A Review of Wicked

A couple of months ago, I took my daughter to see the Broadway musical Wicked.  I wasn't planning to go.  I had never seen it before, and never thought much about it.  I really enjoy Broadway, but tickets are expensive and...well...life just seems to get in the way.  Besides that, pastors' wives aren't really drawn to wickedness.  We see enough of that in real life...lol...we don't need to "pay" to see it.  But Abby heard about it from her friends, and she really wanted to go.  I saw a special sale on tickets, and thinking it would be a good potential mother/daughter bonding time, I bought them.

The stubborn and courageous Elphaba (Jennifer Dinoia) 
chooses to forfeit her dream of public esteem rather than
 support the Wizard's deceptive schemes and tactics.  

My daughter loved it.  I think I loved it more.  Wicked, for anybody who - like me - has been living under a rock, is very loosely based on the novel of the same title.  It's a prequel to the popular children's book, The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum.  The musical's subtitle sums it up well:  The Untold Story of the Witches of Oz.  The story recounts the young adult years of Elphaba (the Wicked Witch of the West) and Glinda (the Good Witch).  It tells of their surprising friendship, and how they grew into the women we perceive them to be when Dorothy makes her whirling entrance into Oz.

The key word is perceive.  The writers of Wicked masterfully remind us that people aren't always who we "think" they are.  A highly admired, charismatic leader can be a manipulative fraud whose public image doesn't match his true character.  (The Wonderful Wizard isn't so wonderful.)  A seemingly good person might not have good motives.  (Glinda is far more concerned with impressing others than with actually being good.)  And people who threaten the solidarity of such charades might pay for it.  (Elphaba earns the title "Wicked Witch" as such...) 

Wicked also explores the themes of good/evil and female friendship.  At the beginning of the story, Glinda & Elphaba, are college roommates who loathe each other.  Understandably so, since they are complete opposites.  ...Or are they?  Glinda "the Good" is perky, friendly, and very, very funny.  Although likable, she is also annoyingly self-centered, shallow, and willing to compromise her integrity for the sake of popularity.  Elphaba, on the other hand, is serious, stubborn, and prone to "fly off the handle" ~ which gets her into a lot of trouble.  On the other hand, she is smart, passionate, and authentic.  Neither girl is all good, nor all wicked.  Rather, they are a complex mix of both.  They are drawn together by the unique strengths each brings to their relationship.

The characters in Wicked are SO well-crafted, they seem as real as the girls next door!  I would guess there are many, many people who relate to Glinda or Elphaba or both.  Personally, I resonated with Elphaba.  I adored her tenacious need to be real, even when it threatened her very human desire to be accepted.  I loved that she stood true to her convictions, despite paying a very dear cost.  And I cheered her on as she found the courage to "fly", despite the constant naysayers that plagued her life from birth.  I think there is something powerful about connecting to another, even if it's a fictional character created in a writer's head.  Stephen Schwartz & Winnie Holzman did a marvelous job giving the gift of understanding to their audience.

I think the most valuable takeaway from Wicked is in its life lessons.  Not everything is morally positive (there are a few, a-hem, implied messages I could do without.)  But there is some good, solid advice there ~ particularly for the teenage girls who come to see the show in droves. 

...because I knew you, I have been changed for good.

• Learn and grow from your mistakes.
• Ask for forgiveness and grant it to others.
• Stand up for what it right; you won't regret it.
• Refuse to let other people discourage or define you.
• Don't use your upbringing as an excuse for who you are or choose to become.   And finally,
• Think twice before hastily dismissing a potential friend just because she's different.  Sometimes these are the people who help us most to grow and "change us for good".