- Something ‘Wicked’ this way comes, with a special event for fans of the Oz prequel story.
BEDFORD ‒ Fans have been waiting a wicked long time to see Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo as witches on the big screen, but the wait ends this week: “Wicked” ‒ part one of the “untold story” of the witches of Oz ‒ opens Friday at theaters everywhere, including at the Bedford Playhouse.
The venue will mark the occasion with a special event. At 7 p.m. Friday, before the 7:30 p.m. screening, a man with an intimate connection to the Stephen Schwartz musical and a special tie to the Playhouse will give a brief talk and answer questions from the audience.
Dan Micciche is as inside as a “Wicked” insider can get.
Not only did he attend the New York premiere of “Wicked” with Grande and Erivo and Schwartz ‒ “It was absolutely amazing,” he declares ‒ he is also musical director and conductor at the Gershwin Theater, the man tasked with keeping “Wicked” sounding like “Wicked” eight shows a week on Broadway and in the touring companies.
He does some quick math and reckons he has heard the final notes of “Defying Gravity” — fans know the ones — more than 3,500 times from his podium facing the orchestra. But that’s just the performances. Micciche also does all the hiring for the Broadway and national companies, auditioning about 15,000 actors a year. He handles auditions and rehearsals during the day before his other job, conducting the juggernaut of a musical.
“The show is the end of my day,” he says.
Micciche has held a summer residency at Bedford Playhouse for four years now, ever since the Darien, Connecticut, native moved to Ridgefield, Connecticut, during the pandemic. With Broadway shuttered, he reached out to the Playhouse and began bringing Broadway friends to perform on the green or in the theater. To this day, the playhouse staff has a “Wicked” insider on speed dial.
Friday’s special event is sold out, so we asked Micciche to answer some of our “Wicked” questions. His answers have been condensed for space and clarity. (More about Micciche at https://www.danmiccichemusic.com.)
Q: As somebody who stands there every night and gets blown away by (the song) “Defying Gravity,” can you put into words what that transposition to the screen means to you? Does it hit you differently?
Dan Micciche: “Yeah, it does. About a year and a half ago when they started production on the movie, I started working on the pre-records with Stephen Schwartz and we did some of the new stuff that they’re using for the second part. It was really awesome to start from the ground up with the new material that they’re doing. But watching it that night (at the New York premiere) was … so much. I first saw the show when I was a senior in high school and I’ve been with the show for almost 11 years now in so many different capacities. Just watching this massive corporate machine that I run every night on Broadway to see it translate up into a movie but then also to be sitting in the theater with my colleagues and Ari and Cynthia and Schwartz and all of us just watching this movie was … It’s a moment. It’s so big but yet it’s intimate.”
There must be people who are still seeing it at the Gershwin for the first time.
“There are. It’s amazing. And I gotta tell you: After 21 years and almost 11 years for myself, some nights when ‘Defying Gravity’ comes down, it’s like ‘Wow, this is really good.’ It’s just an excellent piece. I mean it’s extremely well crafted and there’s so much to the material. After 21 years now, it hits everything and it hits everyone at all different ages.”
It’s not just a spectacle for them.
“This show is a very deep thing for people. It’s a life-changing experience for some people and it just goes to show what the original creatives did with (composer) Schwartz and (book writer) Winnie Holzman and (director) Joe Mantello. It resonates on a deeper level than people going to see a fun Broadway show. It really resonates for people personally.”
Why do you think that is?
“I think it’s because of the journey between the two women and also seeing Elphaba and identifying with times that we don’t feel like we fit in and we’re looked at differently. And then people that identify with Glinda. Even everything that happens with Dr. Dillamond and how the wizard is trying to silence him. It really speaks to a multitude of different things that are happening still to this day in our world.”
After 21 years, the themes still seem fresh?
“They do. I did ‘Chicago: The Musical’ for six years on Broadway before I started doing ‘Wicked’ and it’s the same thing people say at the stage door: ‘Have they rewritten the show for the time?’ ‘Chicago’ flopped originally in 1975 but it was such a massive hit in 1996 because of the OJ Simpson trial, when things were so relevant. They still are to this day. People are like ‘Oh, no, no, no! They’ve definitely changed the script for “Wicked” for what’s going on in the world.’ And I’m like ‘No they haven’t changed a thing.'”
About “Wicked“: Directed by Jon M. Chu (“Crazy Rich Asians,” “In the Heights”), “Wicked” is the first of a two-part series. “Wicked Part Two” arrives in theaters November 2025. It stars Ariana Grande as the popular Glinda and Cynthia Erivo as the serious Elphaba. Jeff Goldblum plays The Wizard of Oz; Michelle Yeoh plays Madame Morrible; Jonathan Bailey as Fiyero; Ethan Slater as Boq; and Marissa Bode as Elphaba’s sister, Nessarose.
About Bedford Playhouse: Bedford Playhouse is at 633 Old Post Road, Bedford, NY. https://bedfordplayhouse.org/
Reach Peter D. Kramer at [email protected].
This post was originally published on here
