- WICKED
- Music Hall – Kansas City, Missouri
- August 20, 2026
While Wicked takes its cues from L. Frank Baum’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, the musical has become an established classic on its own. That’s probably why the play is still touring the country after its 2003 Broadway debut.
The touring production currently playing at the Music Hall in Kansas City demonstrated that Elphaba (Aline Mayagoitia) and Glinda (Claudia Bennet) can still cast a spell. Mayagoitia and Bennet may be performing under the shadows of Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande on the big screen screen, but story seems to work better on stage.
Seeing the green-skinned Elphaba, who is known as the Wicked Witch of the West in the original story, soaring above the floorboards on top of her broom is more jaw-dropping than it would seem in a multiplex. The sight isn’t quite as novel in a movie, and she’s singing as she soars.
The story, for those who are unfamiliar with the play or the movie, Wicked begins where the 1939 film of The Wizard of Oz ends. Glinda descends from her bubble and nervously admits that she and her archenemy were college friends.
While Glinda is a bit of a nepo baby and and social butterfly, Elphaba is an outcast. In a land where all sorts of unusual people can coexist, her emerald skin alienates most of her peers.
He father, who is an official in Munchkinland is sending her to school to support her disabled sister Nessarose (Christina Sastre). What separates Wicked from its predecessor is that Elphaba is sympathetic this time, and it turns out that she is one the one enchanter who has a genuine gift for magic.
She’s also appropriately alarmed that a new form of bigotry is rising in Oz. Some of her best professors, like Dr. Dillamond (Drew McVetty), are animals. When she notices the Wizard of Oz and other administrators are indifferent or even complicit, she rightly calls them out.
The urgency made me feel guilty for eating a hotdog before the show.
For some reason, seeing an actor in a goat costume was a lot more involving than seeing a CGI critter. I didn’t feel quite so bad about eating flesh during the first movie.
Glinda can see that Elphaba has the gifts she’d like to have and starts to try making her less socially awkward.
All of this leads to great songs by Stephen Schwartz including “Popular” and “Defying Gravity.” Mayagoitia and Bennet both approach their roles with aplomb, and Mayagoitia, in particular, delivers Swartz’s tunes effortlessly, making them seem as fresh as when they were first performed.
The sets are opulent and imaginative and are jaw dropping before the actors step across from them. With the care that has gone into this production, it’s a safe bet that this tale of wizards and witches will age as gracefully as the one that inspired it.
“Wicked” runs at the Music Hall in Kansas City through Sunday, August 30th. For tickets to this engagement or future shows on the tour, click HERE.