WICKED WIZARDRY SOARS INTO SPOKANE

THEATER

SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES

Broadway favorite Wicked returns to Spokane, with a longtime fan in her dream role of Elphaba

BY MADISON PEARSON

Wicked is iconic, one of the most well-known, recognizable and downright spectacular shows to ever grace stages around the world — whether musical theater is your jam or not. This retelling of a Gregory Maguire novel of the same name has a humorous, politically poignant script that’s accompanied by roaring compositions by Stephen Schwartz.

Wicked is a continuation of the beloved tale The Wizard of Oz, starting from the moment Glinda (the Good Witch) announces to the people of Oz that the Wicked Witch has melted. Glinda goes on to tell the story of the history of the Wicked Witch, using her given name Elphaba: how she was born with green skin, making her an outsider her entire life; how her and Elphaba attended school together; and, how they worked together, despite being a pair of unlikely friends, to take down the corrupt government of Oz.

The original production of Wicked premiered on Broadway in 2003 and became an instant hit, winning a Tony Award for Best Musical as well as a Grammy. Wicked has been touring nationally since 2005, making stops in Spokane twice before, in 2011 and 2014. Now it’s returning for 24 shows running March 9 to 27.

Many young performers dream of playing a role in the show, from the intensely sweet Glinda to the fiery Nessarose. However, one role is highly coveted among musical theater performers: Elphaba. The role requires vocal agility and the skill to pull off a changing personality — a harmonious blend between subdued and wildly passionate.

As the main character of the show, Elphaba is a dynamic role that teaches young people to pursue their dreams, no matter how wild. Literally teaching them to rise above, fly and defy the odds of what society believes is possible. The role was originated by Idina Menzel in 2003 alongside Kristen Chenoweth as her counterpart, Glinda, and is now being played in theaters all over the U.S. by Talia Suskauer.

The latest national tour of Wicked was interrupted in 2020 when theaters across the country closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, giving Suskauer six months to portray Elphaba, rather than the usual year, before the show went on hiatus.

“Now we’re back on the road and in cities for up to six weeks at a time,” she says. “I love to explore the cities, find the best coffee shops and restaurants by talking to all of the locals. It guarantees a great stint in a city.”

Suskauer grew up in South Florida, attending both a middle school and a high school for the arts. Her love for theater was always apparent, but it wasn’t until 2005 when she envisioned herself portraying Elphaba.

Talia Suskauer embraces her inner witch in Wicked. JOAN MARCUS PHOTO

HOME OF THE SPOKANE SYMPHONY THE FOX THEATER

Spokane Symphony Masterworks THE GENESIS OF THE SPOKANE SYMPHONY James Lowe, conductor • Archie Chen, piano Sat, March 5, 8pm • Sun., March 6, 3pm Emporium Presents STRAIGHT NO CHASER BACK IN THE HIGH LIFE TOUR 2022 Mon., March 7, 7:30pm

WHITWORTH WIND SYMPHONY: WIND CURRENTS 2022 with special guests Lewis & Clark High School Wind Ensemble & Ferris High School Wind Ensemble Mon., March 14, 7:30pm Free Admission

Spokane Symphony CARMINA BURANA James Lowe, conductor • Dawn Wolski, soprano Aaron Agulay, baritone • Christopher Pfund, tenor Spokane Symphony Chorale Sat., March 19, 8pm Spokane Youth Symphony REJOICE IN ARTISTRY Sun., March 20, 4pm JULIA SWEENEY: OLDER AND WIDER – LIVE TAPING Sat., March 26, 4pm and 8pm Presented by DDA THE GLENN MILLER ORCHESTRA Wed., March 30, 7pm

#IMOMSOHARD: THE GETAWAY TOUR Sun., April 3, 7pm Presented by Whitworth University Music Department MARIA SCHNEIDER WITH THE WITHWORTH JAZZ ENSEMBLE Sat., April 9, 8pm Fox Presents NAPOLEON DYNAMITE: THE FILM & A CONVERSATION WITH THE STARS! Sat., April 16, 7:30pm

THE FILM AND A CONVERSATION WITH JON HEDER “NAPOLEON” and EFREN RAMIREZ “PEDRO”

APRIL 16

7:30pm

Fox Presents

Box Office 624-1200

SpokaneSymphony.org • FoxTheaterSpokane.org

“SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES,” CONTINUED...

