Is WICKED On Its Way To Broadway'!

Hi, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab...

Gregory Maguire’s WICKED was a smart and funny update of the WIZARD OF OZ mythology that also managed to be a searing indictment of the way powerful women are demonized, and the idea that it’s been translated into a musical is... well... interesting:

I know this is not your usual beat but I had such an interesting experience tonight that I thought I should write in... I saw a musical tonight. A stage musical, a Broadway musical, except it wasn’t yet on Broadway.

I saw a production of a musical entitled WICKED, which is said to be opening on Broadway in October. The reason I'm writing is that I believe (after seeing it tonight) that we'll end up seeing it onscreen relatively soon. (I noticed in the Playbill that one of the producers is Universal Pictures... not sure of the connection, but interesting nonetheless, huh?)

This is an amazing piece of work, and its more amazing because it illuminates something that we all know and love, namely the movie The Wizard Of Oz, and the books it is based upon. This new musical tells the story of how Glinda - the "good" witch - and the other "Wicked" witch met and became friends and how it all went wrong... and how that relationship drives the story that we're all familiar with... THIS EXPERIENCE TONIGHT WAS LIKE A SHOT OF POP CULTURE HEROIN. LIKE OPENING A DOOR ON SOMETHING YOU THOUGHT YOU KNOW, ONLY YOU NEVER REALLY UNDERSTOOD.

Now mind you, I am not a fan of musicals.... I mean, I like The Sound Of Music like everyone else, but probably only at Thanksgiving, and only after a beer and a good home cooked meal. But this was a different experience. I was transported, and I got choked up, and I now can never look at that film again in the same way. This is an amazing, stunningly effective theatrical experience, and the reaction from the audience tonight was electric. Its a bit too long, and I cant say i loved it every time they broke into song, but I have not been so moved and excited by anything - certainly not in live theatre - like I have at this performance of WICKED.

Its only playing here in San Francisco til the end of the month, so I know a lot of people cant or wont see it... but this is an amazing show.

WICKED is the untold, true story of the Wicked Witch of the West.

A spin-off of L. Frank Baum's classic Oz book series, WICKED incorporates characters and concepts from the novels in an entirely original story. It takes place mainly before the events we are all familiar with from The Wizard Of Oz, yet intersects with those events only in the most tangential and surprising ways. All the emotional investment we have in the classic story informs our thoughts and feelings as this new story unfolds, and we find ourselves questioning the safety of what is familiar and accepted in favor of the excitement for what is unexpected, sometimes startling and always profoundly moving. WICKED, while very much a broadway musical in the classic sense, trods the same ground as many classics of the genre - it uses the conventions of musical theatre to shed light on the human condition.... It explores what it means to be human, or inhuman, and how circumstances sometimes dictate the course of a life more than personal action.

WICKED is the story of Elphaba, who will become the character we know as The Wicked Witch Of The West. Born with sharp features and green skin, she is an anomaly even in Oz, a land where animals have the ability of speech and where mastery of magic is an achievable goal. Shunned for her appearance wherever she goes, she is labeled evil though she is not. But the fiercely proud Elphaba accepts this as a symptom of her physical being, knowing that who she is not based on how people perceive her. She is called wicked simply for speaking the truth.

Elphaba's roommate at school is Galinda, who will become the character we know as Glinda, The Good Witch Of The North. Galinda is everything that Elphaba is not - loud, scheming, ambitious and beautiful. The ultimate sycophant in a land filled with endless possibility for charlatans, Galinda is determined to make a name for herself in Oz, even if it means losing the one good thing she has in life - the friendship of Elphaba.

Outraged by the malevolent grip the mysterious Wizard of Oz holds over the land and its least fortunate inhabitants, Elphaba risks everything in a battle of ideals with the Wizard - including her one opportunity for romance and a "normal" life.

An extraordinarily compelling character story which comes to life in an almost stew of music, lyrics, design and performance, WICKED casts a spell on its audience in a completely unexpected illumination of a classic story. We follow Elphaba from birth through adulthood, through friendship and heartbreak and epiphany, and we ultimately witness how a chance encounter with a young girl from Kansas paves the way for the impossible - and immensely moving - denouement of WICKED. Just imagine this... I now see Dorothy Gale as an ASSASSIN... not just a hapless girl who wants to go home. And Dorothy's not even a major character in this.... You hear of her... but most of the action takes place before her house lands in Munchkinland.

This show is an astonishingly interesting meditation on good and evil which challenges its audience to answer the question: which witch is which? I'm sold, and I'm buying another ticket to see it again. An amazing show, a singular entertainment experience.

Well, I’ve always thought WIZARD OF OZ was the story of a girl who is sent to kill someone’s political enemy in order to earn the right to go home, and it’s nice to see it contextualized this way. It’s strange what stories are considered “acceptable” for kids, and how often people don’t really consider subtext in certain stories. The best villains in literature are written as people who don’t believe they are villains, because it allows us to see how they realistically might end up doing what they do. It’s a tribute to the lasting power of Baum’s work that these interpretations seem to enrich the original work.

"Moriarty" out.