Wicked - Jeff MacPherson
Jeff MacPherson's setup for the National Tour of Wicked.
Write-up and gear list below photos.
Jeff:
"When Wicked opened on Broadway in 2003 it was met with mixed critical reviews. Some critics panned it. But audiences didn’t care. They loved it. The proof? In 2016, Wicked surpassed $1 billion in total Broadway revenue, joining The Phantom of the Opera and The Lion King as the only Broadway shows to ever do so. Even today, some twenty-two years after its opening, audiences still flock to see Wicked. Last December, the Broadway production generated over $5 million in a single week. First time that’s ever been done. Globally, Wicked has amassed over $5 billion in revenue and has been seen by over 65 million people in over 100 cities in 16 countries.
Someday, someone should write a review of the critics. Wouldn’t that be interesting? Tears would flow and there would be much gnashing of teeth, I suspect.
The tour of which I’m a part hit the road in 2009. I joined in February 2025. Combined, my production and the Broadway production have accrued a cumulative total of thirty eight years’ worth of performances. And that doesn’t include London or the former first National tour and the now shuttered sit-down productions from Toronto, Chicago, San Francisco, and Los Angeles, not to mention all of the other productions from around the world. In twenty-two years, Wicked has grown to become a juggernaut of its genre with a track record of unrivaled success in an increasingly volatile and unforgiving industry. And now there’s a movie. Well.
When I got the call to join I felt a little apprehensive. Excited, but anxious. The show was notorious for being difficult to play and boasted a heavyweight roster of some of the greatest drummers from my end of the industry to have ever played a show. Drummers that didn’t just play Wicked, but killed it. What was I, as the new drummer, going to bring to Wicked that would fulfill the expectations of audiences and cast and crew and management, and of course, my colleagues and supervisors in the music department, as well? I decided to bring the only thing I could. Me. No pressure.
The inherent promise of programmatic music is simple: To provide a platform for the actor to convey a range of emotions and depth of feeling when mere dialogue or action are insufficient. This, of course, applies not only to actors, but to scenes as well. And while the promise is simple, the delivery of the promise is not so simple. Wicked is a big show. And its grandiosity is reflected in the music. Wide-ranging styles of music populate the story and help to introduce and establish the show’s characters and their idiosyncrasies. Well-crafted melodic segues set up scenes and the transitions between them. Tempos and changes in tempo reflect the characters’ moods and emotions. Varying dynamic ranges create tension and resolution. Shifting time signatures hint at conflict. Click tracks pop in and out and render seamless connections between orchestra and dancer. Effective use of space and silence provide room for actor and audience to breathe. In essence, the music in Wicked acts, as only music can, as an unseen scene partner. But the greatest orchestrations in the world mean nothing if the music they attempt to shape is not good. Wicked is successful, in part, because its songs are so good.
Contrast and juxtaposition add depth and dimension to any story. The songs that comprise Act One of Wicked are mostly light in tone. A shiny patina on the surface of an otherwise dark-hued core. Yet the singable and deceptively simple melodies provide an important base from which each character’s arc is launched. Repetitive musical phrases provide insights into their motivations. Whether it’s the foreshadowing of an impending conflict (Something Bad), or the establishment of a bond between characters (Elphaba’s Dance), or capturing the embodiment of a young witch’s dreams and ambitions (The Wizard And I), the music becomes, and remains, an essential component in telling the tale of the two lead characters and the separate paths they follow toward fulfilling their destinies. Indeed, no matter which complexion it adopts, the music is a driving force that propels the story forward before it culminates in the climactic and ominous conclusion of Act One with Defying Gravity. By the end of Act One the music has served to help arouse the audience’s curiosity. They want to know what happens next. And longing to know what happens next is an essential element in any good story.
The sense of foreboding that lingers as Act One closes is picked up and expanded upon as Act Two opens. Elphaba has fled. Disillusioned and frightened, she goes into hiding and as the story intensifies, it adopts a darker tone, albeit one with moments of lightness and levity (Wonderful), and the music, in its unique role as companion storyteller, mirrors the turn of plot. Orchestral nuances and colors only hinted at before begin to appear and their impact on the listener, and the plot too, bring a weight and depth to the story not felt before. As the tone of the story darkens, so too does the music. Ambiguous tonal centers heighten the mood of uncertainty and despair (No Good Deed), sometimes reflecting storylines, sometimes creating their own storylines. Somber melodic passages add depth and dimension and serve to illuminate the established characters’ darker sides. Tempos ebb and flow mirroring the onstage actions. Mixed meter passages bring their own degree of complexity (Thank Goodness) and evince the developing complex relationships between characters. Dynamics in the underscoring rise and fall in quick succession helping to expose the tensions in the ever-evolving conflict. The crazy thing is, it all works. Not as a dissolution of disparate ingredients, but as a conflation of integral elements. A coalescence of parts that meld seamlessly as one and in so doing, introduce an element of suspense and joy and empathy into the story that is uniquely Wicked.
