"Wicked" Overrated? What?

In the years since it entered Broadway and began touring the country, I don’t believe I’ve ever heard a poor review about “Wicked”. This play depicts the events before and during the Wizard of Oz from the perspective of the witches. I’ve had friends and family travel hours, make weekend trips, and pay big money to go see it. Phenomenal they call it. Even before I knew what Wicked was, I was hearing girls croon to the songs “Defying Gravity” and “For Good” with starstruck eyes.

Well yesterday I had the chance to see it. Before entering the theatre I promised myself that I would give Wicked a fair chance and analyze it solely based on what I saw and heard, and not based on its reputation. My overall synopsis: Yes, ok, it’s good. But it’s not amazing. The plot was rather thin and baseless. Here’s the good things of the show:

The Good:

-The song “Defying Gravity”. Excellent lyrics, notes, and delivery. It was powerful, fit with the play, and I felt should have been the finale song. Great song! It’s the only song from Wicked that’s been stuck in my head since seeing the show.

-Galinda. Her character was cute and querky and hilarious. They hit this one right on the nose depicting a “popular” attitude of our culture. I loved seeing her development through the play as well. Seeing her change from being totally self-centered to truly caring for her friend was cool.

-The set/costumes/Broadway feel. Yeah, as far as all the technicality issues, they did a great job and made it very entertaining.

-Probably my favorite part of the show was how they tied in “The Wizard of Oz”. Like explaining why Dorothy had the slippers (“who steals a pair of slippers from a dead girl? What, were you raised in a barn?”, epic), how the tinman, scarecrow, and lion came to be, why the house killed Nessa, where and why the wizard was, the water “killing” the witch, etc.. I like clever things, and all of that was very well done. Kudos.

The Wicked:

-The main thing that bugged me was that Elphaba’s “drive” or “cause” to “save the animals” was not developed, explained, or shown. Ok, so she had a goat teacher. Yeah I get it that she was trying to help those who were “different”, but I didn’t really feel convinced as to why. Her whole life she wants to go see the wizard and then when he says one thing about putting the animals in cages, Elphaba goes off her rocker and becomes a fugitive. Then the second act we never actually see her saving animals or actually doing anything “good”. She shouldn’t have taken the hit so easily and so pointlessly from the Wizard or from Mrs. Morrible. That whole thing could have been done better.

-Elphaba always had such a, “I’m being persecuted but I’m a tough girl” attitude. It was annoying. The one time where she was refreshing and “real” was when she was in the woods with Fierra and said the line, “for the first time in my life, I feel….Wicked!”. That was cool and fun. But other than that her character never really developed or grew. She was what she was from the beginning: a good but misunderstood green person.

-On that note, the whole “be nice to those who are different” theme has been overdone by society and by media. The conservationist/racism/handicap thing was a little overbearing. Maybe if they had narrowed in. But instead we had a girl in a wheelchair, a girl with green skin, and repression of animals, OH and the repression of the Munckins by Governor Nessa. Lots and lots of repression in this flick.

-Speaking of Nessa: what the heck. I really did not see the point of her character. She had zero redeeming qualities, lived a tragic and bitter life, and then died. Even when we first meet her at the school, she is being snappy to Elphaba. She has low self-esteem that leads to her blindly accepting Broc, when her father dies she is a nasty governor, when she’s healed she is ungrateful to her ever-helpful sister, and when she gets crushed by the house I don’t think anyone in the audience feels bad. She was a miserable character who didn’t add much to the plot. Sure, she was different because of her handicap. But Elphaba and the goat man covered that “different” base and it was pretty unnecessary to add that piece.

-The Goat Man- besides one off-stage line shouted by the Lion, the goat man is the one time we hear animals talk. Maybe if we had seen more of them talk it would have been cool and easy to accept that ok, Oz has talking animals. But no, we’ve got a goat man who teaches at the school. What??? And he turns Elphaba into an animal-loving PITA member in the one scene they have together…in which he eats her lunch bag.

-The love understory was terrrrribly underdeveloped. They should have added to it or just taken it out. Here’s how it goes. Fierra is obviously a popular/slightly brainless guy. He apparently is a lazy jerk based on the scenes we see with him and his first song. Then out of no where, Elphaba’s spell doesn’t work on him (why???) when the whole class gets put under her magic, they save a lion cub together, and then all of a sudden they’re in love? Whaaaat? It happened too quick, there was no convincing in it, and he was also (like Nessa) a slightly pointless character. Same with Broc. So great, he goes to the dance and then SPENDS THE REST OF HIS LIFE with Nessa so that he can get in with Galinda. Whaaat? Then when Nessa’s legs are fixed, without even thinking Broc is like, “oh by the way, I never liked you. I liked that pretty girl for all these years. So…if we’re cool then I guess I’ll see ya later”. It was very unconvincing and very underdeveloped.

-The crowd has zero personality. They sway with the opinion of the Wizard or Galinda in a heartbeat. I did not bond to the chorus at all.

-The ending song was anti-climactic. It was slow and it left me wanting something more. And the lyrics bug me. “Who can say if I’ve changed for the better?”. So basically, who knows, maybe I’m a better person for it. Maybe not. No one can really tell. “But because I knew you I have been changed for good”. Isn’t “better” basically the same thing as “good”? I don’t know, kind of redundant/conflicting statements.

So in summary, I guess the main thing is a lack of motive in the characters. Motive is big for me and oftentimes it wasn’t presented very strongly WHY Elphaba was saving the animals, WHY Fierra loved Elphaba, WHY Nessa was always such a jerk, WHY they decided to bring a talking goat man into the story, etc..

After all that though, I am glad I finally got to see this show. It was a lot of fun and I’d love to see it again sometime. But I can honestly say that I don’t think it’s worth all of the hype that it has received. I’ve walked out of dozens of other plays and musicals (West Side, Les Mis, Phantom, Grease, Guys and Dolls, Pippin, South Pacific, Into the Woods, etc..) with a bigger since of completion and satisfaction in my chest. If characters from those musicals had a house fall on them, I might actually be upset.

And who knows, this review might not have changed you for the better. But because you read it, you have been changed for good. Yeah….do you see what I’m talking about?

And what’s with the talking goat?!?????