Smith Center supporters get little taste of ‘Wicked’

Impatience is a virtue.

Or so it was Tuesday night when two stars of the "Wicked" national tour -- two years before the full company arrives in Las Vegas -- gave a glimpse of Broadway's bewitching hit to select Las Vegans.

Held at the Lou Ruvo Brain Institute downtown and sponsored by the Smith Center for the Performing Arts, the evening was a thank-you event for about 400 donors and supporters involved with the center.

"This is to say to our friends that our project is for real," said Smith Center President Myron Martin outside the institute, with the in-construction, approximately $500 million center rising behind it. Martin added that the center is "58 percent complete," on budget and on-target for a spring 2012 unveiling. "What better way to prove it than with 'Wicked'?"

Announced earlier this month in the Review-Journal, "Wicked" will christen the center's "Broadway series," arriving for a six-week run, eight performances each week, in the 2,050-seat Reynolds Hall on Aug. 29-Oct. 7, 2012.

"We have 85 markets on the tour, and I will have done an event at every one, but this is more interesting than most because it is the first blockbuster to come to this building," said "Wicked" producer David Stone, who addressed the crowd with Martin.

"I believe 90 percent of the audience will be locals, and that's why we're doing it, for people who haven't been to Los Angeles or San Francisco or Tempe to see it."

Broadway's top draw for six years, with seven tours, as well as "sit-down" engagements in cities worldwide, "Wicked" debuted in 2003, was named best musical of the decade by Entertainment Weekly and in May became Broadway's 18th-longest-running show, surpassing "My Fair Lady."

The show is based on Gregory Maguire's "Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West," a parallel novel of the 1939 film classic "The Wizard of Oz." The show features music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz, who spoke to the crowd in a taped video message.

"Wicked" begins before Dorothy's arrival from Kansas and charts the bumpy but growing friendship between Galinda (later Glinda), the future Good Witch of the North, and Elphaba, the black-clad, green-hued Wicked Witch of the West-to-be.

After Martin and Stone's presentation -- and backed by a hanging map of the Land of Oz anchored by the Emerald City -- two tour stars performed a couple of "Wicked" tunes with hand mics and out of costume, providing a taste of the score.

"I wore a green smock, my homage to Elphaba," said Teal Wicks, who portrayed the character in the Los Angeles and San Francisco companies. "You'd have to give us an extra 45 minutes to get the full garb on."

Wicks performed the solo number "The Wizard and I," then teamed with Annaleigh Ashford (Galinda) on "For Good," a touching tune about the bond between the witches.

"What we're doing with a preview show here is pretty rare," said Ashford, who performed in "Wicked" on Broadway and in the Chicago company. "It's rare to have the producer of an enormous show like this in a city two years before."

The Smith Center is named for former Review-Journal executive Fred. W. Smith -- who attended Tuesday's event -- and for his late wife, Mary B. Smith.

Smith is chairman of the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation, principal donor of the center, which will house Reynolds Hall plus cabaret space, a black box theater, educational facilities and what is now the Lied Discovery Children's Museum.

As for its inaugural Broadway visitor, will it eventually make the stage-to-screen transition? "No one's in a rush, the show hasn't even hit its peak yet," Stone said. "But yes, there will be a movie."

Contact reporter Steve Bornfeld at sbornfeld@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0256.