‘Wicked’

Were you ever curious about the witches made famous in “The Wizard of Oz”? Here’s your chance, via a musical production based on the back- and side-stories from their points of view before, during and after Dorothy’s famous visit to Oz.

“Wicked” opens with the appearance of Glinda, the Good Witch of the North, following the melting of the Wicked Witch of the West during a confrontation with Dorothy, then moves ‘way back in time to the birth of Elphaba (the West witch).

Fast forward to Shiz University, where the green-skinned Elphaba and her disabled sister Nessarose are enrolled. Amongst the new students are Glinda (known then as GA-linda), the Munchkin Boq, and the Vinkus prince Fiyero.

At first sharing their loathing for each other, Elphaba and Glinda become the very best of friends. Elphaba’s passion to do the right thing rubs off on Fiyero, who transforms from a scandalous playboy to a passionate naturalist.

Glinda, as a prank, has Boq declare his love for the wheel-chair bound Nessarose in order to get him out of her life so she can concentrate on Fiyero.

Madame Morrible, Shiz U’s head mistress, arranges for Elphaba and Glinda to meet the Wizard in the Emeral City, who, it is revealed, is the driving force behind a movement to ban animals from speaking, and to remove them from prominent societal positions.

Elphaba rebels against this and takes on the role of animal savior, pitting her against everyone else in the Emerald City.

That’s the basic story. What’s interesting is the interplay between song lyrics, stage dialogue and characterizations that parallel the Oz story with which we are so familiar. There are allusions galore to the scenes we’ve seen in the 1939 classic movie. Witches “explains” how the monkeys came to fly, why the Cowardly Lion is that way, why the Tin Man has no heart, and how the Scarecrow came to be.

Elphaba, it seems, is NOT a wicked witch, but the victim of image manipulation. If you repeat a lie often enough, people will believe it. If you frame circumstances a certain way, people will believe it to be the truth. And that’s what happens to Elphaba, whose “greenness” induces xenophobia at its worst.

Kendra Kassebaum delivered a wonderful performance as Glinda, portraying her evolution from shallow, ditsy blonde to a deep, kind-hearted … well, ditsy blonde.

Patty Duke performed well as Madame Morrible, evoking fond memories of her early teenage years when she won an Academy Award for her performance as Helen Keller in “The Miracle Worker.” To be sure, her role then wasn’t anything like her Wicked role, but she does a most credible job in the musical.

The star performer, however, had to be Vicki Noon, filling in for Teal Wicks, who had the matinee performance off. Ms. Noon’s powerful performance as Elphaba touches deep into the audience emotion, and I wager there were quite a few moist eyes in the theater during her plaintive solos, and the surprise revelations at the end of the show.

The lyrics are funny, informative and entertaining. The music is uplifting when it has to be, and emotional when the time was right. I have to admit that I became very emotional and teary-eyed several times during the performance, and especially at the conclusion.

Do I sense a movie on the horizon? It's very possible. In fact, a movie is rumored to already be in production and expected to be released this year.

Check it out: http://www.filmshaft.com/theatre-review-wicked/