Wicked On Tour

And even if you think of yourself as someone who’s pretty much abstemious when it comes to the pleasures of musical theatre, chances are it’s one you’ve heard of anyway: for, inspired by Gregory Maguire’s 1995 novel upon whose pages its own alternative telling of the Oz story was entwined, Wicked opened on Broadway on 30 October 2003, following a run in San Francisco earlier in the year. The original Broadway cast was starry stuff, bringing together as it did legendary musical players such as Kristin Chenoweth as Glinda, Norbert Leo Butz as Fiyero, and Idina Menzel – of Frozen fame, incidentally – in the lead role of Elphaba.

Wicked is a Broadway musical whose music and lyrics are by Stephen Schwartz and whose book (that is, dialogue and story) is by Winnie Holzman. It is the adaptation of the 1995 novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire, which is based on the classic 1900 novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L Frank Baum and the classic 1939 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film The Wizard of Oz.

One reason why Wicked is so popular is the immensity of its production – it’s installed in midtown Manhattan at the Gershwin Theatre, a few short blocks from Broadway on West 51st Street in the Paramount Plaza building – and has been there since the show opened on Broadway in 2003. The theatre is the largest on Broadway, with nearly two thousand seats, and it is usually sold out with the acclaim that Wicked has achieved internationally, earning a reputation as one of the must-see shows of NYC. The art nouveau design had been done by Ralph Alswang and the theatre opened in 1972 as the Uris Theatre before being renamed in 1983 to honour the Gershwins. The set is huge, bright – and very, very green.

Wicked, directed at The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L Frank Baum, is very much from the perspective of the witches (especially the Wicked Witch of the West, Elphaba, and her friend Glinda, who is later turned ‘Good’, or ‘Glinda the Good Witch’). The plot follows how Elphaba and Glinda meet at school, don’t like each other at first, become friends despite their rivalry, and then Galinda reasons with Elphaba and the two fly off to save the day despite Elphaba’s (somewhat overdone) fall ‘from grace’. Despite the two leading women having the same man as a love interest – Fiyero – the musical is more focused on what it means to be ‘wicked’, ‘friendship’ and why what looks bad on the surface (ie, green skin for Elphaba, pink for Galinda) might not be all it seems to those who don’t know the full story.

The original cast album won a Grammy Award and was nominated for ten Tony Awards, eventually winning three, including Best Actress for Menzel. Composer and lyricist Stephen Schwartz bought the rights to Maguire’s novel in 1998; although it isn’t an entirely faithful adaptation, Schwartz collaborated with writer Winnie Holzman to create a plot that worked onstage. The musical developed through a series of readings with Chenoweth alongside Stephanie J Block as Elphaba. Menzel joined the production in 2000 along with Joe Mantello as director. Wicked is one of Broadway’s most beloved productions: its scope is epic and its production is huge, glittering, and mesmerizing, but more than that, it is a story that is at its heart about love, truth, and friendship – and those are qualities that audiences will always respond to.

The first act begins as the people of Oz rejoice after the death of Elphaba as Glinda the Good Witch takes center stage. Then the show moves back in time to depict Elphaba’s birth, her relationship with her disabled sister Nessarose, and her time at school with Galinda, where they were roommates and rivals. Elphaba’s magical talent is discovered, Prince Fiyero appears, and Galinda and Elphaba become friends before traveling together to meet the Wizard of Oz. There, they discover corruption on an epic scale, and Elphaba runs away after swearing to take her revenge on the Wizard. In the second act, we discover she has been nicknamed the Wicked Witch of the West, while Galinda – now Glinda – has been placed in public opposition to her. When Dorothy reaches the land of Oz, things get even more complicated…

Wicked is packed with catchy melodies and onstage antics, but it is hard to argue that the heart of the story lies with the development of the relationship between Elphaba and Glinda, from What Is This Feeling? too Popular to their last duet, For Good, arguably the most tear-jerking and emotional part of the entire show. The musical is full of spectacle, color, vibrant costumes, and funny lines, but the end of the first act is probably the most visually stunning as Elphaba sings Defying Gravity, the most famous song in the show, and rises slowly into the air. The high notes will send a shiver down your spine.