Laura Pick - Defying Gravity - 13/01/24Mat

2023-25 UK/Ireland Tour

[@Music712-ir8gd]

Laura sounds absolutely GLORIOUS. 😍

[@justiceeeeeeee]

u being fr?

[@shelleyanne3242]

Laura Pick you were the best Elphaba for me 🎉❤

[@renesmee260594]

This was the first version of the musical I saw and honestly she was absolutely amazing her voice is so beautiful at this point I think I was holding my breath but boy did she deliver!

[@renesmee260594]

I saw it end of Jan

[@mitchell104]

The horns have FINALLY made it into the UK 0:32 😭

[@peternealbrown]

Brilliant

[@evancarlson9329]

I’m glad she’s lead because we can compare what she’s had to eliminate from her tour rendition because of the timing

[@smokeandmirrors7450]

That's a ridiculous speed for the take off lines

[@mitchell104]

Because the orchestra is flyinggggg, poor thing is trying her best to make the cue

[@evancarlson9329]

One second per line

[@Ethanc5]

I’m presuming, she was maybe late to the lift and the orchestra hasn’t realised, therefore she’d just caught up to them?

[@bw9062]

Stop you know dam well this is the normal ​@@Ethanc5

[@robertmarsh3588]

Awesome. Just seen this twice in Bristol, once with Laura, once with Casey Al-Shaqsy. I preferred Laura's rendition though interestingly they went a little slower with Casey.
I don't get why there is just so much passion is about tempos, though I'm aware from my own musical related experience people tend to get used to a certain speed of performance. Interestingly, many orchestral compsers like Elgar often took performances of their own music quite fast...

[@bigbobshahaab]

This is literally the take off lines.. “itsnothershehasnothingtodowithitimtheoneyouwantitsme ITS MEE”

[@bigbobshahaab]

No hate btw, I love her voice heree!

[@AirTravel415]

this company was the same touring in Maniila in 2017, I noticed the flying portion was a bit fast and the clock numbers aren't flown out, this is likely an even scaled down version of the US 2NT.

[@CountryCowboy008]

Is she back?!?!?!? Last time I saw her was 2022 I think?

[@Scandisk10]

958 people have said, but I’ll say it again. Can someone explain the thought process behind the speed? Laura sounds incredible, but what is this?

[@mitchell104]

I just downloaded a metronome app and compared the section between "Tell them how I" and "match them in renown" and this version has a tempo of 165ish while MK's last that was just posted is about 152ish during the same section

[@ryandix2029]

It’s simply not that fast, and Tempos throughout the show would have been agreed on between the cast/crew and the MD during rehearsals. This is what works best for people in this production, it is what it is, it’s not worth obsessing over and I don’t understand why everyone is 😂 but hey, who am I to say so? Just my opinion on the matter. Faster or Slower tempos both have their own upsides and downsides when it comes to this song, and musical theatre numbers in general.

[@chrissciortino2921]

@@ryandix2029 I don’t think anyone’s upset, unless you’re conducting the UK tour there’s no point in complaining lol. I think what people are pointing out is the general accelerated tempos overall in the UK tour and international tour companies. 152 vs 165 bpm is enough to make a difference, especially when the ritardandos and rallentandos aren’t as drastic as they are on Broadway or in London. It can sound very different to the ear. Not bad, just different. Whether or not you like this is your own opinion, I think many are just wondering why this seems to be a distinct characteristic of the UK and international tours. Wicked is notorious for being strict and somewhat uniform when it comes to music supervision, so to have a tour running faster than any other company is just different. All that said, the orchestra, Laura, and the entire company sound great and to me that’s all that matters.

[@ryandix2029]

⁠​⁠@@chrissciortino2921Oh I’m not upset about anything at all 😊 I think that all productions of Wicked around the world look and sound fantastic with their respective and different choices made by cast/crew/creative team. To me, nothing sounds that different here to anywhere else. And over the years every production of wicked around the world has had tempos on the faster side at some point in their run. Broadway in the late 2000’s for example. The first Australian production in 2009 may have even been faster than this. And it too sounded fantastic. I just didn’t understand the sudden obsession with it in the first place, especially when some have used less than kind language in general across these videos, to make their point about their dislike of it. People see comments, including performers and musical directors, and the last thing anyone needs is to see their hard work being talked about rudely. To reiterate - nothing about the original comment in this thread is rude or unkind, but there have been many unkind comments since the tour opened. And videos/audios are not the most accurate portrayals of the nuances in how things sound or look for any live event.

[@georgiomichalakis7904]

I always thought it was more to do with the technical side of things to make the scene look similar to the og productions in Broadway and The west end. What I mean by this is the lift prop that elphaba gets in may not go as high the one in say London or New York, so by having the temp a bit faster means she is at the correct height at specific place in the song. Was just my thought process but could be completely wrong lol,

[@justiceeeeeeee]

somone be gettin fierd

[@ShaneMcFerran_]

Why does she smoosh all her words together? It makes it hard to understand

[@bigbobshahaab]

Probs because the orchestra is going too fast for her to take her time..

[@Fw.Flynn123]

@@bigbobshahaabthe orchestra in the tour are not the best and are very quick in loads of performances, when I went I saw Maddison firth I think she’s the cover and I’m pretty sure it was her debut and the orchestra was very fast, in the west end they are much better in my opinion

[@DanielJosephBaker]

Omg this is sped up way to much. The MD needs to take the orchestra lol

[@mathshascalculus725]

As much as I agree that the orchestra is going way too fast (I do like the speed for some parts but no ritardando for the „and nobody…“ part???), I LOVE the drummer and whatever they’re doing

[@bigbobshahaab]

Ik the speed is a important matter but can we talk about how for the whole song the effects are basically the same? The lights dont have any taste, its blue on the stage for literally the whole song, like the battle cry..

[@justiceeeeeeee]

that’s bs

[@joshuaquinn8038]

Someone is getting fired lmao. 😂

[@veraelphie0306]

I'm gonna come out here and say it: the speed ruins Laura's acting. They're rushing her so much that she's having trouble staying in character. And normally, I LOVE Laura's interpretation. She still is doing a good job nonetheless, but she's literally defying the orchestra. Kind of like Idina's Tony's performance except it's worse and it's a whole production

[@BOWYERD999555]

Gotta be honest, if it was my first time watching, I wouldn’t have a clue what half of those words were. It doesn’t even sound English at points. The vowel sounds are odd and she’s smashing too many words and syllables together.

[@BOWYERD999555]

Soooefyeeceeeerdafeeeendme = ‘so if you care to find me..’ like? I love Laura’s voice but her phrasing choices recently are very confusing 😂

[@catsdad2662]

​@@BOWYERD999555I look forward to your rendition on the stage ..it's going to be epic. Apparently 🙄

[@BOWYERD999555]

@@catsdad2662 hey.. not once did I imply I could do better.. just an observation that if I didn’t know the words to the song already and it was my first time seeing the show, I wouldn’t understand the lyrics due to Laura’s phrasing here. I’ve heard her do better and I think it’s mainly due to the speed of the orchestra in this particular recording. Laura is amazing as I’ve said above. Her phrasing is just off here compared to when she was in the west end. Thanks for your comment, although it was irrespective of anything I said haha

[@bigbobshahaab]

@@BOWYERD999555hasnt she always kind of had that? look back at her west end run thats kind of been implemented there