Talia Suskauer (left) and Allison Bailey as Elphaba and Glinda. JOAN MARCUS PHOTO

“I went to New York City with my mom and my sister then,” she says. “We saw Wicked and I remember it so vividly: Elphaba was played by Shoshanna Bean. That’s when it became my dream role. I’ve always dreamed of portraying her onstage.”

After graduating from Penn State with her BFA in musical theater, Suskauer joined the original off-Broadway run of Be More Chill and followed it to the Lyceum Theatre once it officially opened on Broadway in March 2019. Just a few months later after Be More Chill closed, Suskauer found herself painted green and performing her first show as Elphaba, like she had always pictured. This didn’t come without worry. Suskauer had dreamed of this role since age 7, and she felt the immense pressure to portray Elphaba in the right way.

“It’s an honor and an important mission for me,” she says. “I want to play and represent her well and fully. I get to bring this iconic character, that everyone knows and loves, to a different light, and I don’t take it lightly.”

Most of Wicked’s grandiose numbers are Elphaba’s alone: “The Wizard and I,” “No Good Deed” and, most importantly, “Defying Gravity.” All signify huge turning points in the show and have become legendary musical theater classics.

“It’s cliche,” she says, “but ‘Defying Gravity’ is my favorite song to perform. Every Elphaba puts their own spin on it. My mission is to sing the lyrics and kind of just say what they mean.”

The lyrics of the musical’s signature song are impactful, showing Elphaba’s defiance of social categorization and her acceptance of her outsider status — the motifs scattered throughout the score by Schwartz come to a head and Elphaba is lifted up above the stage, showing the audience that she is now, truly, the Wicked Witch of the West.

“Every night I get to perform with this amazing cast,” she says. “People who I consider my family. And every night that I step into her boots is an important journey that I get to take.” n

BROADWAY IN SPOKANE 2022-23

The STCU Best of Broadway new season was announced this week, and while there are more special engagements expected, here’s the season as it looks right now:  Hadestown, July 5-10  Hairspray, Sept. 20-25  Ain’t Too Proud: The Life and Times of the Temptations, Jan. 17-22, 2023  Dear Evan Hanson, March 14-19, 2023  Disney’s Aladdin, June 27-July 2, 2023 Renewals for current season-ticket holders starts March 1. New season tickets available starting March 5. Single ticket sales will open for season-ticket holders April 14. And single tickets will go on sale to the public April 29. (DAN NAILEN)

Wicked • March 9-27; Tue-Fri at 7:30 pm, Sat at 2 and 7:30 pm, Sun at 1 and 6:30 pm • $54-$153 • First Interstate Center for the Arts • 334 W. Spokane Falls Blvd. • 509-279-7000

CULTURE | CLASSICAL Back to the Beginning

For next concert, the Spokane Symphony celebrates 75-plus years by plucking from its archives

BY E.J. IANNELLI

On Dec. 18, 1945, barely three months after the formal end of World War II, the Spokane Philharmonic Orchestra took the stage of the Masonic Temple Auditorium for the first concert in its inaugural season. Conductor Harold Paul Whelan raised his baton and led the 72 musicians in a performance of the overture to Christoph Gluck’s Iphigeneia in Aulis. Drawing on the mythologized prelude to the Trojan War, Gluck’s opera asks if the price of honor can ever be too great.

The philharmonic was the precursor of today’s Spokane Symphony Orchestra, and Whelan, then a recent Spokane transplant, is credited as being the prime mover in its creation. For the next 17 years, he would work to guide the organization through some fairly rocky periods — including the one that resulted in the change to its current name in 1961.

During his research for The Sound of Spokane, a chronicle of the Spokane Symphony’s origins and evolution, historian Jim Kershner encountered plenty of drama on a par with the ancient Greek epics.

“There were mutinies against conductors, there were strikes and various other labor conflicts,” he says. One infamous incident in the 1980s relegated the orchestra to being the backing band to a kazoo novelty act. A smoldering showdown of wills played out onstage between musical director Donald Thulean and concertmaster Kelly Farris.

