volcanogirl

starrs, I'm so glad you said that. Now I feel better!

LT

I saw Wicked a year and a half ago in L.A. I enjoyed the music, but, IMO, you should almost never mess with a classic like The Wizard of Oz, and the story is living proof of this. It's not that it was horrible; however, it's just not up to the wonderful standard of the original story.

starrs

Okay, I know this will be blasphemy for many lovers of the "classic", but...
I hated the Wizard of Oz.
As a kid it disturbed me greatly.
This was in the days of limited TV when the yearly airing of the movie was a big event.
My mom loved it (and Judy Garland) - but I hated it. Had to watch it and silently wondered why it made me very uncomfortable.
The flying monkeys creeped me out.
I had a real life Margaret Hamilton in my life, so maybe the Wicked Witch of the West was just way too much for me.
But, I HATED it.
Even as an adult I still didn't love it. Didn't really like it.

I took my mom to the play last year. She enjoyed it. Me? Not so much.

Okay. I've said it.
My bravery is buoyed by previous threads that other Fodorites hated clowns too

But, I adore Wicked the Musical.
Especially the little bits of homage to the movie in the second act.
They make me laugh.

www.wickedthemusical.com

BetsyinKY

I love, love, love Wicked. Not to the point where I have seen it 15 times and "greenify" myself for Wicked Day, but it has become one of my favorite musicals. It's not really an adaptation of the Wizard of Oz, but a story that borrows the same setting and some of the same characters. I heard the music and read the book before I saw the musical, and perhaps this is why I fell completely in love with it. As a child I liked the Wizard of Oz movie, but my dad had all the Oz books by L. Frank Baum, and I devoured them. Gregory Maguire references as much from these books as he does from the movie. I was already familiar with Winkieland and all the other strange regions of Oz. For me, reading Wicked was like rediscovering a childhood friend all over again. While the musical is not a strict adaptation of the book, I love how the friendship between Glinda and Elphaba develops and I adore the ending of the musical...makes me cry every time!

ncounty

I don't know if it was particular to the female lead in the Chicago producation playing Elfaba, but I thought she looked really beautiful in green and it looked like her eye makeup had red that really dramatized it. When I looked at the actress's photo, IRL, she wasn't as strikingly beautiful as when she was green. It brought out her facial angles nicely.

Starrs- you should be Elfaba for Halloween!

starrs

ncounty, I WAS two Halloweens ago
This year I was going to Wicked on Halloween with a very young associate minister from my town (very good friend of MY associate minister in the city). Why, oh why are they so YOUNG nowadays?

Anyhoo, she suggested we get "dressed up" to go to the show. I had no idea if she meant "dressed up" as in very nice clothes or as in Halloween costumes. What a relief to know that it was the former (although I would have just plopped on the hat if it were the latter)

The third person was the office manager - somewhere in between us in age but had read GM's books and as big of a fan as me. We ALL loved the play - needless to say.

We did see a lot of folks in costume. I thought Glinda was sitting behind us, but she said she was just the tooth fairy! LOL!

sf7307

Hi all - FKA "dmlove" here. I've been gone from the forum awhile, while I spent all my free time on political boards!

Anyway, just wanted to ditto everything ncounty said -- 2 guys and 3 girls (21, 23, 24, and two 50-somethings). We all liked it, very much, but weren't "blown away" -- We liked the story, the sets, the actors....just thought the music wasn't "Wowza". BUT,nobody said they thought it was "chick-flickish".

NeoPatrick

So who's planning to see Wicked again on Broadway when Liza Minelli takes over playing Ms. Morrible sometime this spring?