Not living in New York City and being closer to the Wisconsin
\nborder than to Chicago’s city limits, my theatre experiences are
\nextremely limited. So it should be of no surprise that I’ve not
\nseen
\nWicked<\/i>, the latest Broadway smash (and, for star Idina
\nMenzel, a Tony Award-winning experience) that tries to tell the
\nstory of how the Wicked Witch of the West became evil.<\/p>\n
I’ve got to admit, I sat on this soundtrack for months. I had
\nzero — let me rephrase that,
\n
\nzero<\/b>
\n<\/i> — interest in listening to it, having made it 33 years on
\nthis planet without seeing
\nThe Wizard Of Oz<\/i>. (I will pause now for disgusted,
\nunbelieving gasps from the readership.) But, part of the gig here
\nis taking chances on discs you’d never pay money for at the store,
\nso I finally dusted it off and gave it a shot.<\/p>\n
I’m glad I did.<\/p>\n
\nWicked<\/i> is a surprisingly modern-sounding musical score,
\nseemingly taking the concept of a Disney soundtrack and swiftly
\ntelling the story (albeit without all of the plot development or
\neven all the details) in the span of about an hour. Based on the
\nGregory Maguire novel of the same name, this soundtrack dares to
\npaint a sympathetic picture of the Wicked Witch (officially named
\n“Elphaba”) and her relationship with Glinda, the Good Witch of the
\nNorth. Stephen Schwartz has crafted a set which, despite a few
\nsagging moments, is rightfully poised to become a modern
\nclassic.<\/p>\n
The pairing of Menzel (as Elphaba) and Kristin Chenoweth (as
\nGlinda) works well, as both actresses’ voices complement each
\nother, almost to the point that they blend together as one. Were it
\nnot for the liner notes, I honestly would have had problems
\ndistinguishing one’s lines from the other’s – and that is not meant
\nas a complaint. Schwartz wisely keeps the numbers performed by
\nMenzel low-key. It would have been far too easy to create a musical
\nsetting akin to Margaret Hamilton-like cackling; instead, Schwartz
\ncrafts songs which paint the portrait of a young woman, a social
\noutcast through no fault of her own, trying to succeed and be
\nrespected on her own terms.<\/p>\n
Broadway staple Joel Grey makes two appearances on the
\nsoundtrack as the Wizard, but his role is wisely scaled back, as
\nthe focus of the story in
\nWicked<\/i> has more to do with the friendship between Glinda and
\nElphaba.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":26746,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5791],"rating":[5615],"class_list":["post-38011","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-original-cast-recording","rating-rating-b"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38011","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38011"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38011\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26746"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38011"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38011"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=38011"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=38011"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}