★★★☆☆ A concert that doesn’t defy gravity but has moments of magic.

Concert Hall, Sydney Opera House
July 15, 2016

Given the phenomenal success of Stephen Schwartz’s 2003 musical Wicked, about the witches of Oz, you can see why Working Arts Productions would create a concert for four of Australia’s leading ladies, each of whom has starred in the show.

Helen Dallimore played the popular, good witch Glinda in London in the original West End production. Lucy Durack played the same bubbly role in the original Australian production opposite Amanda Harrison and then Jemma Rix as the green-skinned “wicked” witch Elphaba. Rix also toured with the show to Asia and New Zealand. Witches brings them all together on stage for the first time, along with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and a four-piece band under the baton of musical director Kellie Dickerson, to perform a selection of repertoire loosely themed around witches, magic and mystery. Ben Lewis, who played the Phantom in the Australian production of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Love Never Dies and who is now based in London, joins them as guest artist.

The song list features numbers from musicals of stage and...