MUSICAL: Wicked

I finally got around to watching this, after "Defying Gravity" first took (a fraction of) my grade by storm, once upon a time in high school.

Image from Ticketmaster.com.au website

From the Australian official website

Awe-inspiring and spectacular, WICKED is the untold story of the witches of Oz. Long before Dorothy dropped in, two other girls meet in the land of Oz. One, born with emerald-green skin, is smart, fiery and misunderstood. The other is beautiful, ambitious and very popular. WICKED tells the enthralling story of two unlikely friends and how they became the wicked witch of the west and Glinda the Good. 

So it's a good idea to know the story of The Wizard of Oz, because this musical is adapted from the novel which justifies the actions of the 'villain'. (If you're interested, that's Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire)


Luna comments

A note on musicals

This is the first professional musical I've watched, & it doesn't disappoint. In fact, it did the exact opposite, & I've been obsessing over the soundtrack ever since.

Wicked is about a witch, Elphaba, who was born green & unsurprisingly subject to discrimination because of it. She eventually befriends Glinda, the popular girl, and they take sorcery classes together. Meanwhile, the animals of Oz are losing their powers of speech. Elphaba sets out right things. (Except you can probably guess that it didn't turn out well, since she ended up as the villain.)

Before the first time I watched musical, I had doubts as to them - really, a story being told while the people burst into song every so often? How does that even work? But every musical I've watched since tells me that it does work. It's just a different way to tell a story.

So if you haven't watched musicals before, Wicked wouldn't be a bad place to start =]

The actual musical

A list of the things I liked most about it: the humour, the music, the props. More on those later.

The thing about the musical is that it's very fast-paced, and so it breezes over certain things - most notably, Glinda and Elphaba go from hating each other to being best friends in the span of about two scenes. I could keep up partially because I've read the novel. So from a novel-reader's point of view, that isn't done too well. (From a musical-goer's perspective, well, I haven't been to enough musicals to say.) Having said that, I prefer the plot of the musical over the plot of book, perhaps because I like the simplicity of the musical plot.

I really liked the characters in here. I didn't think I would, because you start with somewhat typical raw materials from a very typical sort of YA high school story: 1x withdrawn, rejected girl (Elphaba); 1x popular bubbly queen bee (Glinda); 1x handsome, charismatic young man (Fiyero). Despite this, I ended up quite liking the characters and their interactions, especially how Glinda and Elphaba came to be friends. Some things also hint to me that, even at the start, Glinda isn't the airhead that the musical initially presents her to be, but that's up for interpretation.

But, since it's a musical, it's probably best to dedicate more attention elsewhere. Like humour, music and props!

The musical was surprisingly funny. Even though I'd heard some of the songs before, I didn't expect it to be so light-hearted, because the novel was heavy.

Now the props. One can practically see the dollar signs on stage. There's so many props and so much detail in the props that there was no hope of catching it all. There's a dragon, numerous lights, nice backgrounds. My favourite of them is Glinda's bubble =] (I didn't know it was a bubble until Elphaba said so, much much later, so I don't think it hurts to say so here.)

And finally the music - the highlight of the whole thing. I'm not a seasoned musical-goer, as I've already said, but I think that Wicked deserves the hype. One thing that amazes me is how much better and entertaining songs sound when you watch them performed live, compared to listening to live recordings. It's hard to describe music, but I guess I can say that I think they really do depict the emotions and thoughts of the characters very well. If you're interested, the WICKED official Australia website even links to the Soundcloud for the original Broadway cast recording. Altogether, it sounds EPIC. =]

Lastly - I think it's rather sad that the musical is almost an independent thing to the cast, & that even if I watch it again, it'll be a different combination of actors & actresses on stage. The cast can be replaced, but it's the same musical. So I want to note that I really like the cast I watched (Jemma Rix, Lucy Durack, Steve Danielson, Edward Grey, Emily Cascarino, Glen Hogstrom, Reg Livermore, Maggie Kirkpatrick) =]

My favourite parts

• All the songs, but I'd make a special note of: "Dancing Through Life", "Popular", "Defying Gravity" and "For Good".
• Glinda and her bubble =]

Closing

If you like music and pretty costumes, I think you should watch it. If you're mentally adventurous, I think you should watch it. Musicals are on the expensive side of things (especially if you start comparing it to novels or movie tickets), but it's worth it.

May the songs stick in your head the way they're sticking in mine.