“Wicked” is the biggest thing to hit Broadway since sliced bread that can auto-tune itself.
Creators Stephen Schwartz and Winnie Holzman have shrewdly followed the tradition of refashioning popular, pre-existing cultural icons into mainstream poppy hits. And with the flair and budget of Broadway brought right to our door, you have the opportunity to go on the classiest date known to man.
Since L. Frank Baum’s book The Wonderful Wizard of Oz was published in 1900, “Oz” has been an integral part of American culture in the 20th century. It started as the original American fairy tale with supposed political allegories and transformed into the first uncut Hollywood film broadcasted as a single television event. While Baum wrote 13 more books in the series, the first has been in the public domain since 1956.
This is where “Wicked” comes in.
Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West is a 1995 novel written by Gregory Maguire that details major events and development in the Land of Oz during the years leading up to Dorothy Gale’s appearance.
Unlike the series it parallels, Maguire’s works are not intended for children.
“Wicked” centers around the evil Wicked Witch, here given the name Elphaba (for the initials of L. Frank Baum).
Oz is repainted as a country of corroding freedoms and rights, gripped by the propaganda of despotic rule. Other familiar characters appear, such as Glinda, but the focus is less on packing in clever references and more about the world Maguire has cunningly redone.
Just in the way the creepy darkness of the source material is missing from the streamlined 1939 MGM film, the musical “Wicked” possesses none of the dense deconstruction of the respected book. It’s dark for a musical, though not in a “The Wiz” kind of way.
Here, the story revolves around the growing friendship of young Elphaba and Glinda. The future Wicked Witch of the West is a quiet outcast and Glinda is the white, queen-bee socialite. Elphaba is certainly the character to be identified with — she’s for outsiders.
The music is as bombastic and riveting as the spectacle of the grand set pieces, such as the gigantic moving dragon roaring above the stage and the terrifying, screaming, disembodied wizard’s head. The show-tune sound with a healthy dose of power metal makes for exciting solos.
Elphaba is played by Anne Brummel and is admittedly a little green. But that’s because she’s the Wicked Witch of the West, so you kind of expect that. Her casual brilliance hits full force during her performance of the song “No Good Deed.”
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Glinda is played by Natalie Daradich, who plays the humanized self-absorbed social butterfly, an archetype that normally comes with the flatness of character intended to draw contempt. She gets all the good laughs and rightly deserves them.
Tom McGowan plays the Wizard, both a controlling dictator and delightful fraud in a Willy Wonka kind of tinge. He’s probably best known to audiences from his various TV roles, including Kenny, the station manager on “Frasier” and Steve Buscemi’s roommate in “Ghost World.”
The romantic interest to our ladies is Fiyero, played by David Nathan Perlow. His songs are few and difficult, but you can sense no sign of struggle as he blasts the roof off of Popejoy whenever he gets his chance.
The origin stories of the core group from the original are oddly shoehorned into the script like a River-Phoenix Indiana Jones. It draws people in, since the archetypes are so engrained into the public psyche. Still, it’s little wonder why the show has had an incredible impact on the world.
It’s better than boss. It’s gnarlier than tubular. In a word, it’s wicked.