“But, on the other hand, there were all these really high moments. They did things that symphonies of this size usually don’t get to do. They did world premieres by well-known composers, and some of the most famous names in classical music history have played with the symphony.”

Rattling off like names like Itzhak Perlman, Ella Fitzgerald, Thomas Hampson and Claudio Arrau, Kershner makes special mention of Gunther Schuller, a titan of the jazz and classical music worlds, who led the Spokane Symphony in the aftermath of the Kazoophony debacle.

With its official 75th anniversary season derailed by the pandemic, the Spokane Symphony is belatedly celebrating that rich history in this weekend’s Masterworks concert. Titled “The Genesis of the SSO,” the first piece on the program is, fittingly, Gluck’s Iphigeneia in Aulis overture.

“Seventy-six years ago, these are the very first notes that the audience would have heard from the Spokane Symphony,” says Music Director James Lowe. “We simply had to open with that.”

Aside from its symbolic value, one of the benefits of an archival program is that it gives lesser-known works a chance to step back into the spotlight.

“Tastes change. Composers come in and out of vogue. Iphigeneia in Aulis is not an unpopular opera, but this overture really has fallen out of favor a bit. Opera based on mythology always is a bit of a harder sell nowadays,” Lowe says. “It’s a piece I’ve never done before and never programmed before, so for me it’s quite nice to reconnect with a work that I wouldn’t have looked at otherwise.”

The other three pieces on this Masterworks program come from a later concert in the symphony’s debut season. Robert Schumann’s piano concerto — his only work in that format — will be performed by Spokane’s own Archie Chen. The guest soloist sees uncanny parallels between his life and that of the 19th-century Romantic composer, who suffered for the last part of his life from what is now assumed to be bipolar disorder.

“Schumann was married to a pianist, and it’s the same thing for me with my wife, Rhona. We work together as a team, and she was with me during my illness with COVID when I was in the ICU for 10 days back in August and almost died. My wife has been there for me like Clara Schumann was for Robert,” Chen says. Clara is honored in the concerto itself with a note progression that spells out her nickname.

Another work is George Frederick McKay’s Suite on Fiddler’s Themes. McKay was raised in Spokane in the early part of the 20th century and went on to enjoy a distinguished career in music, although he, like Gluck, found himself at times on the wrong side of fashion.

“There”s an entire treasure trove of music by McKay, and this orchestra performed a lot of it beginning with Whelan,” Lowe says. “He’s one of those unfortunate composers who spanned high modernism but never went down that route. He didn’t really embrace the post-tonal. He wrote wonderful, fantastic music, and rediscovering that with [McKay’s] son Fred has been a real joy.”

The finale of this retrospective program is Dvořák’s Symphony No. 8, a relatively brief work for its kind that still manages to encompass dramatic shifts in moods and musical motifs.

“The very opening starts with this rather melancholy tune in the cellos and horns, and then there’s this birdsong in the flutes and suddenly it turns happy. It’s a symphony that conceals its art incredibly well. It sounds almost like a parade of very nice tunes and beautiful moments, but it’s structured really tight.” n

Spokane pianist Archie Chen survived a COVID scare to perform with the Spokane Symphony this weekend.

Spokane Symphony Masterworks 6: The Genesis of the SSO • Sat, March 5 at 8 pm; Sun, March 6 at 3 pm • $19-$62 • Martin Woldson Theater at The Fox • 1001 W. Sprague Ave. • spokanesymphony.org • 624-1200

MARCH 3, 2022 INLANDER 21

Bel-Air: Turns out taking the jokes out of the Fresh Prince was a bad idea.

DOES SOMETHING STINK?

The six worst new series of 2022

BY BILL FROST

So far, 2022 has cranked out some decent new TV: Inventing Anna, Severance, Pam & Tommy, Peacemaker, Single Drunk Female, The Afterparty, even The Woman in the House Across the Street from the Girl in the Window, whatever the hell that was. Another year locked in the house is shaping up nicely.

They can’t all be gems, however. Here are six of the worst new TV series that have premiered in 2022 — avoid them at all costs (if they haven’t already been canceled).

