This is a research paper I did for my independent study class for Theatre where I had to talk about the stage Muzikal Wicked, The Wiz, and my college's production of The Wizard of Oz. I felt like posting it on here. I hope anda guys enjoy it!
The story of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz sejak L. Frank Baum is one that is very well known and has had many different adaptions. The most famous adaptation is the 1939 film, The Wizard of Oz, starring Judy Garland. It was also because of that film that inspired both a musical based off the film, and the novel Wicked: The Life and Time of the Wicked Witch of the West sejak Gregory Maguire, which lead to the creation of the hit Broadway musical, Wicked. However, those aren’t the only famous Muzikal that came from the world of Oz. An all black cast version of the story called The Wiz was created and is one of the few Muzikal that are dominated sejak a minority. It was pretty much the same Wizard of Oz story everyone is aware of, with the only difference being the characters all being black. All of them put their own spin on the story of the world of Oz in their own unique way.
The EKU Theatre production of The Wizard of Oz is taken from the stage version that was created in 1987 based off the 1939 movie. It featured all of the songs from the original movie but also some deleted songs (“Somewhere Over the pelangi, rainbow Reprise”, “Jitterbug”, and “The Witch is Dead Reprise”) and extended versions of songs (“If I Only Had a Brain” and “If I Were King”) which helped it stand out a little from the movie it was based off of. “It is interesting to note that although the Royal Shakespeare Company script adaptation is obviously grounded with MGM, their initial 1987 casting and costume choices were somewhat odd and strayed as far away as possible from the beloved and iconic MGM film characters we know today,” (Raymond) which was very much the case with EKU’s production of the musical sejak having the costumes and some casting choices being massively different from the ones the audience is used to from the 1939 version. The production went for a very child-like imaginative route with its creative vision. Along with a mother narrating the story to her son, which was added to the stage version, the characters had very few pujian and had to mime everything throughout the play, like how a child would when playing a game of imagination. It even broke a convention in the world of Theatre sejak letting the audience see the actors that played the Scarecrow, Tin-man, and Cowardly Lion put on their make-up and costumes on stage. However, the lebih childish simplicity that this production was going for didn’t make it appear as though it was out of place. The casting of a woman as the Scarecrow and a man in drag as Glinda were very unique changes to these two iconic characters that made them stand out from the movie version even more. The ensemble were always active and had to make quick costumes changes for not only themselves but also for the character of Miss Gulch being transformed into the Wicked Witch of the West on stage. The look of the production was a very unique one and even featured a modern and tomboyish looking Dorothy that wore shorts, had a pixie cut, and her ruby slippers were sparkly red sneakers.
The EKU production of The Wizard of Oz was full of energy and creativity but failed with the Rekaan of the ruby slippers, which were meant to be magical and other worldly shoes rather than just some sparkly sneakers. It’s not very practical to expect the actress to be able to run, dance, and skip around in fragile high-heels but lebih thought and creativity could’ve gone into their design. In the musical, The Wiz, the slippers weren’t ruby at all but were instead silver just like in the original book sejak Baum. In the case of Wicked, the slippers were silver and later on turned the color ruby. The silver slippers were a gift to Nessarose, who would later go on to become the Wicked Witch of the East, sejak her father when she went to attend Shiz universiti with her older sister, Elphaba to care for her. Nessarose was born unable to walk and had to remain in a wheelchair. One day, Elphaba, trying to help her sister, cast a spell on the slippers that gave Nessa the ability to walk. At first, they burned like api, kebakaran and once they became magical, turned permanently ruby red.
The slippers in both the EKU production of The Wizard of Oz and in The Wiz were full of mysterious magic that the Wicked Witch of the West desired to have for herself in order to make her powers the greatest in all of Oz. In the EKU production, the Wicked Witch of the West was upset about her sister, the Wicked Witch of the East, being crushed sejak a house with only her feet sticking out. She was angry at Dorothy but once Glinda pointed out the ruby slippers, the Wicked Witch had forgotten her anger and even told Dorothy that she was full of gratitude for the girl killing her sister just so she could have those shoes. This version did tunjuk a level of depth in the Wicked Witch sejak being, understandably, upset about her sister being crushed because someone dropped her house on bahagian, atas of her. However, her greed and self-serving nature soon made her forget about any kind of Cinta she had for her sister when the power of the slippers could finally be hers. In The Wiz, the Wicked Witch, named Evillene, didn’t tunjuk up until the saat act and never seemed to mourn for her “dearly” departed sister, Evvamene. The silver slippers were just something she wanted to make herself the most powerful being in all of Oz. In Wicked, Nessa was actually seen before being crushed sejak Dorothy’s house and wasn’t described as ugly but instead as a ravishing beauty. Nessarose, unlike her sister, didn’t possess any magical powers, but was still known as the Wicked Witch of the East because of how she, as the Governor of Munchkin Land, ruled over the defenseless munchkins with an iron fist. Nessa’s death was actually set up sejak the Wizard and Madame Morrible in order to lure Elphaba out of hiding so they could capture and kill her. Elphaba’s main goal, as far as the slippers went, unlike her past incarnations, wasn’t to get the slippers for their magic, but instead as something to remember the sister that she loved dearly.
