Broadway's touring 'Wicked,' now at the Saenger Theatre, still feels fresh after 20 years

Which witch is which? Which witch is good, and which witch is wicked? Are they all a bit of both?

Those questions inform the 20-year-old Broadway musical “Wicked,” a touring production of which concludes a two-and-a-half week run at New Orleans’ Saenger Theatre on Dec. 17.

The 2003 Broadway debut of “Wicked” generated a “Hamilton”-like frenzy in part because, like “Hamilton” a dozen years later, it was a profoundly fresh take on a familiar tale. Just as “Hamilton” reframed the factual Alexander Hamilton, “Wicked” fleshed out the lives of the fictional witches of “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” both before and after that twister deposited Dorothy in Oz.

Two decades later, is “Wicked” still wonderful?

Based on the Nov. 30 performance at the Saenger, yes. It has aged far more gracefully than, say, “Cats,” which “Wicked” surpassed earlier this year to become the fourth-longest running show in Broadway history.

All Oz-related content derives from Frank Baum’s 1900 novel “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.” The 1939 movie adaptation, which codified the story for successive generations, took liberties with Baum’s book.

“Wicked” the musical is adapted from Gregory Maguire’s 1995 novel “Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West.” Maguire’s novel used the saga of Elphaba, the well-meaning, hard-luck Wicked Witch of the West, and perpetually perky Galinda/Glinda, the Good Witch, to comment on the dangers of Orwellian propaganda and scapegoating.

With music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz and book by Winnie Holzman, the original Broadway production boasted Idina Menzel as Elphaba and Kristin Chenoweth as Galinda/Glinda. Their acclaimed performances defined their respective roles and catapulted Menzel and Chenoweth to Broadway superstardom while also launching one of Broadway’s all-time most successful franchises.

“Wicked” resonated with both kids and grown-ups. The songs “Defying Gravity” and “Popular” crossed over into popular culture.

Elphaba and Galinda, who shortens her name mid-show to Glinda, must connect with each other, and the audience, for the story to work. Since May, this touring production — a 90-minute Act I is followed by a 15-minute intermission and an hourlong Act II — has featured Olivia Valli as Elphaba and Celia Hottenstein as Glinda.

Valli brings her own intriguing backstory to bear. She was the Elphaba understudy from 2016 to 2019. She then portrayed her own grandmother, Mary Delgado — singer Frankie Valli’s first wife — in “Jersey Boys.”

She originated the role of Vivian Ward in the first national touring production of “Pretty Woman,” the stage adaptation of the hooker-with-a-heart-of-gold Julia Roberts/Richard Gere film.

In the “Wicked” backstory, the green-skinned Elphaba results from a Munchkin Land affair. An outcast even within her own family, she is nonetheless a striver who wants to belong. Labeled “wicked,” she starts to consider that maybe she is.

Valli’s large, expressive eyes pop out from the green makeup to evoke the earnestness and hurt that define Elphaba’s time at boarding school. She also exudes the caring nature that causes her to risk everything for a lion cub — a cowardly lion cub, at that — and an errant prince.

Her voice is not as brassy and bold as Menzel’s, but Valli is more than up to the task of Elphaba’s big vocal moments. They include the show-stopper “Defying Gravity” that concludes the first act with a bang and a dash of special effects wizardry.

Hottenstein paid her dues as the Glinda understudy and as a member of the ensemble for the Broadway production. She was an alternate Christine Daae in the touring Broadway production of “The Phantom of the Opera.”

Her comic timing, energy and bubbly personality served the spoiled Glinda well. She seemed comfortable hitting the highest, nearly operatic notes in Glinda’s showcase songs.

When her initial descent from the rafters was not met with sufficient enthusiasm from the assembled Munchkins and audience, Hottenstein quipped, “No need to respond,” then deadpanned, “That was rhetorical.”

Veteran TV, stage and voiceover actor Boise Holmes brought the necessary gravitas to Doctor Dillamond, the goat professor who falls victim to the tyrannical Wizard’s new prohibition on talking animals. Dillamond’s inherent dignity shone through the goat makeup and costume.

As Nessarose, Elphaba’s wheelchair-bound sister, Tara Kortmayer started off sweet. As Nessarose is asked to “dance” by Boq the Munchkin — played by Kyle McArthur, in his first touring production role — Kortmayer conveyed the character’s surprise, delight and fear.

Later, she navigated Nessarose’s transition into the Wicked Witch of the East. She flashed the distinctive striped stockings that would later end up protruding from under Dorothy’s house.

Kathy Fitzgerald was totally at home as Madame Morrible, the professor who initially encourages Elphaba’s supernatural powers, only to try to subvert them as a tool of oppression. Fitzgerald has logged more than 2,000 performances as Morrible on Broadway and the national tour.

Winking references to the 1939 film occasionally popped up. A character notes off-handedly that “there’s no place like home.” The movie’s “lions and tigers and bears, oh my!” catchphrase is saluted by a list of punch ingredients.

The bejeweled slippers in “Wicked” are silver, as they were in Baum’s 123-year-old novel (the ruby-colored slippers in the movie were an apparent concession to cinematography).

The "Wicked" set, with its vaguely steampunk ethos, was clever and alternately ominous and bright, especially in Emerald City. The flying monkey costumes were suitably unsettling. The Wizard’s mechanical talking head was intimidating.

The creative construction of certain words in the Oz-ian language — such as liberal use of “ing” — recall the singular vocalese of the late New Orleans music icon Mac “Dr. John” Rebennack.

The show’s social and political commentary flirts with heavy-handedness, i.e. the knock-off Nazis who descend on Doctor Gillamond. But the 20-year-old script still comes across as current, as the Munchkin Land powers that be strive to control the population by creating common enemies via propaganda and fake news.

“People are so empty-head, they’ll believe anything,” says the handsome prince/student Fiyero, played solidly by Christian Thompson.

When Glinda blurts to Gillamond, “Why can’t you just teach us history instead of harping on the past?,” it's as if the writers anticipated, 20 years prior, debates over critical race theory.

Involuntary roommates at boarding school, Elphaba and Galinda initially let their drastic differences — in attitude, attire, attractiveness and skin color — divide them. Eventually, they recognize each other’s humanity — not that they’re actually “human” — forge a friendship and set off to see the Wizard.

Circumstances, ambitions and a love triangle test their bond. Valli and Hottenstein navigate the changing course of their characters’ relationship with conviction.

There is much more “Wicked” to come, and not just at the Saenger. After a decade of false starts and delays, a two-part film adaptation starring Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande is finally moving forward. The first “Wicked” film is scheduled for release in November 2024, with the second slated for a year later.

But for now, this touring production of “Wicked” works.