Music can transcend. Like all good art, good music is something larger than what we see on the page or hear in the air. The best music of the theater (or of film, or of opera, too) is able to defy the bounds of its intrinsic aural constraints and exceed its narrowest definition to become a veritable scene partner in the unfolding drama. Well-written, well-orchestrated, well-executed music is like an actor with depth and aplomb and a multitude of layers which work in concert with the stage actor to bring a character to life. To make them real.
Often, if you listen closely, you will hear the choices the musician as veritable actor has made in their interpretation of the score. Yes, the notes are on the page to be performed as written, but interpretation is essential to bringing music to life. And interpretation is an intensely personal art form. No musician performs the same passage the same as any other. Nuances and subtleties in pitch and rhythm and timbre and phrasing and articulation and dynamics abound and the styling of these intrinsic musical elements is highly subjective. But the right note at the right time with the right inflection and the right interpretation can transcend words and actions and thoughts, thereby introducing an audience to a well of emotions they may never have experienced before, and may never again. And therein lies the power of music - its ability to transcend the literal and communicate the metaphorical. To reach us on a deeper level than is sometimes possible through words or gestures or physical expressions alone. Its ability to move us. Its ability to convey what it means to be human. The beautiful part is, you don’t have to be a musician to experience the profoundness inherent in music. Just show up and listen. Don’t believe me? Imagine your favorite movie without its music. Imagine attending a performance of Wicked with no music. Right.
After I watched the show for the first (and only) time and after many, many listens, I realized that more than any other show I had ever played before, the music in Wicked and its inextricable connection to the story would compel me, indeed, obligate me, to think not as a drummer, but as a musician. Imagine that. A drummer thinking like a musician. Makes me uneasy. Next I’ll be thinking about trying to play softly. Back to the original question. What I could bring to the music. I started by listening. Audio recordings, conductor videos. Then I started digging deeper and listening to some of the other drummers who have played the show and only once I had obtained a deeper understanding of the music did I begin to condense everything I had heard into a version I felt comfortable with. I even stole some ideas from my fellow Canadian, Greg Wells, and the movie soundtrack.
It was interesting, for example, to hear how the same fills and the same grooves played by different drummers often sounded virtually identical to one another. I quickly realized that the reason the same fills and the same grooves were executed in the same way by my predecessors was because these elements were important. In other words, if they were all doing it, then I ought to be doing it too. People were going to want to hear them as they were. No interpretations here. But there were moments of liberation. Areas where I could come up with something of my own. Slashes written into the music that screamed, Go for it.
After I arrived on the tour some of my ideas were cut, or altered, which, let’s be honest, is bound to happen. But I’m the king of minimalism and cutting back and editing is what I do best. It’s the art of simplification and I love it. The ideas I brought with me are still mine, they’ve just been modified and now, they work better. And therein lies the beauty of collaboration: Individuals united by purpose working together to take something good, and make it better.
For the rest of the show, I played, and continue to play, the ink. There is a compelling reason to play the ink: Because it works. Someone wrote it down because it works. It’s that simple. As I’ve said before, Wicked has had a decades-spanning run of badass drummers doing their thing. Did I think I was going to show up and better them? No way. My approach was elementary: Simplify everything and when in doubt, play the ink. No one ever yelled at me for playing a simple, tasteful fill. But I always got an earful anytime I’d tried something complicated and indulgent. The lesson: Serve the music and the music will serve the show. And that’s why you’re here. If you don’t like someone telling you what to do, or you don’t like playing someone else’s ideas, then maybe a Broadway tour is not for you. Maybe play jazz. Or something. Perhaps you could become a critic.
