OFF TO SEE ‘WICKED’
The national tour presents the first autism-friendly show
A dragon’s glowing red eyes stare out at the audience from high above the stage of “Wicked,” and that’s just for starters. The spectacle that is “Wicked” is filled with bells and whistles and one of musical theater’s most high-octane end-of-act-one songs, “Defying Gravity,” when the electric green Wicked Witch becomes airborne and raises her voice to the rafters.
And then there’s the giant mechanical Wizard head.The Stephen Schwartz-Winnie Holzman musical is stirring and unsettling, whimsical and cynical, and a reimagining of multiple source materials: L. Frank Baum’s beloved children’s books and “The Wizard of Oz” movie and the adult novel “Wicked” by Gregory Maguire.
When the show returns to the Benedum Center, Downtown, for the fourth time Wednesday through Feb. 11, one performance will be for a previously forgotten audience that in recent years has been invited into the live-theater experience. At 2 p.m. Feb. 3, the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust will present the first autism-friendly performance of “Wicked” outside of Broadway.
The audience for that Saturday matinee will comprise families and friends with children or adults who have been diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder or other sensitivities.
The Broadway company has twice performed for audiences with sensory sensitivities and plans a third performance in February. The tour will follow the lead from New York, where “they lowered the overall decibel level and made 14 alterations but have not cut the length of any scenes,” said Vanessa Braun, the assistant director of accessibility for the Trust.
The performance will feature reduced jarring sounds or harsh lights focused into the audience, and the “judgment-free environment” will include staffed quiet areas and play areas in the lobby before and during the performance. Trained volunteers will provideaudience support.
The Benedum previously was the venue for an autism-friendly
showing of “The Lion King.”
“The largest takeaway from ‘ The Lion King’ was, while there was great appreciation for everything onstage, such a huge part of it was the reaction when everyone walked in the door to big smiles and no judgments,” Ms. Braun said.
The rules of theater etiquette — such as staying in your seat or waiting until after a song to clap — did not apply.
The message was clearly, “Come and be who you are and enjoy the show.”
It was the Trust that proposed being a pioneer for the “Wicked” tour’s autismfriendly show. The organization bought out the house and is offering the seats at deep discounts.
“We do that because we recognize that Broadway is expensive, and doing a show like this for this particular audience with sensory sensitivities, we find often one parent has to stay home,” Ms. Braun said. “We want it to be financially reasonable and make it as available as possible.”
She noted that other Pittsburgh Cultural District residents — the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre — also have offered sensoryfriendly performances available to the whole community. Bricolage Productions created “Welcome to Here,” a new work for children with autism spectrum disorder and their families that was commissioned by the EQT Children’s Theater Festival and debuted in 2016. And a relative newcomer on the scene, Stephen Santa’s Jumping Jack Theater, is a children’s theater production company that creates originalworks for audiences that would benefit from sensory and autism-friendly strategies.
“Our city is being seen nationally as a leader in these type of performances, because we are offering a menu of options to a group that otherwise would not have the opportunity to experience live theater,” Ms. Braunsaid.
The Trust will follow the Broadway lead on its “Wicked” events page and other social media platforms in providing a preparatory “social story” of the show, with pictures of the theater and the production, as well as a character guide and guide to attending the theater.
In addition, New York’s “Wicked” web materials noted that Oz’s Flying Monkeys — which have frightened many a child watching the film version of “The Wizard of Oz” — are in positions close to audience members “Wicked’s” YouTube Channel includes a video on what makes the Flying Monkeys tick, from costume to character, as a possible preshow reference.
“Wicked” is the origin story of the Wicked Witch of the West and Glinda the Good. It’s also about accepting people for what they are — green, blond, whatever. It’s also about a leader who hides behind curtains of power, his enablers, and how together they scapegoat innocent populations.
As fairy tales go, this one is bolstered by its proximity to the well-known world of Oz. Plus, there’s the story of teenage girls from different worlds who find their way to friendship and understanding, a relatable love triangle and a brew of light and dark songs that has resonated with all ages and launched companiesworldwide. And coming soon in Pittsburgh, there’s a new audience being given the chance to say they’re off to see “Wicked.”