wicked

went to see wicked last night.  kristen chenoweth is amazing as glinda the good witch, and i'm absolutely certain that idina menzel and joel grey are in top form for this production. 

unfortunately, i can only personally attest to ms. chenoweth's abilities, as both ms. menzel and mr. grey were on vacation.  their stand-ins — eden espinosa and sean mccourt — were fantastic, and, considering i got to see norbert leo butz again (the last time i saw him was in 1997, in rent), i was quite happy.  oh, and queer as folk's randy harrison played the munchkin, boq.  who knew the boy could sing?

although the show departs quite a bit from gregory maguire's novel, i still love the story.  the important themes from the book are there, but winnie holzman's script, along with some solid direction and character flourishes, add a lot of humor.  holzman, whom i love for having co-created and written my favorite episodes of the television series my so-called life, really succeeds in conveying the strength and complexity of the relationship of the two leads — their mutual feelings of love and loathing combine to form an extraordinary bond.

the play also has a good deal of social commentary — how history is written by the victors and is often revisionist, and how society is quick to exclude and destroy elements that it cannot assimilate.  the portrayal of elphaba as a terrorist, and the manipulation of the public's baseless fear of her, is also quite relevant to current events — quite a feat, considering that the work is derived from l. frank baum's 100 year old story about a kansas farm girl.

i'm still happy that avenue q won the tony, but i'm now a little sad that wicked couldn't have shared the prize somehow.  see both, if you can.

Posted by jason at July 2, 2004 11:45 PM