While it’s clever to explain away circumstances of a previously published work, doing so can be problematic. Patrons will inevitably make comparisons between the new work and the source material. When that happens, the new work almost always loses.
The Broadway musical Wicked was faced with such a dilemma. The story is not only extracted from a successful previous work, Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire, but it also explains events that lead up to one of the greatest movies of all time, the Wizard of Oz.
This mighty undertaking probably explains why the musical was greeted with mixed reviews from critics and panned by the New York Times.
However, the imaginative and creative way the producers brought Wicked to the stage might explain why the musical has spawned productions in Chicago, Los Angeles, London’s West End, Tokyo, Melbourne, and Stuttgart. It has also produced two North American tours that visit cities like Wicked San Francisco, Jacksonville, Florida and Birmingham, Alabama.
Wicked has set numerous box office records and was nominated for ten 2004 Tony Awards.
How did Wicked do it?
For one, it’s a musical and not a movie (we’ll forget about comparing it to the novel, after all no one reads book anymore).
Buying a movie ticket for Wicked would have been disastrous; it would not even have come close to rivaling the 1939 film starring Judy Garland.
Buying a Broadway theater ticket to Wicked makes much more sense. It’s a different medium and therefore it has different (lowered) expectations.
Second, Wicked is set in a universe that is easily relatable to a lot of people. Oz and its characters strikes a chord with fans who can’t get enough of the world first envisioned in L. Frank Baum’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.
Still, this doesn’t explain why Wicked has escaped bad reviews and is now touring the country making stops in cities like Omaha, Nebraska and Norfolk, Virginia.
What propelled Wicked to escape the usual fetters of being spawned from incredibly popular source material is its music and its story.
From the funky “Dancing Through Life” to the cute “I’m Popular,” Wicked is full of songs that will put a smile on your face. Not to mention, the musical produces a few melodies you’ll be humming long after you exit the theater.
“I’m Not That Girl” is a soulful, heart wrenching ballad. “As Long As Your Mine” could be a top forty hit and a prom theme. “Wonderful” is a sweet and charming ditty that’s sentimental without being sappy.
“Defying Gravity” is a stirring song that ends Act I on a powerful note. The sweeping pop song is a personal anthem for anyone with high aspirations.
“Defying Gravity” is also indicative of the musical’s highly relatable story. Granted, we can’t relate to having green skin and rebelling against a wizard, but we can relate to being an outcast in the world that constantly misunderstands us.
Set before Dorothy’s arrival in Oz, Wicked tells the story of the Wicked Witch of the West and her relationship with the Good Witch of the North. It relays the events that led to the witch’s fall and it also explains the origins of the Scarecrow and the Tin Woodsmen.
Why the back story on the wicked witch and not the good witch? The villain’s fall from grace is always more interesting than the hero’s rise to nobility.
Like the movie and the book that preceded it, Wicked intertwines the Land of Oz and its characters into a story that’s both relatable and inspiring.
The press obviously failed to see what the millions of Wicked ticket buyers have seen since the show opened—Wicked may be about the witches of Oz, but it’s really about us.
