Wicked: A New Musical – A Broadway Review

Music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz

Book by Winnie Holzman

Rating: 8/10

Wicked is the new musical that spurred from Gregory Maguire’s novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, and re-envisions the events portrayed in L. Frank Baum’s timeless classic The Wizard of Oz.

It begins with Elphaba, who will later be known as the Wicked Witch, as she enrolls at Shiz University where she encounters Galinda, who we’ve come to know as Glinda, the Good Witch of the North.

The show follows Elphaba and Galinda on their respective journeys as they try and figure out where they belong in the world. The show attempts to challenge our perception of what is true evil, and prompts the question, "Was the Wicked Witch born evil, or was it the society itself that was evil?"

From an aesthetic viewpoint, the show does not disappoint—audiences will be wowed by the spectacular sets, the great dance numbers, and the fantastically futuristico costumes.

And I cannot say enough good things about Stephen Schwartz’s score. It has an undeniable theatrical appeal, and the music ranges from expressive solos to comical numbers to haunting ballads. The highlights are: The Wizard and I, Popular, Defying Gravity, and For Good.

Genre-wise, the show is a mash up of everything—comedy, romance, drama, science fiction—and this makes it not only appeal to a diverse audience, but makes it thoroughly enjoyable and utterly riveting watch.

I saw Wicked in the Gershwin Theatre during my first trip to New York, and though it’s not the greatest musical of all time (I mean, it's no Les Mis), it will always have that special sentimentality for me because it was the first real Broadway show I saw. On the night that I went the lead roles of Elphaba and Galinda were played by Jennifer DeNoia and Katie Rose Clark respectively. Both actresses did a wonderful job—Jennifer’s vocal performance was breathtaking and Katie’s portrayal of the bubbly and slightly ditzy Galinda was hilarious. It would've been a dream come true to have gotten to see Idina and Kristin during the OBC days, but being in The Big Apple and getting to see the show at all was a never-to-be-forgotten moment, no less.

Because the musical has had stellar marketing, it is one of the more commercialized productions on Broadway, but don’t let this put you off—I highly recommend this musical, for it is definitely worth seeing in its own right.

Reviewed by Anne Oddity.