Ryan Abbott
Theater
April 20, 2009

Broadway

My brother recently went to see the musical Wicked. He is not the type of person that would go and see a Broadway show but he had the opportunity too and it’s not something that people get a chance to do often. He said he would love to go back and see another musical on Broadway after he saw Wicked.
Almost everyone has seen the movie The Wizard of Oz and loves the Scarecrow, the Lion, the Tin Man, Dorothy, and of course her little dog and everyone hates The Wicked Witch of the West because all she does is cause problems. Wicked is the story of the “terrible witch.” The story is that of the wicked witch of the west and her relationship with the good witch of the north, Glinda. The relationship between the two struggles because they have different views. One is that they have a rivalry over the same love interest. Secondly they have different thoughts to the wizard’s corruption of the government. Thirdly is “Elphaba’s public fall from grace.” The main story line is before the Wizard of Oz but it does have some dialogue and back story from that blockbuster movie. This musical made its Broadway debut on October 30, 2003. Wicked was produced by Universal Pictures and directed by Joe Mantello, and the musical staging was by Wayne Cilento.
The potential of this global success was discovered by Stephen Schwartz. He read the 1995 Maguire novel and immediately saw how much of a success this could have. Schwartz met up with Maguire in 1998 and persuaded him to release the rights for a stage production. Schwartz wanted the plot to follow that of the wicked witch and he hired the Emmy Award winning writer Winnie Holzman to make this happen.
Some of the main characters are Elphaba (The Wicked Witch), an intelligent but misunderstood girl who has green skin. She has a rebellion against the wizard which gives her the name “The Wicked Witch of the West.” Galinda (later Glinda the good) is beautiful and ambitious. She has an opportunity to join the Wizard even though he is corrupt, and wants to be known as “Glinda the Good.” The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is the dictator of Oz and makes himself seem as though he is a sentimental man, but is the reason for the oppression of Oz’s Animals. He also then realizes that he is Elphabas father in the musical. These are just the three main characters and are played very well obviously by the musicals success.
I talked to my brother about this musical and what it was like and he did not know how to put it into words. He says how it is an experience one has to have because it is live and you are not watching a square screen. A play that I have always wanted to see is The Lion King because of the past I have had with the movie and the video game that I could not put down. When I get a chance to see a Broadway show I would like it to be The Lion King, but after looking at Wicked it seems like an extraordinary one also, and to see either one of these would be a great experience.