumes will be used by ten companies all over the country, then exported to New Zealand. CLOC’s technical wizard Grant Alley, and Andrew Davis share their thoughts.

For those who had never seen Wicked before, the response was extraordinary.  CLOC received literally hundreds of gushing accolades from patrons – ‘goosebumps’ and ‘shivers down my spine’ were frequently repeated expressions.

The company had record ticket sales and record repeat visitors. Two Wicked mad girls saw eight out of the twelve performances, while it was visit #168 to Wicked for another patron.

Almost every review and audience feedback mentioned the costumes, hats and wigs.  There were 158 costumes (some with several pieces) and over 80 hats, all made from scratch and all individually designed. 

“The costumes were absolutely amazing. They were Steam Punk style, all the creations of our designer Vicky Horne. The sewing team of twenty has been working since last October. The wigs, too, were mind-boggling,” said CLOC’s Grant Alley.

Sequins and glitter abounded. Glinda’s blue ‘bubble’ gown and Elphaba’s Wicked Witch gown incorporated thousands of crystals, beads and sequins, all glued on individually by hand. 

A total of 311 wigs and hairpieces were used. Each cast member had at least five changes of hair, as well as costume. The three female leads (Elphaba, Glinda and Madame Morrible) had hand tied full lace wigs, custom-made to fit their heads, by wig and makeup designer David Wisken.

Some boys were asked to undertake asymmetric haircuts, while one brave cast member agreed to shave his head completely to enable a tattoo-like design to be drawn on his skull.

Then there was the set. Watching especially closely in the audience was Sydney theatre veteran Andrew Davis, who is bumping the set into Packemin Productions’ season at the Riverside Theatre in Parramatta. How did he rate it?

“The outstanding feature was the beaded LED lights, especially the way they were woven into set. We didn’t expect that for a community theatre production,” Davis said.

“It took hundreds of hours to individually wire about 3000 lights,” Alley explained. “All were invisible until illuminated. When they came on they were quite startling.”

Wicked has a number of special technical challenges. The first is floating Glinda, the good witch, onto the stage in a giant bubble. 

“It was nicely made,” Andrew Davis said. “She came on sideways in a circular steel structure embedded with LED lights. The wireless DMX controlled lights can be used for any colour. They used a blue/purple hue.

“It was not massive (like the one in the professional production) but appropriate for a community theatre.”

Grant Alley is famous for his remote controlled props, including a grand piano that zoomed around the stage on its own in The Boy From Oz.

For Wicked the two motorised ‘toys’ were steered by the riders. Fiyero had a small battery controlled car that he ‘drove’ onto the stage. Nessarose had her own turbo charged wheelchair.

“She had two joy sticks connected to two motors that could do quite amazing things. The steering lever allowed her to spin on the spot,” said Alley.

Preparing for every performance required rigorous testing of the remote control devices and re-charging of batteries.

“It (the wheelchair) went very fast and had to be carefully choreographed, otherwise we could kill half the cast and Nessarose would end up half way into the auditorium,” he said. (CLOC is not retiring its remote control capabilities. On the drawing board are plans for four remote controlled trucks in its next production of Jesus Christ Superstar.)

Other special effects in the set included a dragon suspended over the forestage, which lit up at various points throughout the show, as well as a giant Wizard’s head that swivelled and ‘spoke’, complete with flashing eyes.

The biggest challenge, though, was the show-stopping end of Act One when Elphaba, the green witch, sings Defying Gravity

“You can’t fly her onto the stage with what she is required to sing. It would be impossible to do in a harness,” Grant Alley said. “We were developing our own lift but ran out of time. Plan C was to use the same unit that lifted Hugh Jackman on his recent concert tour.”

CLOC engaged Showtech Australia to hire a specialised flying apparatus. The company says it is magic, but Stage Whispers understands that it might be a platform that is winched from above. Andrew Davis said the judicious use of haze was effective in masking the ‘magic’, but his eagle eye spotted just a fraction of the lifting device. That’s something he plans to fix when Wicked is on in Parramatta.

Overall he was pleased that the set appears to be a little easier to put together than the last major CLOC set, Mary Poppins, a double storey structure requiring serious elbow grease to construct.

Like previous CLOC premieres (The Phantom of the Opera, Mary Poppins), the sets, costumes and props for Wicked were immediately packed into a shipping container following the final performance, to start their two year journey touring Australia, with other companies from Launceston to Townsville and many places in between.

Putting aside the technology, Grant Alley said it was the show’s heart which made the season so successful, even to members of the audience who had seen it on Broadway or in the West End.

“The show told a story. The chemistry between the two girls (Elphaba and Glinda) was special. There was an empathy between them that shone out over the footlights.”

Photographer: Ben Fon  (Fon Photography)

Originally published in the July / August 2016 edition of Stage Whispers.

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