On to the gear. One of the challenges for a drummer performing in a Broadway show is getting the setup right. Wicked’s no different. In addition to drum set, the drum book contains a multitude of important auxiliary percussion elements and the placement of these elements is critical. The immediacy of the music requires the drummer to move quickly between voices. Snare drum to triangle to Mark Tree to drum set to drum pad and back to drum set. Sticks to mallets to triangle beater to rods and back to sticks, all in the blink of an eye. Okay, two blinks, but you get the idea. The setup is something that, for me, is under constant revision. Consequently, I’m always re-positioning some element of the drum set, all in the elusive pursuit of the best, most comfortable setting, not only for me, but for the audio department as well. Because the truth is, if it doesn’t sound good out front, then what is the point?
The drums are Pearl Reference Series and the cymbals are Zildjian K Series. I’ve included a comprehensive gear list below for the drum nerds out there so check it out if you're nerdy about gear like I am.
One of the coolest pieces of hardware I have is made by noted percussionist Billy Miller of Miller Machine fame. It’s a lightweight, cleverly-designed mounting device for my triangle and finger cymbal. This thoughtful device allows me to mount the two instruments beside one another and provides not only stability and ease of placement, but offers maximum resonance from the instruments too. It’s a fantastic piece of equipment. As I’ve written before in a previous article for Billy, two principles of good design are functionality and simplicity. Billy, as he always does, nailed them with this one. But what else would you expect from a percussionist other than to strike the target dead on? The cool thing about Billy’s products is that they are constantly improving and evolving to meet the needs of guys like me. Again, another principle of good design and one that Billy does not neglect. Thank you, Billy.
Playing drums for Wicked is physically demanding. The show comes in at just under three hours and for much of those three hours I’m trying to put the drums through the floor. But that’s just me. I like to play hard. It’s mentally challenging too. Wicked will bite you hard if it catches you sleeping. But it’s still a hell of a lot of fun to play. And when it’s not, I still have my bike and my books and they allow me, albeit in different ways, to escape when I need to. Just like the green witch."
Mackie’s Wicked Tour Drum Set
Pearl Reference Series Drums
- 22" x 18" Kick Drum
- 14” x 5” Snare Drum
- 10" x 8" Tom
- 12" x 10" Tom
- 14" x 14" Floor Tom
- 16" x 16" Floor Tom
- 14” x 5” Duoluxe Chrome Over Brass Snare Drum (Backup)
Zildjian K Series Cymbals
- 22" K Custom Dark Ride w/ Sizzle Effect
- 20" K Custom Dark Ride
- 15" K Light Hi-Hats (Unmatched Bottoms)
- 19" K Sweet Crash
- 20" K Sweet Crash
- 8" K Splash
- 10" K Splash
- 12" K Splash
- 19” K Custom Special Dry Trash China
- 6" Zil Bell
- 9.5" Zil Bell
- 20” K Constantinople Medium Light Ride (x2) (Piatti)
Pearl Hardware
- Icon Drum Rack DR503C
- Eliminator Redline Chain Drive Double Bass Drum Pedal P2052C
- Eliminator Hi-Hat Stand H2050
- Drum Throne D1500S
Percussion
- LP Drum Set Tambourine
- LP Hi, Medium, Lo Woodblocks
- Treeworks Chimes
- LP Bell Tree
- Indian Bells/Goat Bells
- Miller Machine Horizontal Mount w/Black Swamp 8” Triangle
- Black Swamp 4” Triangle
- Miller Machine Horizontal Mount w/Finger Cymbal
- LP Salsa Cowbell
- LP Medium Shaker
- Cooperman 18” Frame Drum w/Rubber Mallet
Electronics
- Roland SPD-SX Sampling Pad
- Ultimate Ears UE-11 Pro IEMs
- Apple iPad Pro 12.9”
- iRig Blue Turn Foot Switch
- Aviom A320 Monitor Mixer
Sticks & Hitting Things
- Vic Firth ‘Rock’ Model Drumsticks (Wood Tip)
- Vic Firth Corpsmaster T1 General Mallets
- Vic Firth M185 Yarn Tip Mallets
- Vic Firth M5 Rubber Tip Mallets
- Vic Firth Brushes (Rubber Handle)
- Vic Firth Rute 606's
- Miller Machine Triangle Beaters w/ Brass Heads
Remo Drumheads
Bass Drum:
- Clear Powerstroke 3 (Batter) w/Falam Slam Beater Patch & Pearl
- BDMF Bass Drum Muffler
- Pearl Logo White Smooth Ambassador w/ 5.25” Port (Resonant)
Snare Drum:
- Coated Emperor X (Batter)
- Clear Ambassador Snare (Resonant)
Toms:
- Clear Emperor (Batter)
- Clear Ambassador (Resonant)