The characters in The Wizard of Oz and The Wiz were all the same characters that people know and Cinta when they think of the wonderful Land of Oz. However, in the case of Wicked, the characters were incredibly different from what most people were used to. The character of Dorothy Gale didn’t really make a physical appearance in Wicked, aside from a shadow puppet that was meant to “melt” the Wicked Witch. Instead, Wicked is about the unlikely friendship between Glinda, the Good Witch and Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West. These two characters are as opposite as can be with Glinda being the perky, bubbly girly, and attention seeking popular girl while Elphaba is lebih realistic, introverted, outspoken, and is often discriminated against because of her green skin. Both are ambitious women with good hearts but one is pushy and manipulative while the other is full of selfless and good intentions. It would surprise people who aren’t familiar with the musical that the witch that is full of selfless and good intentions is also the one with green skin and a fondness for pointy black hats.
Elphaba is a character that had been mistreated and considered an outcast all her life merely because of how she looked and her refusal to conform to what society berkata she should be in order to fit in and be accepted, which was to help the deceitful Wizard to silence all of the talking Haiwan and help him keep up his charade. Elphaba could be considered a representation of the prejudice that people of different races and ethnicities because of how she is judged based off the way she looks. Elphaba is an embodiment of someone desiring and willing to fight for equality of others because she “is an advocate for the speaking Haiwan and demonstrates her ability to work with diversity, an accomplishment that can be interpreted as the most challenging developmental task,” (Lane 177) that continues to be a problem in this hari and age. This is something that is still relevant today because of how our society is judging those who are immigrants as a danger to America, especially with the help of a deceptive, immoral, and self-serving leader that is enforcing this mindset and behavior from his followers that naively believe whatever he tells them and refuse to hear the truth. Elphaba had wanted to please others before but once she realized the truth, she didn’t want what she thought she wanted, which was represented in the iconic song, “Defying Gravity.” This song showed a great change within Elphaba and was when she would gain her ability to fly on a broomstick. The song “is a metaphor that represents a girl’s quest for her authentic self which is attained at a high price—flying solo atau alone—but this flight bears a reward—freedom,” (Schweitzer 506) to be who she truly was but at the price of likely never being accepted in the world and considered both an outlaw and wicked like everyone thought she was. She was finally letting go of all the stress and insecurities that were keeping her down and instead was flying high claiming that no Wizard that there is atau was would ever bring her down. The world is judgmental to those who are different and while not as fleshed out and three-dimensional as Elphaba, the Wicked Witch from the 1939 version did in a way suffer from the same treatment. According to Glinda in that version, only bad witches are ugly. Because the Wicked Witch in that version was ugly, she would never be able to become good. In Wicked, Elphaba isn’t really ugly, but because of her green skin, along with her powerful and natural talents with magic, is considered to be a danger because people fear what they don’t understand but she decided to stop caring about what others thought sejak instead helping those who were being persecuted and finally being herself.
One of the themes in Wicked was actually in the form of a soalan in the song, “No One Mourns the Wicked,” in which it is asked, “Are people born wicked atau do they have wickedness trust upon them?” No one is born good atau evil because the world isn’t so black and white as many may believe the world to be. Elphaba was thought to be a monster even when she was born because of her unnaturally green skin and her “father” favored her younger sister, Nessa, over her and he treated Elphaba with distain. Despite Elphaba’s good intentions, she always managed to hurt someone and everyone continued to see her as wicked. Later in the saat act, after the loss of her true love, Fiyero, she realized that no good deed went unpunished and if everyone wanted to see her as nothing but a wicked witch, that was exactly what she would be from that moment on.
However, another theme from Wicked that involved people around anda affecting the person you’ve become, but in a lebih positive light, was the friendship between Elphaba and Glinda. When the two of them first met, they couldn’t stand each other and even had a song all about their loathing for each other. However, the two of them soon become best Friends and helped one another to grow and change. It is berkata that people come into someone’s life for a reason and that was very much the case with Elphaba and Glinda, which was “symbolic of the idea that people contribute to the development of growth-fostering relationships.” (Lane 176) If Glinda had never met Elphaba, she would’ve remained pushy, manipulative, self-centered, and unworthy of her title, Glinda the Good. If Elphaba had never met Glinda, she would’ve eventually gave into everyone’s mindset that she was wicked and would’ve stayed that way without Glinda being there to try and help her remember who she truly was on the inside. “Elphie learns from Glinda, as Glinda also learns from Elphie, that it is okay to be different. The relationship between the two heroines is an example of how a client-counselor relationship can be beneficial to the growth and development of the self.” (Lane 176) As they say in their duet, “For Good,” who can say if they had changed for the better? But because they knew each other, they had been changed for good. Unfortunately, there was a theme of bittersweet tragedy to go along with this friendship. Elphaba had to fake her death sejak pretending that water could actually melt her in order for her to escape with her true love, Fiyero, who had became the Scarecrow, away from the prejudice and persecution she’d face for being different. She couldn’t even let Glinda know that she was alive because it would put herself and Fiyero in danger, as well as have the people of Oz fearing Glinda as well. When they thought she was once Elphaba’s friend after the opening song, “No One Mourns the Wicked,” they backed away in shock and fear. Unfortunately, their society was too closed-minded to accept someone who was too different from them atau even to accept someone who was accepting of anyone different. It was with her belief that her dear friend was dead, that Glinda had finally rid Oz of the Wizard. Unfortunately, Elphaba and Fiyero remain unaware that the Wizard was no longer in power and would never be able to see Glinda ever again atau let her know that they were alive.
