Review of Wicked at Oriental Theatre

Once upon a time I went to a show and it was called Wicked. It was directed by Joe Mantello and the music and lyrics were written by Stephen Schwartz and the book was written by Winnie Holzman. The play was based on the novel by Gregory Maguire. It was about the Wicked Witch of the West and Glinda the Good, also known as Elphaba (Alison Luff) and Glinda (Jenn Gambatese), from The Wizard of Oz. It was about how they weren't actually enemies; they were actually friends. And it is about how good can be bad and bad can be good. I loved this show. All of the songs were really good. I am still singing them! Wicked is a really great show; everything about it is just amazing!

"Popular" was a really good song because it is really funny and there are a lot of funny lines before it. So, basically, just lots of hilarity all through the scene. I really liked it when they both were rolled on in their beds and Elphaba only has a book and a few lamps on her side of the room and then Glinda's had a giant wall of shoes. That told me that they were completely different people and you were pretty sure that they were never ever going to like each other. At the end, after they sing "Popular," you kind of see that they might actually be able to be friends. The song is about how Glinda wants Elphaba to be popular like her. I thought that the girl who played Glinda was really good at doing funny screams and I thought that it was funny at the end when she said, "You'll be very very popular, but you won't be as popular. as. me" after Elphaba leaves. It wouldn't be funny if someone said that in real life because it would be really mean. It was like slapstick basically. If someone bonked their head without looking you wouldn't be like "Ha ha," but if it happens in a cartoon or a play, then it is funny.

I thought it was really funny how Glinda changed her name from Guh-linda to Glinda because the thing is she was trying to find a way for her to be part of this conversation that Elphaba was having with Fiyero (Curt Hansen) about how they will miss each other and how Elphaba is so sad that Doctor Dillamond (Tom Flynn) had to go away because he couldn't speak anymore. Glinda is not really moved, but she is still moved. She is not evil, but she's not great at this moment. Elphaba is really sweet and kind in this moment, but she isn't always.

There was this one song called "One Short Day," and it was about how Elphaba and Glinda had gone to the Emerald City to see the Wizard (John Davidson). I thought that it was really cool, though I did have an objection to it a little bit because there were these puppet-costumes that were like weird people with giant heads that had no arms and were really fat. I objected to that because then after that their necks started going up until they were basically giraffe height. I think that they wanted to make amazing puppets like the elephant butts in Big Fish, but I didn't like them as much as the elephant butts. I really liked all the green costumes (by Susan Hilferty) in that scene and how green and awesome they were. They were all so elaborate. They weren't just a green shirt with a green skirt; they were very big!

I also thought that when the monkeys were set free that was really cool. I really liked the music and how their makeup was really scary and awesome. I suspect that there were girl flying monkeys, but I'm not sure. I really liked the monkey wings popping out because you weren't expecting that was how they got their wings. You just thought they always had them.

I really liked the song "Defying Gravity." It is my favorite song in the entire play because it is really captivating, and I love the lyrics, and it is such a great song. It makes me feel inspired. I want to write a song like that! I really liked that song because the flying at the end was beautiful and it was a great way to end an act. It is about Elphaba wanting to be an apprentice to the Wizard, but now she wants to be evil because she hates him so much. She wants to be with Glinda and still be friends with her, but she also wants to do what she wants to do; she wants to now get her revenge on the Wizard.

SPOILER ALERT! SPOILER ALERT! SPOILER ALERT! If you haven't seen the play, you should not read these next two paragraphs unless you don't care about how it is going to end (or being surprised) or unless you will never be able to see it.

I really liked how they didn't ever ever go "Well this happened, even though it has nothing to do with The Wizard of Oz." It all connected to The Wizard of Oz and sometimes it was surprising and sometimes you kind of knew who that character was going to grow up to be or why they felt the way they did in The Wizard of Oz. I was surprised when Fiyero turned into the Scarecrow. It was surprising because he wasn't brainless or anything, but he was very stupid. I don't know why Elphaba, who was really intelligent, was in love with Fiyero, and also Glinda, because she was more intelligent than he was as well. The cowardly lion was not that surprising because why else would there be a lion in class?

At the end they are talking about how because of this green bottle that the mother (Marina Lazzaretto) and the person who was having an affair with her (also known as the Wizard of Oz!) drank, that made Elphaba green. It is a really cool thing that happened at the end, and I don't want to have to leave it out of my review. In the bottle was a green potion or an alcoholic green drink. I think it made the mother fall in love with the Wizard.

People who would like this show are people who like friendship, flying monkeys, and awesome Glinda squeals. People should go see this show because it is funny and it makes you want to be able to travel to Oz and go there on vacation whenever you want. The Wizard of Oz was pretty racist because the antagonist has a different color skin, but this is basically saying, don't judge a book by its color. Just because people look different or are different doesn't mean they are a bad person. They are not just contradicting The Wizard of Oz by saying Glinda is bad and Elphaba is good. They are basically saying they are equal; they are both good people with dabs of bad.

Photos: Joan Marcus