By Aisling Phillips

Spend One Short Day with the citizens of Oz and, by the end of it, you too will feel like Defying Gravity as the hit musical sensation that is Wicked lands in the Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff.

Based on the novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire, the show unfolds the story of the witches of Oz long before Dorothy dropped into Munchkinland. Prickly, green-skinned Elphaba Thropp and prim rich girl Galinda Upland (later Glinda) become unwilling roommates at Shiz University, and whilst at first they absolutely loathe one another, they soon forge an unlikely friendship. However their new-found liking for one another is destined to be pushed to the limits by love, greed, betrayal, power, corruption and the question of just what it is that makes a person truly Wicked.

Far from being the Oz of whimsical colour and delight remembered from the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz, the show instead presents a land in which darker secrets underlie the supposed tranquillity of illusions created by the Wizard, the idol who gives the people something they want to believe in, and Madame Morrible, the Headmistress of Shiz whose motivations are sinister to say the least. However beneath this serious exterior, there is also fun and frivolity as well as the constant Disney-esque reminder that we should always accept people no matter how different they appear on the surface.

Emily Tierney breathes life into a Glinda who takes time in learning to earn her reputation as the Good Witch of the North, whilst Nikki Davis-Jones gives a positively emerald performance as the Elphaba that all audiences can fall in love with. Other cast members include Liam Doyle as Fiyero the Winkie Prince, Marilyn Cutts as Madame Morrible, Dale Rapley as the Wonderful Wizard/Doctor Dillamond, Carina Gillespie as Nessarose, aka the Wicked Witch of the East and George Ure as the Munchkin Boq. And, while some parts of the show, such as Glinda’s questionable wardrobe choices (for details see the opening of Act 2) may come across as somewhat flimsy, the quality of the singing, dancing and acting of the cast, plus the stunning production design, more than make up for it in what is indeed, to use an unfortunately unavoidable pun, a truly wicked performance!

Wicked runs until Saturday, April 26 at Wales Millennium Centre. To book, visit wmc.org.uk or call the box office on 029 2063 6464