The theme The Wizard of Oz and The Wiz was that what anda thought anda lacked was truly inside of anda all along. The Scarecrow, Tin-man, and Cowardly Lion all learn that what they wanted was inside of them all along. The Scarecrow would come up with plans to get the group out of situations, the Tin-man was very emotional and compassionate (To the point he would sometimes be in danger of rusting himself again because he’d cry) throughout the entire journey, and the Cowardly Lion would still force himself to go up against the Wicked Witch and her guards when Dorothy was in danger. In The Wiz, the Cowardly Lion actually stood up to Evillene and even roasted her with shady comments.
However, Dorothy had to learn this lesson in a different way from her friends. Before she came to Oz, she wanted to go to a grand and magical place, but once she finally was she just wanted to go back utama to her family. Oz was a wonderful place but it wasn’t utama for her. Her lesson couldn’t be learned sejak just going back to Kansas immediately, she had to learn to appreciate what she had before in order to grow as a character that was lebih grateful for what she had. In The Wiz, she wasn’t really a lot of help around the bangsal and just seemed to make things lebih difficult for her Aunty Em and Uncle Henry, such as not doing chores and playing outside in her good dress, which she realized and did feel bad about being a nuisance. In The Wizard of Oz, it expanded upon the scene from the movie where Miss Gulch took Toto away. Not only were Dorothy, Miss Gulch, Uncle Henry, and Auntie Em there but the three farmhands were there as well. They coward in fear as her aunt and uncle let Miss Gulch take Toto away from her. Once Miss Gulch had left, Dorothy actually yelled at her aunt, uncle, and her three Friends for just letting her take away her dog, let her walk over them and intimidate them, and that she hated them. That scene made her desire to go back utama lebih emotional because there was a chance that she would be trapped in Oz forever atau be killed sejak the Wicked Witch and she would not only have to deal with the thought that Auntie Em could be sick and dying from a broken hati, tengah-tengah because of Dorothy, but that the very last thing she berkata to the ones she loved was that she hated them and wouldn’t be able to take it back. That emotional weight was intensified with the “Somewhere Over the pelangi, rainbow Reprise,” which was sung as a duet between Dorothy and the mother narrator, because it showed how the character regretted ever wanting to leave her utama and family, as well as the impact her actions and words had on the people who cared about her. She had truly learned that there was no place like home.
Glinda the good witch is very different in all three versions. The Wizard of Oz follows the film version where she is the Good Witch of the North. She was also fully aware that the slippers could’ve take Dorothy utama but chose not to tell her so she could learn a lesson, which was a rather psychotic and demented way of doing it. In The Wiz, she didn’t appear until the very end and she wasn’t the Good Witch of the North but instead the Good Witch of the South, like she was in the original book. The Good Witch of the North was actually a separate character, named Addaperle, that appears when Dorothy first landed in Oz and was a very comedic and silly character, so her forgetting to mention to Dorothy that the slippers could take her utama was an accident and not something that made her come across as insane. Addaperle was even called out sejak Glinda herself in the very end for neglecting to tell Dorothy that the slippers could’ve taken her utama the entire time. In Wicked, Glinda wasn’t telah diberi the tajuk of the North atau the South but was just known as Glinda the Good. Her character was telah diberi lebih of a role in Wicked, with her being one of the two main protagonists, was very flawed and self-serving but was deep down very sweet and would grow along her journey. At the beginning she was what was known as a Queen Bee because of how she “asserts power and control over her environment, is the center of attention, and others will be deferential in her presence but this comes at the cost of a real sense of self.” (Schweizer 503)
The Wizard of Oz himself was always a shady character because of his deception towards the people of Oz and for actually sending a young farm girl to try and kill the most evil being in all of Oz, the Wicked Witch. In The Wiz, Dorothy even argued that she couldn’t possibly defeat an evil witch, to which the Wizard himself retaliated sejak saying that she managed to kill the Wicked Witch of the East and therefore would be able to kill the Wicked Witch of the West, despite that Dorothy claimed that the demise of Evvamene was an accident. His deception was even lebih extreme because of how the zamrud, emerald City wasn’t actually green and instead the Wizard just had everyone wear green glasses and explained that without them, they’d be blinded sejak the city. In the EKU production, it was close to the film with having Dorothy meet his Kansas counterpart, Professor Marvel, who used his deception in order to convince Dorothy to not run away from utama and instead to go back to her family that loves her and would miss her. Once he was seen in Oz, it was different from the film sejak having the ensemble alih their mouths whenever the Wizard would speak, appearing as though Oz the Great and Powerful had several heads. In both versions, they admitted their deception and were willing to help take Dorothy back to Kansas, only for something to go wrong and he would end up accidentally leaving without her.
