Wicked Game
Here's an interesting essay on the heavy-handed politics of Wicked. I disagree, though, with the notion that liberals can't see good and evil in black and white. They're just as capable as conservatives, only about different issues.
What interested me more was the story of Stephen Schwartz. I'm sure he could have retired on the royalties from Godspell alone, but has there ever been such a huge comeback after so many years in the wilderness?
posted by LAGuy @ 12:17 AM
6 Comments:
I am used to thinking liberal commentators are overly sensitive to political messages, but in this case I have to say Stage Right is perhaps reading too much into Wicked. I have not seen the musical yet (planning to see it this summer during a family trip to NYC). But I've read the book.
The book is a political story, but I don't think the book is written from a leftist mind-set. The Wizard is not a Republican in the book, he is an interloping alien to OZ who is actually hunting for a book of magic. He is evil, in a fairly traditional manner. Sure, there are parallels to Hitler, with the scapegoating of "Animals" for OZ's ills, but the book, which was written I think during the Clinton presidency, is not, imho, a commentary on American government, except in as much as it blasts all politicians.
McGuire's shtick is simply to flip common stories on their head, using the same basic set of events, yet ascribing opposite motivations and characters to the main players. They are fun that way. So the Ugly Step Sisters are good hearted, while beautiful Cinderella is coniving, etc. I don't think it serve conservative commentators well to become super-sensative to every possible interpretation of a political slight.
If we haven't learned from Soviet realism or Nazi Degenerate Art exhibitions, political interpretation of art is a fool's game.
Dead f**ing wrong. The score has VERY LITTLE to do with Wicked's incredible success. You've got great in-jokes tweaking one of the most famous movies of all time; the novel at least attempted to rethink Baum, but the musical book has almost nothing to do with Maguire's novel and everything to do with the filmed version of The Wizard of Oz. You also have a culture of misfit Goth tween girls who have adopted the musical's version of Elphaba as their patron saint (and whose similar adulation of Idina Menzel, who created the role on Bway, has led to her need to travel with bodyguards even though maybe 10% of the population knows who she is). Schwartz is a decent composer and a completely mediocre lyricist who borders on the banal. No one comes to see it for the score.
I don't know enough about Wicked to say what makes it a success. I do know about the phenomenon--it's amazing that a show The New York Times could barely tolerate (Ben Brantley's review would have been an all-out pan if he didn't love Kristin Chenoweth so much) is one of the biggest moneymakers of all time.
As for Stephen Schwartz, I don't think there's any question his songs for Godspell--words and music--are a big attraction of the show. On the other hand, Pippin was all about Bob Fosse's staging (Fosse actually banned Schwartz from the rehearsals) and The Magic Show was about Doug Henning's tricks, so it's certainly possible Wicked is not about the score.
As for Idina Menzel, as huge as she is in the theatre world, I'd be shocked if even 5% of Americans could identify her.
It makes sense that the novel deals with the Baum while the musical deals with the movie. After all, a novel is words, while a show is visual. If the show ignored the movie, people would feel something is missing.
I thought Idina needed bodyguards because she's married to Taye Diggs.
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