WICKED

Well, I finally had the chance to go see Wicked at the Morrison Center on Star Wars Day, May 4th, at 1:00pm.  I figured I should after having missed it last year and thinking that was that, I missed my chance. I really didn't know what to expect as this was the first play I've ever attended. I've heard nothing but positive feedback about it, so when I had the chance, I went to see it.

The play is based on the re-imagining of the characters of L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by Gregory Maguire in his book: Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West. The picture on the pocket-sized paperback is the one that graces all promos for the play and the actor's trailer as well.

The play opens with Glinda descending in her "bubble" to a gathering of  Munchkins to recount her life with Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West. We are then taken back to their arrival at Shiz University, where they first met. Galinda, as she was then known, comes across as a pampered airhead and Elphaba, greeted with applause from the audience at her arrival onstage, was more of a practical yet cynical type.  As they sit facing away from each other in their dorm room trying to write home and describe their roommate to their parents, Galinda comes up with a verbose attempt replete with nonsensical words, while Elphaba sums up Galinda with one: Blonde.  

Nessarose, Elphaba's sister, who is destined to become known as the Wicked Witch of the East, more due to her being the sister of the Wicked Witch of the West than anything else, is shown in her wheelchair being shuffled around by Elphaba. Unlike the book, she has arms, and can't walk because of an injury to her legs in the womb.  Her shoes were nothing special and didn't help her walk, until a spell was placed on them by Elphaba, when they also turned red, another departure from the book.
Another funny moment was when we are introduced to the tall handsome dolt Fiyero. Galinda asks if he's shallow, and he replies, "Deeply shallow."
When Elphaba finally comes into her own as the Wicked Witch of the West, and makes her appearance in full witch dress, I was struck by how much she resembled the caricature of Hillary Clinton on Facebook with the green skin and black hat...uncanny. 

Both Galinda and Elphaba grow closer together as they get to know each other and spend time together. In the end, Glinda witnesses Elphaba's staged demise, and is able to throw the school's Headmistress's words to her at the beginning of school right back in her face as she consigns her to prison and banishes the farcical Wizard from Oz after the discovery that he is actually Elphaba's father.

Unlike Oz: The Great and Powerful, the Disney prequel, this play has the magic of the original 1939 film The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Though faithful to the original, Oz, The Great and Powerful lacked the feel of it as well as a good story of the origins of the witches. The Wicked Witch of the West had more of a Snow White origin, turning green after taking a bite of an apple offered by her evil sister. Not sure if this a case of transformational magic as it is food poisoning, but I digress.
One interesting part of the play occurred when three armless characters came out during one musical number and their heads popped up on extended necks.  My guess is that this was an homage to the original Baum story's hammerheads which appear nowhere else.
The costumes of the main characters looked good, but some of the others were old fashioned looking with some on the ostentatious side, appropriate for the story.. Others, however looked a bit like they were out of Dr. Seuss and Whoville esp. with the hairstyles on the women.
The play improves on the book which dragged a lot at times. Since the original film was based on a successful play, the future of Wicked looks bright.