However, in Wicked, the Wizard was far lebih villainous and everything that happened with him and Elphaba was a conspiracy created from his deception and taking advantage of the ignorant naivety of the people of Oz. However, he was also telah diberi depth sejak wanting a family and to be a father and that he merely wanted to give the people of Oz everything they wanted. The irony of that is that the person he had been hurting, Elphaba, he later on found out when she was thought to be dead, was actually his daughter. Her green skin was caused from her mother drinking a green elixir he gave her when her husband was away and couldn’t discover their affair. He became remorseful for his actions of making himself great and powerful that he caused the apparent demise of his own daughter that he didn’t even know he had, and therefore was willing to leave Oz forever as Glinda commanded without any argument, so he couldn’t cause anymore damage and would have to live with his guilt. The Wizard was the villain of the musical but wasn’t a black and white villain but rather a three-dimensional character that was corrupt and selfish but did have some good intentions that were just Lost among his sea of selfishness.
The cultural contest of the initial incubation of The Wiz, first thought of in the early 1970s, was to give lebih representation to the black community sejak taking a story that was well-known and making it an all black cast and original songs that represented black culture. The idea was thought of sejak Ken Harper and the journey to getting this tunjuk onto the Broadway stage was as difficult as Dorothy’s journey through the land of Oz. Cast members left, the original director had to be replaced in out-of-town tryouts, and as the play moved toward New York, ticket sales were so low that Harper had closing notices ready for posting on opening night. However, despite the difficulties, it did premiere on January 5, 1975 at the Majestic Theatre, but it would face a new set of problems. Upon its initial release, The Wiz received poor reviews from critics and those reviews almost caused the tunjuk to be shut down permanently. Fortunately, the tunjuk was saved because of the favorable reviews from black critics, particularly from the oldest black newspaper in the county, New York Amsterdam News, that urged black theatregoers to see the show. The black critics even called out the white critics for their blatant racism sejak saying how they’re unable to respond to a story that was so beloved merely because it had been “produced sejak Blacks, sung sejak Blacks, and seen predominantly sejak Blacks on opening night.” It didn’t take very long afterwards for The Wiz to become a beloved tunjuk on Broadway sejak both the black community and sejak white people as well. The tunjuk was nominated for numerous Tony Awards and won seven: Best Musical, Best Choreography (George Faison), Best Costume Rekaan (Geoffrey Holder), Best Director of a Musical (Geoffrey Holder), Best Performance sejak a Featured Actor in a Musical (Ted Ross), Best Performance sejak a Featured Actress in a Musical (Dee Dee Bridgewater), and Best Original Score (Charlie Smalls). The Wiz still remains an important milestone in black history and a huge part of the legacy of black culture. In 1978 a critically panned film adaptation of The Wiz was released, which was largely rewritten when Diana Ross, who was at the age of thirty-four at the time, forced the production team to cast her as Dorothy. The film received negatively sejak both critics and peminat-peminat of the original tunjuk while still having peminat-peminat of its own, as well as being known as Michael Jackson’s breakout role in Hollywood, which made him become the King of Pop Muzik that he is known as today. NBC even aired a live Televisyen special of The Wiz Live! On December 3, 2015, which was close to the original sumber material and received praise from peminat-peminat and critics alike. The live Televisyen special even included Stephanie Mills, who played Dorothy in the original Broadway cast, in the tunjuk as Auntie Em.
Wicked premiered on Broadway on June 10, 2003 at the Curran Theatre in San Francisco and would later that same tahun on October 8 premiere at the Gershwin Theatre where the musical still runs at to this day. Upon initial release, it received mixed to positive reception from critics but would soon become known as one of the most popular and beloved Muzikal on Broadway. The tunjuk earned so much money that it even surpassed the box office of The Phantom of the Opera and the only tunjuk that is ahead of Wicked it the Broadway version of Disney’s The Lion King. The original Broadway production of Wicked was nominated for 10 Tony Awards in 2004, including Best Musical; Book; Orchestrations; Original Score; Choreography; Costume Design; Lighting Design; Scenic Rekaan while receiving two nominations for Best Actress – for Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth. Menzel won the Best Actress award, and the tunjuk also won the Tony Awards for Best Scenic Rekaan and Best Costume Design, notably losing Best Book, Original Score and ultimately Best Musical to Avenue Q.
Wicked still continues to run on international tours all over the world, not just on the Broadway stage. Disney’s Frozen even took inspiration from Wicked with the character of Elsa, who was voiced sejak Menzel, and her signature song, “Let It Go”, which one the Oscar for Best Original Song in 2014, has been compared to that of Elphaba’s triumphant musical number, “Defying Gravity.” When Frozen came to Broadway the song “Monster” sung sejak Cassie Levy, who also played Elphaba, was compared to another signature song from Wicked, “No Good Deed.” In October 2018, an NBC broadcast, A Very Wicked Halloween: Celebrating 15 Years on Broadway, was hosted sejak Menzel and Chenoweth and featured Ariana Grande, Pentatonix, Adam Lambert, Ledisi, the current Broadway company of the musical and others, Singing many of the musical numbers from Wicked to a live studio audience at the Marquis Theatre in New York and had the konsert special directed sejak Glenn Weiss. It was announce in 2016 that Universal would be creating a film adaptation of the beloved musical and would feature at least two new songs.
