There are flying monkeys and a giant dragon as the curtain in Wicked rises - so you're never in any doubt that Joe Mantello's production of this musical prequel to 'The Wizard of Oz' will deliver fantastical spectacle. What's more surprising is its intelligence and ambition.

Wicked's point of departure is the relationship between green-skinned social outcast Elphaba (Rachel Tucker) and pert, popular blonde Glinda (Louise Dearman), at Oz's elite Shiz University. But though the exploration of school-yard ostracism of the unconventional and unpretty is the initial hook, Winnie Holzman's book and Stephen Schwartz's score and lyrics, based on Gregory Maguire's novel, are concerned with more pernicious kinds of prejudice.

For revilement of Elphaba's skin colour, read racism; and it's her protests against the oppressive regime that see her defamed as the Wicked Witch of the West. There's also, in an Oz ruled by a despotic Wizard (Clive Carter), an underclass of sapient animals, forbidden, like dangerous dissidents, to use their power of human speech.

It's exhilarating to see hefty themes tackled in a barnstorming piece of popular entertainment. And the parallels to the far less rewarding original story of Dorothy and her friends are handled with sparkling wit.

Time Out, 2011

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