TDL’s Sports, Wrestling, & Otherwise

After about a 4.5 year wait, Ms. L and I finally bit the bullet and spent the money to go see Wicked. In much the same way that everyone who liked movies said I had to see The Dark Knight, everyone who’s seen Wicked has been universal in their praise. General consesus has had it as the best show anyone’s ever seen on Broadway. For myself, I caught one song on XM’s Broadway station in 2003 and a couple more in 2004. When we moved to New York, this was one of things we wanted to do. Unfortunately, tickets are about a month wait and never on discount lists. Her aunt and uncle coming in to the city and wanting to see it finally gave us the motivation to plan something two months in to the futue.

Worth every penny.

There really isn’t much I can say about the show that hasn’t been analyzed and re-analyzed. I will say that the book is (unsurprsingly) different than the show. From what I’ve read about the book, it’s a bit dark and complicated. The stage show seemed much less interested in anything other than getting these two characters together and exploring their relationship and the definition of good and evil as quickly possible. At the core of it, really, is “are people evil because they’re evil or are people evil because someone tells you they’re evil?” Elphaba (and the audience) thinks what she’s doing is the right thing to do. The Wizard does not. The audience travels with this character who is doing the right thing but whom the establishment has framed as evil — or wicked.

The one point that I would make about this show is that, when it came out, critics and reviewers were quick to peg it as a study of racism first surrounded by other things. I didn’t think it’s really a study on racism. It’s more about outcast-ism. Elphaba is a symbol for any kid picked on in school for any reason — be it because he’s the fat kid, the kid with glasses, the poor kid, the black kid, the white kid, or the kid with braces. There is a particular moment in the middle of the first act where the “popular” kids set her up by convincing her that the black, pointy hat that becomes her trademark is cool and in style so she shows up at a dance wearing it and everyone points and laughs at her. She deals with it. The fact that there are a lot of people who identify with that particular moment is what makes Elphaba one of the more wildly popular and most identifiable characters on Broadway. More people identify with this moment than could ever identify with racism because they’ve either been there or know someone who’s been there. You can’t help but root for her because she gets what’s going on in the establishment and why it’s wrong. Any person who never spent a second as part of the “In Crowd” knows that feeling.

While I had a few problems with the show — like the random potion bottle that Elphaba’s mother drinks in the No One Mourns The Wicked opening and appears again at various times it’s never quite explained — the rest of the show is so good that you can ignore the things that were obviously cut for time. The story they put together is tight and tells what it needs to.

Also, I give major points to the Broadway people for putting out a cast recording that didn’t give away much of the show. Ms. L got the Wicked cast recording in 2004 and we’ve probably collectively listened to it a thousand times and neither of us saw most of the plot turns coming. And, while I fully understand the whole new world of jokes this opens me up to the folks who have already penalized me countless Man Points for the other non-manly things, it’s one of the better CDs I have. The two girls on the cast recording (Idina Menzel - Maureen from Rent and Kristen Chenoweth - Olive Snook on Pushing Daisies) are really, really good. What can I say — sometimes I get bored with rock or pop and want harmony and chicks who can sing. It’s one of the reason I spent a good six weeks obsessed with the Les Miserables cast recording.

While the story does retcon a lot of the Wizard Of Oz movie (including things going on in other parts of the witch’s castle when Dorothy and her friends are trapped, why she melts when water is thrown on her, why she lights the Scarecrow on fire) and does its best to crack jokes about the movie (”It’s a pair of shoes — GET OVER IT!!”) it’s well worth the time. If you’re expecting a straight book to stage adaptation, you’d be disappointed (or not if you thought the book’s ending was too depressing). I’m glad I finally saw it, I’d recommend it to anyone, and I really hope that the movie adaptation with Menzel and Chenoweth comes to fruition