ADULTS ADOPTING ADULTS (A&E)

It’s all right there in the title: Adults Adopting Adults, though The Real Sex Prisoners of Ohio would have been more accurate. AAA was canceled after three episodes in February because a 59-year-old adoptive “dad” was oozing severe creeper vibes toward his new 20-year-old “daughter” (who was also pregnant, BTW). A&E says Adults Adopting Adults was canceled due to low ratings but didn’t confirm if the unaired seven episodes would be sold to PornHub’s Daddy Issues channel.

HOW I MET YOUR FATHER (HULU)

How I Met Your Mother (CBS, 2005–14) is one of the ultimate “Not as Good as You Remember” sitcoms, a flaccid Friends clone that had eight years to come up with a series finale but blew it worse than The Sopranos, Lost, and Russia’s Ukraine invasion combined. This year’s How I Met Your Father, starring Hilary Duff, is at least more racially diverse (you know, like New York), but may as well have been called Lizzy McGuire Gets Laid. Naturally, Hulu is making Season 2.

GOOD SAM (CBS, PARAMOUNT+) A family drama built on the minutiae of hospital hierarchy? No wonder CBS hasn’t launched a successful midseason series since Airwolf. Good Sam is Dr. Samantha Griffith (Sophia Bush), a heart surgeon who’s elevated to hospital chief when her boss/father (Jason Isaacs) falls into a coma because that’s how it works. Then dickish Dr. Dad wakes up and now has to answer to his daughter — oh, what a pickle! There’s still time to reboot this as a laugh-tracked sitcom, CBS.

BEL-AIR (PEACOCK) All the money NBC wasted on Super Bowl promos for Bel-Air would have been better spent on cash drops over random American cities with “Please watch this shit!” notes paperclipped to the bills. Since you haven’t been paid to watch it, Bel-Air is a “dramatic reimagining” of ’90s comedy The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, wherein Philly kid Will moves in with his rich relatives in Los Angeles. This serious take seriously sucks, and not just because Carlton is now a Xanax junkie.

ASTRID & LILLY

SAVE THE WORLD (SYFY)

Teen outcasts Astrid (Jana Morrison) and Lilly (Samantha Aucoin) accidentally open a door to a demon portal, and now it’s up to them to protect their town (and, as per the title, the world) from the unleashed monsters. Some critics have called Astrid & Lilly Save the World a worthy successor to Buffy the Vampire Slayer; this critic says 2016 British horror-comedy Crazyhead did it better, smarter and funnier. Watch the one and only season of that on Netflix, instead.

FAIRVIEW (COMEDY CENTRAL) For almost every new season of South Park, Comedy Central attempts to produce a new animated series to pair it with — anyone remember Brickleberry? Legends of Chamberlain Heights? Jeff & Some Aliens? Garbage. The new Fairview at least tries to be topical on current news and cultural shifts, so that’s … also garbage. It comes from the same smugsters who make Tooning Out the News, a Showtime series so insufferable it makes Pod Save America seem subtle. n

THE BUZZ BIN

INSANELY GOOD

“How can a show based on a video game (League of Legends) be this good?” is a question I and other equally mind-blown watchers of the Netflix animated show ARCANE keep coming back to. Audiences don’t have to know a thing about League of Legends, the team-based battle game Arcane is spun off from. The show was unmistakably made with great care to every detail; Arcane boasts gorgeous, painterly style animations, masterful storytelling and voice acting, and a cast of believable, real characters. Their trials and triumphs in a world strictly divided by wealth and poverty grab you by the collar and keep your attention until the last second of its nine-episode first season. It’s got a killer soundtrack to boot, and season two is, thankfully, already in the works. (CHEY SCOTT)

RAGING WITH THE MACHINE

Florence Welch harnesses more power in the few inches of her vocal chords than us mere mortals possess in our entire beings. She wields this might to full effect on the new FLORENCE AND THE MACHINE single “King.” A grand anthem that blends a defiant refusal to be defined merely by her womanly definitions and mythic metaphors, the song instantly feels like it’ll be transcendent in an arena or festival setting. Director Autumn de Wilde (who made 2020’s criminally underrated Emma.) helms the music video that matches the song’s stunning nature, where a witchy and cloaked Welch floats around feral dancers, levitates orchestras, and snaps necks. It’s literal king shit. (SETH SOMMERFELD)

