Theatre News and Reviews

In musical theatre, the words “fun for the whole family” invariably send alarm bells to purists everywhere: Beware screaming teenagers and their oversized, red-state, mid-American parents who have a knack for unwrapping their candy at the most inopportune moment. Wicked, however, may well be the exception to all the rules of old and new Broadway.

This infinitely pleasing musical recreation of the land of Oz before Dorothy was blown into it — based on the 1995 novel by Gregory Maguire — literally has something for everyone. That’s both what’s good and bad about it.

Teenagers can enjoy its sweet rendering of the rivalry and friendship between the two witches: the “perfect” Glinda (Kendra Kassebaum) and the “unnaturally green” Elphaba (Stephanie J. Block). Winnie Holzman (creator of TV’s My So-Called Life) has crafted a book for Wicked that addresses every emotional need of young women in, or looking for, love, and has dressed it all up in a classic outsider story.

Older folks will appreciate its deconstruction of The Wizard of Oz and, to a less-effective degree, a parable about political power through the suppression of free thought and the creation of enemies to divert attention from the domestic agenda.

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This entry was posted on Saturday, April 2nd, 2005 at 7:58 pm and is filed under Theatre, Broadway. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.