Wicked Thoughts

We saw the traveling Broadway production of Wicked yesterday. Although the main stars were the understudy/standby, it was still so highly enjoyable. Of course it would be. (Christine Dwyer played Elphaba instead of Anne Brummel and Tiffany Haas played Glinda instead of Natalie Daradich.)

I read Wicked many years ago and did not enjoy it as much as Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister, the first Gregory Maguire re-imagining I read. I read Wicked because it was by then a Broadway musical and since I was not visiting New York soon, it was my way to be “in” on the story. But it was dark and I think I got confused and frustrated by the changing allegiances and I’m not sure I caught all the finer details in the big reveal at the end. Still, Wicked has such great reviews, we were sure to catch it when it came to Vancouver, especially when it was NPY’s birthday present to me.

Thankfully the story was very clear in the stage adaptation with some tweaks at the end to make the story happier. The allusions to The Wonderful Wizard of Oz were precious. It was also fun to identify small inconsistencies between the stage adaptation of Wicket and Frank Baum’s story (e.g., Glinda is from the south and was not the witch who appeared when Dorothy arrived; Boq is a different tinman from a different Oz story and the Tinman came to be when a woodsman’s axe was cursed and kept cutting off his limbs; Scarecrow became ruler of Emerald City/Oz on the Wizard’s departure so he could not have run off with Elphaba).

I loved, loved, loved the crazy and unique green costumes, elven boots, and fascinators of the Emerald City dancers. I was positively grinning when they were out. (YouTube video) I also loved Glinda’s blue sparkly dress and tiara, and Alphaba’s slender-cut floor-length black dresses.

It will take me a while because my first quick search did not turn it up—which So You Think You Can Dance routine (I thought it was last season) was to a piece from Wicked. Which song was it now? I want to watch the routine again on YouTube because I really did enjoy that routine even then.

Certainly, some songs will stick as the “theme” for the musical as my memories exact details fade: Elphaba and Fiyero in the mist singing As Long As You’re Mine, Glinda’s funny intonations in Popular, the popular Defying Gravity, and my personal favourite for how powerful it is, No Good Deed.