Well, finally the much-ballyhooed Broadway musical “Wicked” is in town, the path prepared by a storm surge of rave reviews from critics presumably hard to please.

“Broadway’s biggest blockbuster,” declared The New York Times, also “the defining musical of the decade.” A jaded friend, Selena, saw it in Singapore and was all praises for the production.

“Wicked,” supposedly a prequel to the iconic 1939 MGM film of “Over the Rainbow” fame, is about the friendship between two girls, one with emerald-green skin (“smart, fiery and misunderstood”), Elphaba, who becomes the Wicked Witch of the West; and the other, “beautiful, ambitious and very popular,” the future Glinda the Good Witch.

“Wicked” opened Jan. 22 at the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) and will be playing for a limited (extended) season. Lead roles are played by Jemma Rix as Elphaba and Suzie Mathers as Glinda, with handsome hunk Steve Danielsen as Fiyero and Jay Lag’aia as the Wizard, backed up by an ensemble of expert singer-dancer-actors.

Press preview

A press preview was held at the CCP a day after the show opened, with some of the key players present along with director Karen Mortimer. Co-hosts were James Cundall and Bernadette Hayes.

Production numbers enlivened the proceedings.

During the Q&A, the panel was asked what’s so special about the show, what lifts it from “mere entertainment” to “art.”

“You can define art in many ways,” replied Cundall. “There are depths of relationship between the two (girls). It’s a great spectacle.”

“It’s about friendship, love, it’s very universal,” opined Rix. “It’s a special show and [the lesson is] you don’t judge someone by the color of his skin.”

Added Danielsen: “We were constantly reminded that one should care for someone. And the producer said it was the best active production he has seen since the original.”

“It’s a monster-monster show,” declared Cundall. “It requires a lot of planning and it is a credit to everyone (cast and crew) who is here. And the audience last night (during the opening) was wonderful. They understood what the show was about.”

Speaking of the challenges in putting up a major production, Hayes said: “Things just fell into place, everything just pushed through. The challenges were enormous but hard-won.”

She added, “The long score is very complicated but we have wonderful musicians.”

“Music is universal,” Mortimer pointed out. “Sometimes we don’t speak in English or Filipino. We speak music.”

Cundall made the day of the media persons present when he praised Filipino journalists, saying they are “among the most intelligent journalists anywhere in Asia.”