Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Wicked

****SPOILER ALERT! If you haven't seen "Wicked" and would like to, and you don't know the story, don't read anymore, unless you don't really want to be surprised, then please continue on.

The play opens with the Wicked Witch of the West being dead, and we are reminded of one of the last scenes in "The Wizard of Oz" where Dorothy has killed the witch with water. Glinda, the Good Witch of the North, is discussing how she was not actually friends with Elphaba (the wicked witch of the west), they just knew each other from when they went to witch school and they happened to be room mates way back when. We soon discover that they are actually friends, but only behind closed doors, because Ga-linda (with a "Ga") doesn't want people to know that she is actual friends with this freakish green being. Let me break in here, how many people have you known to be like that? "Good" for show? Ga-linda continues to sing and dance and be "good", and I am thinking that she is just like Elle Woods (you know, from Legally Blonde?) trying to show Elphaba how to be "popular".

They now have a project ahead of them, get to see the Wizard of Oz, to find something for a teacher they share. We then discover that Elphaba can read this spell book written in some secret language, therefore she was used by her teacher and the Wizard and she is able to make things right for her sister (who was in a wheelchair) making her able to walk again. Meanwhile, they (Wizard, Glinda and the teacher) all figure out a way to set up Elphaba and Glinda says, "she'll come back for her sister!" By this point of the play, I'm pretty irritated, this beautiful "Good Witch" is just plain bitchy and not good at all! Elphaba is the good one, made to be evil because she is green, I'm guessing, and since differences can't be good let's alienate her some more. They do claim to be friends throughout the play, but not ever in front of others, that part I thought to be kind of sad.

There were some love stories in there that I didn't quite grasp, but it's a good play. You should see it, even if I ruined it for you. :)

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