A 'Wicked' Performance
- Nov 20, 2015
- 3 min read
The inspiring musical, Wicked revolutionized the empowerment of women on the Broadway stage. In 1995 Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West was published. It was written by Gregory Maguire and illustrated by Douglas Smith. It gives readers a closer look into the characters of Oz from L. Frank Baum’s 1900 novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz which was made into a film adaptation titled The Wizard of Oz. As opposed to the iconic 1939 movie, in Baum tailored his book to satisfy the needs of an adult audience. It contains explicit language as well as violent and sexual conduct. It was the first novel in a series called The Wicked Years. The consecutive three novels include Son of a Witch (2005), A Lion Among Men (2008), and Out of Oz (2011).
While on vacation in Hawaii, composer-lyricist Stephen Schwartz was on a boat ride with singer Holly Near. She mentioned how much she loved reading Maguire’s novel. Schwartz immediately saw the musical potential and later called his lawyer to obtain the rights. Maguire had already signed over the rights to Universal for a live-action feature. The songwriter was able to persuade Maguire and the movie studio that the stage version would better bring the story to life. In return for the rights, Universal signed on as joint producer of the stage adaptation.
However, like that of the filmmakers of The Wizard of Oz, Schwartz wanted the show to be family friendly so he used Winnie Holzman’s Wicked: The Untold Story of the Witches of Oz novel to base his production off of. As a cleaner version of Maguire’s novel, Schwartz thought that it would better cater to young audience members’ needs.
On October 30, 2003 Wicked made
its Broadway debut at the Gershwin Theatre. The original cast included Idina Menzel as Elphaba, Kristin Chenoweth as Glinda, and Joel Grey as the Wizard. Both Idina and Kristin have become prominent figures in the public eye. Since Wicked, Idina has voiced Queen Elsa in the worldwide known Disney movie Frozen and is currently working on a touring Broadway show, If/Then. She will also begin working on Frozen 2 sometime in the next year. Kristin has since starred in the Disney Descendants movie as Maleficent, the villain in the long told fairy tale known as Sleeping Beauty. She has also been credited as Fran Kubelik in Promises, Promises on Broadway as well as Christine Daaé in the German tour of
Phantom. The dynamic duo also had recurring roles on the hit Fox comedy show, Glee.
At the 2004 Tony Awards, Wicked was nominated for a total of 10 awards, including: Best Musical, Book, Orchestrations, Original Score, Choreography, Costume Design, Lighting Design, Scenic Design, and two for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical – Menzel and Chenoweth. Idina ended up winning the award for Best Actress, but she does credit Kristin for her help and encouragement. The show itself won the awards for Best Scenic Design and Best Costume Design. The show shockingly lost the title of Best Musical to Avenue Q. This same year, Wicked won six out of eleven Desk Award nominations, four out of ten Outer Critics Circle Award nominations, and a Grammy Awards for Best Musical Show Album.
Going back to the Tony Awards of 2004, Idina and Kristin astounded the crowd once more with a show-stopping performance of “Defying Gravity” (the iconic song that concludes the first act of the show). The following clip shows the amazing quality of this timeless song.
With all of the talk of major musicals becoming movies, it is no surprise that Wicked has been mentioned. After all, it was originally in motion to become a film rather than a live Broadway show. Since the success of the musical in 2004, producers have been looking into the making of a movie. Stephen Daldry has accepted the offer to direct the film while Winnie Holzman will pen the screenplay. On January 7, 2015, it was officially announced by Marc Platt that the goal was to have the film adaptation of Wicked in movie theaters sometime in 2016.
Comments