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So now that I go to school an hour south of Chicago- I've determined that I want to go and take advantage of the cultural offerings the city has to offer.
In pursuit of that goal- I bought tickets for me and my girlfriend to go see Wicked. I saw it about a month ago- I heard three or four songs before (One Short Day, No Good Deed, Defying Gravity, and What is this Feeling?)
I'm still listening to the soundtrack. It's so good! Has anyone else seen it- what did you guys think?
Posts: 980 | Registered: Aug 2005
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I saw it in Toronto and I really enjoyed it. I didn't think the ending was entirely necessary, but I liked pretty much every other change they made from the book.
It's a good show. You'll both really enjoy it.
Posts: 2849 | Registered: Feb 2002
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I saw it about a month ago. We did. I'm just still excited by it. I've also watched Fiddler on the Roof and Hairspray for the first time since then- man my life has just been filled with musicals lately.
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I saw it about two years ago in Houston. My roommate and I had been listening to the soundtrack for awhile and we both really liked the show.
Sadly, I don't think of it as an enduring show for me because I haven't listened to the soundtrack forever and aside from "Popular" or "Defying Gravity," I skip all of its songs when my ipod puts it on shuffle.
The musical is SOO much better than the book. I like how it focused so much on the Glinda/Elphaba relationship instead of the meandering wanderings in the book.
Posts: 1733 | Registered: Apr 2005
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I saw it with the traveling cast rather than the permanent Chicago installation and really enjoyed it. And yes, I had read the novel first. It's radically different from the novel but in a good way (IMHO)
And now that you're that close, we should see about setting up a Chicago get-together!
Posts: 4515 | Registered: Jul 2004
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I want to see it because I do love several of the songs from it, including the ones listed. Also Elphaba is cool.
Posts: 9942 | Registered: Mar 2003
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I'd be down for that. I like in Kankakee county. (Olivet Nazarene University).
I've only be downtown twice (to Navy Pier and Gino's and then to the Oriental). I get to the city by using the train (the electric Metra line to the south suburbs, that way I don't have to worry about driving and then paying for parking- it's a lot less hassle. And if I drove- my parents I think would come from TN just to shoot me)
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I really liked it. I took my girlfriend on a very nice date to see Wicked two years ago (and totally didn't pay any attention to her, so caught up was I).
EDIT: Puffy, sorry if I spoiled a surprise for you. If you're just mockin' me, though - well, I got a knuckle sandwich with your name on it.
Actually, I wrote my name on it, but just so that no one tries to borrow it from me.
SPOILERS . . . . . . . .
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I didn't like the ending. If someone dies, keep 'em dead. Let us mourn. Don't be cheap and bring 'em back.
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I'm about 2/3 of the way through the book, but I don't know a thing about the musical, other than that it exists.
The book is okay, but I keep trying to figure out at what point someone read it and decided, "This needs to be a lavish Broadway musical." Any idea how that happened?
Posts: 2804 | Registered: May 2003
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*spoiler* . . . Honestly, there's plenty of foreshadowing that Elpheba will live. You see her standing in the rain, and the thought that water will melt her is explicitly mocked. I thought the ending worked. . . . *end spoiler* . . . I love this show. It's one of my two favorite musicals. And the more I watch it or listen to the cast recording, the more subtle things I pick up on. I've only become more convinced since seeing this show of its brilliance.
I saw it on Broadway once and I saw the traveling version twice. Of course there's a drop-off between Broadway and the traveling version, but not as bad as others I have seen.
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Who's playing Elphaba? (I've been spoiled by seeing Idina Menzel in the part several times, so everyone else seems drastically subpar. )
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quote:Originally posted by Speed: The book is okay, but I keep trying to figure out at what point someone read it and decided, "This needs to be a lavish Broadway musical." Any idea how that happened?
Universal acquired the option to film the novel as a live action movie. While trying to work out a script, they kept noticing that the most famous "Oz" adaptation of all time was the MGM musical version.
It's also the era of big, expensive, family-oriented shows. It was thought the familiarity of the Oz characters combined with the viewpoint twist would make for a hit family show.
They gambled right, judging by the success of the show.
Posts: 6689 | Registered: Jan 2005
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Currently, Dee Roscioli plays Elphie in Chicago. She was the understudy and stepped up, according to the show website. No other acting credits listed.
Stephanie Block, who was Elphie for the traveling cast when I saw it, is now in the Broadway cast replacing Idina.
Posts: 4515 | Registered: Jul 2004
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Reading the book, it's clear Gregory M. was more familiar with the MGM musical version than the Baum novel. Making the Witches of West and East sisters, making Glinda come from the north, giving Elphaba green skin, making Dorothy into a fragile-hearted weeper...all that comes from the film. Posts: 6689 | Registered: Jan 2005
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I'd say he was familiar with both, although of course he took liberties. I read the original Wizard of Oz to my kids not long after I saw the show, and then I saw the original movie with my kids. There were some things he got from the book. But his excuse for anything he changed, like Bok's role, was "the story you've heard isn't the true story, it's the one they *want* you to believe."
quote:Originally posted by Goody Scrivener: Stephanie Block, who was Elphie for the traveling cast when I saw it, is now in the Broadway cast replacing Idina.
No, Idina was replaced by Shoshana Bean, who was amazing. Block is perhaps replacing Bean. I've seen both Bean and Block in the role, and Bean was substantially better.
Posts: 13680 | Registered: Mar 2002
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Some things from the book, yes, though mostly altered.
I think around the time the musical was released his official line on the book and movie incarnations of Oz versus his revisionist version is that Wicked is "Another time, another life"...sort of an alternate universe Oz.
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I read the book, loved it. I mean, loved it a lot, thought it was a great read and thought, you know, in a lot of ways, that it was a work of brilliant literature. Then I listened to the soundtrack of the musical and thought: This doesn't seem to jive. Then I read a synopsis of the musical and thought: Seriously. What in the world.
I know, I know, I'm in the minority. Posts: 2267 | Registered: May 2005
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No, not at all. The musical may as well be a different piece of art, and people who love the book and go to see the musical need to be warned, or they're in for a surprise. Likewise, people who love the musical and then read the book need to be warned as well.
But the musical, while very different from the book, is still wonderful. And it does have a lot of the book's subversiveness and depth. It's just a little more hidden.
(And really only act one is happy and upbeat. Act two is much darker.)
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