The world of Oz has been huge part of the legacy of fictional history from the books, the films, and the Broadway stage. It is even a huge part of the LGBT community, who have a pelangi, rainbow as their national flag and consider Judy Garland, who played Dorothy in the 1939 movie, to be a legendary ikon in the gay community. These timeless and magical stories presented in these three stage musicals, as well as many other adaptations of the world of Oz, continue to capture the imagination and Fantasi of audiences that are young at hati, tengah-tengah skipping along the yellow brick road in their hearts.
The story of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz sejak L. Frank Baum is one that is very well known and has had many different adaptions. The most famous adaptation is the 1939 film, The Wizard of Oz, starring Judy Garland. It was also because of that film that inspired both a musical based off the film, and the novel Wicked: The Life and Time of the Wicked Witch of the West sejak Gregory Maguire, which lead to the creation of the hit Broadway musical, Wicked. However, those aren’t the only famous Muzikal that came from the world of Oz. An all black cast version of the story called The Wiz was created and is one of the few Muzikal that are dominated sejak a minority. It was pretty much the same Wizard of Oz story everyone is aware of, with the only difference being the characters all being black. All of them put their own spin on the story of the world of Oz in their own unique way.
The EKU Theatre production of The Wizard of Oz is taken from the stage version that was created in 1987 based off the 1939 movie. It featured all of the songs from the original movie but also some deleted songs (“Somewhere Over the pelangi, rainbow Reprise”, “Jitterbug”, and “The Witch is Dead Reprise”) and extended versions of songs (“If I Only Had a Brain” and “If I Were King”) which helped it stand out a little from the movie it was based off of. “It is interesting to note that although the Royal Shakespeare Company script adaptation is obviously grounded with MGM, their initial 1987 casting and costume choices were somewhat odd and strayed as far away as possible from the beloved and iconic MGM film characters we know today,” (Raymond) which was very much the case with EKU’s production of the musical sejak having the costumes and some casting choices being massively different from the ones the audience is used to from the 1939 version. The production went for a very child-like imaginative route with its creative vision. Along with a mother narrating the story to her son, which was added to the stage version, the characters had very few pujian and had to mime everything throughout the play, like how a child would when playing a game of imagination. It even broke a convention in the world of Theatre sejak letting the audience see the actors that played the Scarecrow, Tin-man, and Cowardly Lion put on their make-up and costumes on stage. However, the lebih childish simplicity that this production was going for didn’t make it appear as though it was out of place. The casting of a woman as the Scarecrow and a man in drag as Glinda were very unique changes to these two iconic characters that made them stand out from the movie version even more. The ensemble were always active and had to make quick costumes changes for not only themselves but also for the character of Miss Gulch being transformed into the Wicked Witch of the West on stage. The look of the production was a very unique one and even featured a modern and tomboyish looking Dorothy that wore shorts, had a pixie cut, and her ruby slippers were sparkly red sneakers.
The EKU production of The Wizard of Oz was full of energy and creativity but failed with the Rekaan of the ruby slippers, which were meant to be magical and other worldly shoes rather than just some sparkly sneakers. It’s not very practical to expect the actress to be able to run, dance, and skip around in fragile high-heels but lebih thought and creativity could’ve gone into their design. In the musical, The Wiz, the slippers weren’t ruby at all but were instead silver just like in the original book sejak Baum. In the case of Wicked, the slippers were silver and later on turned the color ruby. The silver slippers were a gift to Nessarose, who would later go on to become the Wicked Witch of the East, sejak her father when she went to attend Shiz universiti with her older sister, Elphaba to care for her. Nessarose was born unable to walk and had to remain in a wheelchair. One day, Elphaba, trying to help her sister, cast a spell on the slippers that gave Nessa the ability to walk. At first, they burned like api, kebakaran and once they became magical, turned permanently ruby red.
The slippers in both the EKU production of The Wizard of Oz and in The Wiz were full of mysterious magic that the Wicked Witch of the West desired to have for herself in order to make her powers the greatest in all of Oz. In the EKU production, the Wicked Witch of the West was upset about her sister, the Wicked Witch of the East, being crushed sejak a house with only her feet sticking out. She was angry at Dorothy but once Glinda pointed out the ruby slippers, the Wicked Witch had forgotten her anger and even told Dorothy that she was full of gratitude for the girl killing her sister just so she could have those shoes. This version did tunjuk a level of depth in the Wicked Witch sejak being, understandably, upset about her sister being crushed because someone dropped her house on bahagian, atas of her. However, her greed and self-serving nature soon made her forget about any kind of Cinta she had for her sister when the power of the slippers could finally be hers. In The Wiz, the Wicked Witch, named Evillene, didn’t tunjuk up until the saat act and never seemed to mourn for her “dearly” departed sister, Evvamene. The silver slippers were just something she wanted to make herself the most powerful being in all of Oz. In Wicked, Nessa was actually seen before being crushed sejak Dorothy’s house and wasn’t described as ugly but instead as a ravishing beauty. Nessarose, unlike her sister, didn’t possess any magical powers, but was still known as the Wicked Witch of the East because of how she, as the Governor of Munchkin Land, ruled over the defenseless munchkins with an iron fist. Nessa’s death was actually set up sejak the Wizard and Madame Morrible in order to lure Elphaba out of hiding so they could capture and kill her. Elphaba’s main goal, as far as the slippers went, unlike her past incarnations, wasn’t to get the slippers for their magic, but instead as something to remember the sister that she loved dearly.