THIS WEEK’S PLAYLIST

Noteworthy new music arriving in stores and online March 4:

BAND OF HORSES, Things Are Great. We are entering a golden age of sarcastic album titles. Band of Horses contributes to that milieu while bringing some softly swaying indie rock on the band’s first LP in five years. DOLLY PARTON, Run, Rose, Run. The icon’s 48th album serves as an audio companion to her new co-authored novel of the same name, which follows an up-and-coming singer-songwriter trying to make it in Nashville. Write what you know, they say. THE WEATHER STATION, How Is It That I Should Look at the Stars. Fresh on the heels of making one of 2021’s best albums (Ignorance), the Weather Station returns with more lush, thoughtful and ultra-composed modern folk tunes. (SETH SOMMERFELD)

INLANDER RESTAURANT WEEK

MEET YOUR CHEF: Andrew Blakely

Vieux Carré NOLA Kitchen’s new executive chef reflects on cooking, his relationships with fellow local chefs and more

BY CARRIE SCOZZARO

The rigor and camaraderie of the kitchen appeals to Andrew Blakely, who worked his way up from the dish pit in a series of kitchen jobs beginning in Virginia, where he was raised. Blakely had a hankering to come west, however, and ended up in Salt Lake City considering college for biology. But he felt more at home in the kitchen, DON’T MISS IT! where he proved himself worthy of increasInlander Restaurant Week 2022 ing responsibility. In continues through Saturday, 2015 he and a friend March 5. Find all the participat- relocated Spokane ing restaurants and their three- to pursue becoming course menus for $22, $33 or $44 chefs, where both at InlanderRestaurantWeek.com. have thrived. INLANDER: How do you challenge yourself to stay creative in the kitchen?

BLAKELY: For me it comes from just fully immersing myself in the kitchen. I’m very hands-on with everything I do, right down to making sure the dish pit is clear. I’ll look at pans and think about what can fit in there. Having over-the-top dishes that have 10 components in them isn’t appealing to me, but if I can take something and just make it right, do it justice, that’s what is most important to me. What kinds of places do you look for when you dine out – what excites you?

I love simple food. The place that I frequent the most out of any restaurant in Spokane is Yards [Bruncheon]. I love how the menu is just unapologetic. If I wanted good eggs benedict and biscuits and gravy, I’m all over it.

Who are your culinary heroes or biggest influences, and why?

I don’t want to be cliché and while these people are still important to me – Anthony Bourdain, Sean Brock, people like that – I think the most important people in my life and people I look up to are people I worked with personally.

Darrin Gleason, the head chef [and co-owner] at Republic Pi – I love that man. He’s very patient. He was the first person [in Spokane] who gave me an opportunity to become a chef.

Taylor Rainwater [Blakely’s friend and head chef at Casper Fry] is another one. He’s one of the only people I can banter with about food.

Jeana Pecha [Vieux Carré’s former executive chef, who’s departing for an opportunity to create her own venue in California]. Working with her and just being able to crank out menus and just stretch what we’re able to do. Chef Andrew Blakely is featuring the above barbeque-and-blue fried oysters for Vieux Carré’s Inlander Restaurant Week menu. ALYSSA HUGHES PHOTOS

What are your thoughts on Inlander Restaurant Week, and what are you most looking forward to during this year’s event?

I really enjoy getting together and the camaraderie. I think the biggest thing for me is being able to take away that I did good, that we did so much business, and we prepped enough, and we were able to take care of this. It feels good at the end of the night.

What is the most important thing you’ve learned since the start of the pandemic in relation to the hospitality industry?

I feel like restaurants are getting busier and busier and more understaffed. And it’s changed the culture of cooking. The amount that we’re able to get done now, the way we push ourselves is so much more severe than what I remember doing a few years ago. We’re putting in long hours and figuring out a way to multitask in a way I never saw myself doing.

Looking into the future, how do you think the industry will permanently shift because of the pandemic?

It’s been tough, but it shapes a new kind of cook, I think — one that’s more malleable and someone [who] is more receptive to taking on a bigger load. And I think that’s really cool. n