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Geen Grenzen Meer: An American Musical's Unlimited Border Crossing1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 September 2014

LAURA MACDONALD  and
MYRTE HALMAN
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Abstract

Since its 2003 Broadway debut, Wicked's international audiences have embraced productions of the musical in a variety of countries. Wicked has thus conquered the world with its ideological framework of American values, as much as with its story of friendship between two young women. In transcending national borders, Wicked becomes a transnational commodity. We interview Dutch actress Willemijn Verkaik, who discusses her multiple, multilingual and transnational performances as Elphaba in Wicked, and analyse Dutch–American relations and the Netherlands’ lasting role as cultural middleman, suggesting that Verkaik's multinational Elphabas, constructed through a Dutch filter, make her a cultural diplomat, one consistent with the Netherlands’ larger role since the Pilgrims migrated there prior to crossing the Atlantic. The pilgrimages made by the actress, as well as by her international fan base, offer insight into Wicked's powerful position in constructing identities and communities that may no longer be bound by borders.

Type
Articles
Information
Theatre Research International , Volume 39 , Issue 3: Theatre Research International and Theatre Survey , October 2014 , pp. 198 - 216
Copyright
Copyright © International Federation for Theatre Research 2014 

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References

NOTES

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51 Verkaik, interview, 29 November 2013.

52 Ibid.

53 Wicked, AFAS Circustheater, Scheveningen, 11 January 2013.

54 Wicked, Gershwin Theatre, New York City, 14 February 2013.

55 Wicked, Metronom Theater, Oberhausen, 20 November 2010.

56 ‘New London Cast from 18 November 2013’, Wicked – OFFICIAL UK & Ireland Website, last accessed 23 May 2014, at www.wickedthemusical.co.uk/readnews.asp?id=92wkd

57 Verkaik, interview, 29 November 2013.

58 Ibid.

59 Ibid.

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61 Verkaik, interview, 29 November 2013.

62 Wicked, AFAS Circustheater, Scheveningen, 11 January 2013.

63 Kennedy, Dennis, The Spectator and the Spectacle: Audiences in Modernity and Postmodernity (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011), p. 132Google Scholar.

64 Savran, ‘Trafficking in Transnational Brands’ (forthcoming).

65 Verkaik, interview, 29 November 2013.