The characters in The Wizard of Oz and The Wiz were all the same characters that people know and Cinta when they think of the wonderful Land of Oz. However, in the case of Wicked, the characters were incredibly different from what most people were used to. The character of Dorothy Gale didn’t really make a physical appearance in Wicked, aside from a shadow puppet that was meant to “melt” the Wicked Witch. Instead, Wicked is about the unlikely friendship between Glinda, the Good Witch and Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West. These two characters are as opposite as can be with Glinda being the perky, bubbly girly, and attention seeking popular girl while Elphaba is lebih realistic, introverted, outspoken, and is often discriminated against because of her green skin. Both are ambitious women with good hearts but one is pushy and manipulative while the other is full of selfless and good intentions. It would surprise people who aren’t familiar with the musical that the witch that is full of selfless and good intentions is also the one with green skin and a fondness for pointy black hats.
Elphaba is a character that had been mistreated and considered an outcast all her life merely because of how she looked and her refusal to conform to what society berkata she should be in order to fit in and be accepted, which was to help the deceitful Wizard to silence all of the talking Haiwan and help him keep up his charade. Elphaba could be considered a representation of the prejudice that people of different races and ethnicities because of how she is judged based off the way she looks. Elphaba is an embodiment of someone desiring and willing to fight for equality of others because she “is an advocate for the speaking Haiwan and demonstrates her ability to work with diversity, an accomplishment that can be interpreted as the most challenging developmental task,” (Lane 177) that continues to be a problem in this hari and age. This is something that is still relevant today because of how our society is judging those who are immigrants as a danger to America, especially with the help of a deceptive, immoral, and self-serving leader that is enforcing this mindset and behavior from his followers that naively believe whatever he tells them and refuse to hear the truth. Elphaba had wanted to please others before but once she realized the truth, she didn’t want what she thought she wanted, which was represented in the iconic song, “Defying Gravity.” This song showed a great change within Elphaba and was when she would gain her ability to fly on a broomstick. The song “is a metaphor that represents a girl’s quest for her authentic self which is attained at a high price—flying solo atau alone—but this flight bears a reward—freedom,” (Schweitzer 506) to be who she truly was but at the price of likely never being accepted in the world and considered both an outlaw and wicked like everyone thought she was. She was finally letting go of all the stress and insecurities that were keeping her down and instead was flying high claiming that no Wizard that there is atau was would ever bring her down. The world is judgmental to those who are different and while not as fleshed out and three-dimensional as Elphaba, the Wicked Witch from the 1939 version did in a way suffer from the same treatment. According to Glinda in that version, only bad witches are ugly. Because the Wicked Witch in that version was ugly, she would never be able to become good. In Wicked, Elphaba isn’t really ugly, but because of her green skin, along with her powerful and natural talents with magic, is considered to be a danger because people fear what they don’t understand but she decided to stop caring about what others thought sejak instead helping those who were being persecuted and finally being herself.
One of the themes in Wicked was actually in the form of a soalan in the song, “No One Mourns the Wicked,” in which it is asked, “Are people born wicked atau do they have wickedness trust upon them?” No one is born good atau evil because the world isn’t so black and white as many may believe the world to be. Elphaba was thought to be a monster even when she was born because of her unnaturally green skin and her “father” favored her younger sister, Nessa, over her and he treated Elphaba with distain. Despite Elphaba’s good intentions, she always managed to hurt someone and everyone continued to see her as wicked. Later in the saat act, after the loss of her true love, Fiyero, she realized that no good deed went unpunished and if everyone wanted to see her as nothing but a wicked witch, that was exactly what she would be from that moment on.
