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28 of 28 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
"There are very few at ease with moral ambiguities..., March 1, 2004
....so we act as though they don't exist." The Wizard sings that in "Wonderful" and it's the plot of the show in a nutshell. The Green Witch who defied the Wizard, was then villanized by a closeminded society, and was labeled as "Wicked".Stephen Schwartz, Winnie Holzman, and Thomas Maguire have created a musical which is timeless. It's a self standing work of art that speaks for itself and runs without need of the oil of the hour (which perhaps explains critics' hesitancy to heartily applaud it). This enters the arena of grand artistic achievement. It does what great art can do: stirs the emotions, provokes thought, and engages you fully. I was never a big fan of "Wizard of Oz", but the show's poster (no kidding), concept of the "backstory" and revisionist history, Stephen Schwartz' music, and darkly comic sensibility enticed me. It was everything I thought it would be, but much more. This show is as heartbreaking as it is funny, as warm and friendly as it is dark and satirical, and anyone can appreciate it. It's social commentary is sharp, it's numbingly hilarious, and it's observations are keen and strike many chords, but it's heart and soul is what emanates from every moment and gets the audience to rise up on it's feet every night. You end up investing yourself in these characters, this fantastical world, and it does it better than any other show I've ever seen. Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth are gems, and reason enough to buy this CD. They could sing the phone book, but luckily they have what I think is Schwartz' best work to date. It runs the gamut of musical expression. We start off with the foreboding, modern classical, and deceivingly celebratory "No One Mourns the Wicked" and ends with the haunting folksy lullaby-cum-pop belt ballad "For Good". We have cleverly hidden biting commentary through Glinda's rib crackingly funny tuneful Broadway standard "Popular" ("it's not about aptitude, it's the way you're viewed, so it's very shrewd to be very, very popular, like me.") and very fun and melodic Top-40-Pop style "Dancing Through Life", which evoke the pleasures of the privileged rich, good looking, and "in-crowd", but are really used to illustrate the themes of selfishness, superficiality, and "do whatever it takes to get to the top", and contrast with Elphaba's ongoing struggles with doing the right thing and doing what's "easy", and indeed how hard life is for many people (in this show, it's a tragic play acted out between Elphaba's sister Nessarose and a munchkin named Boq who are used, hurt, pitiful creatures). I love all the songs on this CD (not counting "Something Bad" and "March of the Witch Hunters") but if I had to pick some to recommend, I'd say "Wizard and I", which display Elphaba's hopes and dreams (and Idina Menzel's remarkable vocal skills) and contain a sad irony ("unlimited, my future is unlimited"). Then there's "What is This Feeling", an infective, catchy, edgy, comic, upbeat tune about Glinda and Elphaba's "loathing" for one another (and yes, they become friends). "I'm Not That Girl" is simple and heartbreaking. Elphaba longs for love, basically, but it's completely lacking in bitterness and self pity, and is full of mournfulness and duty, and it hits you hard. The show-stopper "Defying Gravity" is a full blown knock-the-house-down "I'm not taking this anymore" change of weather. It gives you chills and pumps adrenaline at the same time. Menzel's miraculous vocals, the determined, wise, powerful lyrics, and Schwartz' beautiful, urgent, emotive, sometimes rock melody pushes this climactic epic crescendo of a song into Broadway history. Then there's the second Act, with Kristin Chenoweth's shining moment "Thank Goodness" , where she subtly changes the character of her character, and perhaps conveys the theme of the entire show, in front of our eyes "there's a kind of a sort of cost, there's a couple of things get lost, there are bridges you cross you didn't know you crossed until you crossed." It's a beautiful, tone changing, chameleon like, up and down song, that perfectly illustrates that true talent only needs a small space to get across big themes. Then of course I love "As Long As You're Mine" (I can't imagine Margaret Hamilton singing this one), the uber-powerful and despairing "No Good Deed" (it's like "Defying Gravity" part two but angry). Then the most beautiful song of the show, "For Good": Elphaba is defeated, and admits that she is "limited". It breaks your heart, but the rest of the song is a bittersweet balm and testament, poetic ode, to friendship. The character development in this show is some of the best I've ever seen. Every character goes on a full journey. It is something I rarely see anymore and which is delightfully refreshing, and helps in our emotional investment in the story. Personally I could relate to Elphaba, and hers are themes one can immediately, viscerally relate to: destiny, being an outsider, being shunned by society, friendship, integrity in the face of adversity. That said, Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth own this show. They are opposite, contrasting equals in talent and presence, one serious, mysterious, loving, and sarcastic, one beautiful, caring, yet selfish and superficial. They own their roles and their songs, they ARE these characters, bring them to life. The two of them and their roles are among the greatest female performances and characters to ever grace the Broadway stage. Underneath it all, this is the story of a courageous girl who simply tries to live, to do right, yet is thwarted, and how she changed another girl's shallow life through friendship. Among all it's themes - corruption, destiny, rebellion, propaganda, deception, selfishness, misconception, racism, love, hatred, popularity, acceptance - this is it's greatest and it's strongest. It's what we take from it. And every aspect of the show, acting, characters, plot, and Schwartz' fine score breathing through and supporting it all, comes together to tell this story, and it's told brilliantly.
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by Stephen Schwartz
~ Ronald Melrose
by Gregory Maguire
~ Jeff Marx
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