ANYONE looking for a spectacle will certainly find it in Wicked, the untold story of the witches of Oz, running at the Bristol Hippodrome from now until March 21.

The production is lavish - the costumes are amazing, all the sets elaborate, the lighting incredible and the cast, particularly the two leading ladies, exceptionally talented and energetic. The whole show is a feast for the eyes.

Based on a novel by Gregory Maguire, the story is that of an innocent, compassionate and intelligent young child who grew up to be dangerous and feared by most right-thinking members of society.

Beneath the basic tale of a mis-treated and ill-favoured child run undercurrents of racisim and the Hitler’s final solution.

Elphaba, who later became The Wicked Witch of the West (Ashleigh Gray), was born with green skin and was rejected by her father, while her disabled sister is the apple of her father’s eye.

The two sisters are sent away to a school for sorcery and there Elphaba is shunned for the colour of her skin but eventually befriended by Glinda (Emily Tierney), the most popular girl in the school who goes on to become the good witch and benevolent ruler of the land of Oz.

Both witches sing beautifully and are totally convincing in their roles, as is the love-interest, the incredibly handsome but feckless Fiyero (Samuel Edwards), who comes good in the end.

Apart from Defying Gravity and For Good the songs in the show are unremarkable and unmemorable. Maybe that was just me but I couldn’t hear anyone humming the big number as we piled out of the packed theatre at the end of the evening.

The audience on Thursday’s opening night was composed of a majority of teenage girls and they quite obviously found the show entirely to their taste, with a standing ovation at the end.

I was not so sure. It was certainly a spectacular production but in my view more style than substance, but then I am not aged 13.

Skip Walker