However, another theme from Wicked that involved people around anda affecting the person you’ve become, but in a lebih positive light, was the friendship between Elphaba and Glinda. When the two of them first met, they couldn’t stand each other and even had a song all about their loathing for each other. However, the two of them soon become best Friends and helped one another to grow and change. It is berkata that people come into someone’s life for a reason and that was very much the case with Elphaba and Glinda, which was “symbolic of the idea that people contribute to the development of growth-fostering relationships.” (Lane 176) If Glinda had never met Elphaba, she would’ve remained pushy, manipulative, self-centered, and unworthy of her title, Glinda the Good. If Elphaba had never met Glinda, she would’ve eventually gave into everyone’s mindset that she was wicked and would’ve stayed that way without Glinda being there to try and help her remember who she truly was on the inside. “Elphie learns from Glinda, as Glinda also learns from Elphie, that it is okay to be different. The relationship between the two heroines is an example of how a client-counselor relationship can be beneficial to the growth and development of the self.” (Lane 176) As they say in their duet, “For Good,” who can say if they had changed for the better? But because they knew each other, they had been changed for good. Unfortunately, there was a theme of bittersweet tragedy to go along with this friendship. Elphaba had to fake her death sejak pretending that water could actually melt her in order for her to escape with her true love, Fiyero, who had became the Scarecrow, away from the prejudice and persecution she’d face for being different. She couldn’t even let Glinda know that she was alive because it would put herself and Fiyero in danger, as well as have the people of Oz fearing Glinda as well. When they thought she was once Elphaba’s friend after the opening song, “No One Mourns the Wicked,” they backed away in shock and fear. Unfortunately, their society was too closed-minded to accept someone who was too different from them atau even to accept someone who was accepting of anyone different. It was with her belief that her dear friend was dead, that Glinda had finally rid Oz of the Wizard. Unfortunately, Elphaba and Fiyero remain unaware that the Wizard was no longer in power and would never be able to see Glinda ever again atau let her know that they were alive.
The theme The Wizard of Oz and The Wiz was that what anda thought anda lacked was truly inside of anda all along. The Scarecrow, Tin-man, and Cowardly Lion all learn that what they wanted was inside of them all along. The Scarecrow would come up with plans to get the group out of situations, the Tin-man was very emotional and compassionate (To the point he would sometimes be in danger of rusting himself again because he’d cry) throughout the entire journey, and the Cowardly Lion would still force himself to go up against the Wicked Witch and her guards when Dorothy was in danger. In The Wiz, the Cowardly Lion actually stood up to Evillene and even roasted her with shady comments.
However, Dorothy had to learn this lesson in a different way from her friends. Before she came to Oz, she wanted to go to a grand and magical place, but once she finally was she just wanted to go back utama to her family. Oz was a wonderful place but it wasn’t utama for her. Her lesson couldn’t be learned sejak just going back to Kansas immediately, she had to learn to appreciate what she had before in order to grow as a character that was lebih grateful for what she had. In The Wiz, she wasn’t really a lot of help around the bangsal and just seemed to make things lebih difficult for her Aunty Em and Uncle Henry, such as not doing chores and playing outside in her good dress, which she realized and did feel bad about being a nuisance. In The Wizard of Oz, it expanded upon the scene from the movie where Miss Gulch took Toto away. Not only were Dorothy, Miss Gulch, Uncle Henry, and Auntie Em there but the three farmhands were there as well. They coward in fear as her aunt and uncle let Miss Gulch take Toto away from her. Once Miss Gulch had left, Dorothy actually yelled at her aunt, uncle, and her three Friends for just letting her take away her dog, let her walk over them and intimidate them, and that she hated them. That scene made her desire to go back utama lebih emotional because there was a chance that she would be trapped in Oz forever atau be killed sejak the Wicked Witch and she would not only have to deal with the thought that Auntie Em could be sick and dying from a broken hati, tengah-tengah because of Dorothy, but that the very last thing she berkata to the ones she loved was that she hated them and wouldn’t be able to take it back. That emotional weight was intensified with the “Somewhere Over the pelangi, rainbow Reprise,” which was sung as a duet between Dorothy and the mother narrator, because it showed how the character regretted ever wanting to leave her utama and family, as well as the impact her actions and words had on the people who cared about her. She had truly learned that there was no place like home.
Glinda the good witch is very different in all three versions. The Wizard of Oz follows the film version where she is the Good Witch of the North. She was also fully aware that the slippers could’ve take Dorothy utama but chose not to tell her so she could learn a lesson, which was a rather psychotic and demented way of doing it. In The Wiz, she didn’t appear until the very end and she wasn’t the Good Witch of the North but instead the Good Witch of the South, like she was in the original book. The Good Witch of the North was actually a separate character, named Addaperle, that appears when Dorothy first landed in Oz and was a very comedic and silly character, so her forgetting to mention to Dorothy that the slippers could take her utama was an accident and not something that made her come across as insane. Addaperle was even called out sejak Glinda herself in the very end for neglecting to tell Dorothy that the slippers could’ve taken her utama the entire time. In Wicked, Glinda wasn’t telah diberi the tajuk of the North atau the South but was just known as Glinda the Good. Her character was telah diberi lebih of a role in Wicked, with her being one of the two main protagonists, was very flawed and self-serving but was deep down very sweet and would grow along her journey. At the beginning she was what was known as a Queen Bee because of how she “asserts power and control over her environment, is the center of attention, and others will be deferential in her presence but this comes at the cost of a real sense of self.” (Schweizer 503)
The Wizard of Oz himself was always a shady character because of his deception towards the people of Oz and for actually sending a young farm girl to try and kill the most evil being in all of Oz, the Wicked Witch. In The Wiz, Dorothy even argued that she couldn’t possibly defeat an evil witch, to which the Wizard himself retaliated sejak saying that she managed to kill the Wicked Witch of the East and therefore would be able to kill the Wicked Witch of the West, despite that Dorothy claimed that the demise of Evvamene was an accident. His deception was even lebih extreme because of how the zamrud, emerald City wasn’t actually green and instead the Wizard just had everyone wear green glasses and explained that without them, they’d be blinded sejak the city. In the EKU production, it was close to the film with having Dorothy meet his Kansas counterpart, Professor Marvel, who used his deception in order to convince Dorothy to not run away from utama and instead to go back to her family that loves her and would miss her. Once he was seen in Oz, it was different from the film sejak having the ensemble alih their mouths whenever the Wizard would speak, appearing as though Oz the Great and Powerful had several heads. In both versions, they admitted their deception and were willing to help take Dorothy back to Kansas, only for something to go wrong and he would end up accidentally leaving without her.
