HALLIE EPHRON: When the movie WICKED opened, I couldn’t wait to read the reviews. I’d seen the play in New York. Loved it. The staging and singing of "Defying Gravity" makes it one of the most exciting moments I’ve ever witnessed on a stage, right up there with "Rose's Turn" in GYPSY. Or "One Day More" in LES MIS. Or "Why Do We Build the Wall" in HADESTOWN.
Every great musical has a great showstopper. Or several. There are at least two in WICKED. "Defying Gravity," in which Elphaba literally takes off from the stage, is breathtaking. Much lighter but just as memorable is Glinda’s lesson for Elphaba on how to be "Popular."
Some audience members at early screenings of WICKED loved those numbers so much that they sang along. Because, seriously, how can you not?
Reading about that, I was reminded of when I took my granddaughter to see the Broadway production of FROZEN. The audience was full of little girls in sparkly dresses… who were amazingly respectful during Elsa's show-stopping number, "Let It Go," and did not sing along. Though I would have been tempted to join them if they'd given me some cover.
Apparently not everyone in WICKED’s movie theatre audience was enamored of the singalong. But those who run the movie theatres are no dopes. Smelling an opportunity theaters are scheduling special singalong showings while prohibiting the audience from singing along otherwise (though I wonder how they’re enforcing that.)
So where are you, thumbs up or thumbs down on audience singalongs? What are the "showstoppers" that you remember. And is there a showstopping number that you can’t help but sing along with, even if it’s under your breath?
