Wicked

Wicked; the untold story of the witches of oz. The story of two girls who meet, one is green, angry, and bitter while the other is beautiful smart and friendly. A musical about the wicked witch of the west, and Glinda the good witch, two complete opposites who try to find something in common and get along. The music and lyrics were written by Stephen Schwartz who also did music for the popular Pippin, The Prince of Egypt, and Godspell. The book Wicked, was written by Winnie Holzman. Wicked is directed by Joe Mantello who won the Tony- Award 2003 and 2004. After reading the book by Gregory Maguire, Stephen sat down at his piano and started writing songs for his new musical. The themes of this story if friendship, and it's okay to be different.

Wicked has been showing in major citites all of the world, besides on Broadway in New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, London's West End, Tokyo, Stuttgart, Sydney, and Denmark. Wicked was nominated for ten of the 2004 Tony Awards, including Best Musical, Best Book, Best Orchestra and twice for Best Leading Actress. "Defying Gravity" was covered in the TB series Glee.

After the large success of the musical, an auxiliary show was made, Behind the Emerald Curtain. The show has 90 minutes of behind the scene of the props, masks, costumes, and sets. It was led by cast members who do an interview session. Behind the Emerald Curtain is part of the Wicked productions running in NYC and San Francisco.

Elphaba, the wicked witch of the west and the good witch Glinda are college roomates. They have nothing in common. Because Elphaba is green she is very misunderstood. Glinda stays by her side and tries to help her become "popular", in one of the songs Glinda starts off by saying now that we are friends, you are going to become my new project! She sings a song talking about everything she thinks Elphie should be good at so that she becomes popular. 

I chose this play because I have seen it, and really enjoyed it. I like that it is relatable, not in the sense that they are witches, but they are opposites and try to become friends. "Together were unlimited, together we'll be the greatest team" Elphie sings the song defying gravity, saying how if they can work through everything and become friends they can be the best of friends. I think this story can teach kids a lot about friendship and how everyone is different. It's also a fun play because of all the music, and that it is almost based around the popular movie The Wizard of Oz.

I personally relate to this story because I know what it's like to be different, and not always want to fit this mold of popular. I was "popular" in high school and had a lot of different groups of friends, but my closest friends were not what others would say popular; they were however most trust worthy and loyal then the other girls I were close with. I found in the musical the lesson was not to be popular, but to find good friends who you can rely on. Elphie and Glinda made a strong bond throughout the play. I also find it hard to sometimes communicate and say what I want to say, so I the fact that most the play was in song was easy to relate to. It spoke to me and I would see it again or suggest others to see it. The fact that Glinda stood up for Elphie while refused to give her the time of day, really taught a good lesson to everyone. The musical is very uplifting and fun. I think people of all ages would enjoy this play.Friendship is very important. And it's not how many friends you have, it's how true your friends really are.