I finally got to see this show on Saturday. It first came to town seven years ago, while Katie was still a student. She, Josie and I tried to get tickets but were unsuccessful. The show came back through town a couple of years ago. It sold out before I even knew it was coming. Zack got a job with the company, selling merchandise. I have a T-shirt and a pin that he gave me for Christmas that year, that I love! The T-shirt is very soft and comfy. The pin says Defy Gravity.
I’d read the book years ago.
I didn’t care for it.
I’m a big fan of re visiting well known stories from a different point of view and the plot was good, I just don’t care for the author’s writing style. I found it much too heavy.
So I’m doubly impressed that such a fun musical was teased out of it!
The two leads were spectacular, the costumes and sets gorgeous. I’ve seen a few minimalist shows that I loved (Jersey Boys) but one of the things I most enjoy about live theater is the effects they come up with. The flying monkeys were horrific!
My favorite scene was one in which Elfaba (I’ve been told her name is derived from the author, Frank L. Baum) is alone on the stage. From my seat, high in the third balcony, I could see that she was standing on two vents in the floor, through which fans were blowing. Her dress and cape billowed out behind her and the stage was filled with stage smoke. If she’d had her broom in her hand, it would have looked just like she was rocketing through the night sky.
I found it impossible not to compare a lot of the themes in the show with our current political scene.
There was our Lead, ostracized by society because she was different. Her real problem was that her father hated her. You could be forgiven for thinking that her problem was that she was green but that wouldn’t have mattered if her father had loved her. Fathers are important.
Elfaba was the ‘other’, the outsider, the marginalized.
Gahlinda was the status quo; everything is great because it works for me!
Fiyero represents a society that is consumed with celebrity culture.
Nessarose, Elfaba’s handicapped sister, represents victimology. The same father who should have loved Elfaba encourages Nessa to use her handicap to oppress everyone else.
The Wizard embodies “benevolent government”. He wants to be everyone’s Dad. (I was reminded of a speech Bill Clinton once gave where he said similar things. Talk about patronizing.)
The issue that splits Elfaba from her Idol, the Wizard, is Freedom of Speech.
In the Oz in which Elfaba and Glinda (the ‘gah’ is silent) grew up, animals were people, too. They had the power of speech, self-awareness and independent thought. Elfaba’s favorite professor happens to be a goat. In the course of the show, the animals lose their powers of speech and with it, their personhood. Just in case that doesn’t ring any bells with you, this happens on a college campus.
Elfaba becomes a political outcast because she doesn’t accept this state of things. (I would have laughed if her hat had been inscribed “Make OZ Great Again!”)
Her image as ‘Wicked’ is a construct of the media which is controlled by the political powers that be. Fake news, if you will.
It’s only after this happens that she decides to live up (down) to her reputation, kidnaps a child and threatens a dog. As her bestie, Glinda says “They’re just a pair of shoes; get over it!”
The real villains in the story are the Wizard, who, on top of stealing the animals voices (and with it their personhood) to protect his political image, turns out to be an absentee father; and Elfaba’s handicapped sister, Nessarose.
The Wizard utterly fails in the most important job he could have had and spends all his energy creating the myth that he’s doing a job which is far beyond his abilities. There’s a very famous scene in the movie, after the unmasking, where the Wizard claims that while he may be a bad wizard, he is actually a good man. Not in this iteration; here, his manhood is as corrupted as his wizardry.
Nessarose is even worse. Thanks to her father, she’s a spoiled brat who thinks her disability entitles her to whatever she wants. First, she demands her sister’s enslavement to her beck and call. Then she literally enslaves the Munchkins to keep someone who doesn’t love her from leaving her. Then, she blames everyone else when her captive becomes less than human. She’s a nightmare. No wonder the Munchkins sing and dance when a house falls on her.
Meanwhile, it turns out Glinda and Fiyero’s self-absorption turns out to be no deeper than Elfaba’s wickedness. Despite the differences in their personalities and politics, Elfaba and Glinda remain on each other’s side. Publicly, they distance themselves from each other but privately the help each other bring down the status quo and instate a better government. They all suffer tremendous losses in this quest.
Like everyone, I identified with Elfaba: aren’t we all freaks who think our deficiencies are as obvious to the world as green skin? But in the end, my favorite character was Glinda.
She is the first one in the show to realize that color is only skin deep. She attempts to turn Elfaba into a reflection of herself but in the end accepts Elfaba for who she is and she remains Elfaba’s friend even when there’s nothing in it for her but danger and social ostracism.
Plus, Glinda gets all the punch lines.
There’s a very funny scene where Glinda tries to teach Elfaba to toss her hair and giggle. The Green One tosses her long black tresses over her shoulder and lets rip with that wicked witch cackle. It brought the house down. I leaned over to my daughter and whispered “It reminds me of when Margy and I were in highschool!”
I loved the show.
I couldn’t help but wonder if Idina Menzel noticed that her two biggest roles, Elfaba and Elsa, from Frozen, are basically the same character.
Not a bad type if you can get cast that way!