However, in Wicked, the Wizard was far lebih villainous and everything that happened with him and Elphaba was a conspiracy created from his deception and taking advantage of the ignorant naivety of the people of Oz. However, he was also telah diberi depth sejak wanting a family and to be a father and that he merely wanted to give the people of Oz everything they wanted. The irony of that is that the person he had been hurting, Elphaba, he later on found out when she was thought to be dead, was actually his daughter. Her green skin was caused from her mother drinking a green elixir he gave her when her husband was away and couldn’t discover their affair. He became remorseful for his actions of making himself great and powerful that he caused the apparent demise of his own daughter that he didn’t even know he had, and therefore was willing to leave Oz forever as Glinda commanded without any argument, so he couldn’t cause anymore damage and would have to live with his guilt. The Wizard was the villain of the musical but wasn’t a black and white villain but rather a three-dimensional character that was corrupt and selfish but did have some good intentions that were just Lost among his sea of selfishness.
The cultural contest of the initial incubation of The Wiz, first thought of in the early 1970s, was to give lebih representation to the black community sejak taking a story that was well-known and making it an all black cast and original songs that represented black culture. The idea was thought of sejak Ken Harper and the journey to getting this tunjuk onto the Broadway stage was as difficult as Dorothy’s journey through the land of Oz. Cast members left, the original director had to be replaced in out-of-town tryouts, and as the play moved toward New York, ticket sales were so low that Harper had closing notices ready for posting on opening night. However, despite the difficulties, it did premiere on January 5, 1975 at the Majestic Theatre, but it would face a new set of problems. Upon its initial release, The Wiz received poor reviews from critics and those reviews almost caused the tunjuk to be shut down permanently. Fortunately, the tunjuk was saved because of the favorable reviews from black critics, particularly from the oldest black newspaper in the county, New York Amsterdam News, that urged black theatregoers to see the show. The black critics even called out the white critics for their blatant racism sejak saying how they’re unable to respond to a story that was so beloved merely because it had been “produced sejak Blacks, sung sejak Blacks, and seen predominantly sejak Blacks on opening night.” It didn’t take very long afterwards for The Wiz to become a beloved tunjuk on Broadway sejak both the black community and sejak white people as well. The tunjuk was nominated for numerous Tony Awards and won seven: Best Musical, Best Choreography (George Faison), Best Costume Rekaan (Geoffrey Holder), Best Director of a Musical (Geoffrey Holder), Best Performance sejak a Featured Actor in a Musical (Ted Ross), Best Performance sejak a Featured Actress in a Musical (Dee Dee Bridgewater), and Best Original Score (Charlie Smalls). The Wiz still remains an important milestone in black history and a huge part of the legacy of black culture. In 1978 a critically panned film adaptation of The Wiz was released, which was largely rewritten when Diana Ross, who was at the age of thirty-four at the time, forced the production team to cast her as Dorothy. The film received negatively sejak both critics and peminat-peminat of the original tunjuk while still having peminat-peminat of its own, as well as being known as Michael Jackson’s breakout role in Hollywood, which made him become the King of Pop Muzik that he is known as today. NBC even aired a live Televisyen special of The Wiz Live! On December 3, 2015, which was close to the original sumber material and received praise from peminat-peminat and critics alike. The live Televisyen special even included Stephanie Mills, who played Dorothy in the original Broadway cast, in the tunjuk as Auntie Em.
Wicked premiered on Broadway on June 10, 2003 at the Curran Theatre in San Francisco and would later that same tahun on October 8 premiere at the Gershwin Theatre where the musical still runs at to this day. Upon initial release, it received mixed to positive reception from critics but would soon become known as one of the most popular and beloved Muzikal on Broadway. The tunjuk earned so much money that it even surpassed the box office of The Phantom of the Opera and the only tunjuk that is ahead of Wicked it the Broadway version of Disney’s The Lion King. The original Broadway production of Wicked was nominated for 10 Tony Awards in 2004, including Best Musical; Book; Orchestrations; Original Score; Choreography; Costume Design; Lighting Design; Scenic Rekaan while receiving two nominations for Best Actress – for Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth. Menzel won the Best Actress award, and the tunjuk also won the Tony Awards for Best Scenic Rekaan and Best Costume Design, notably losing Best Book, Original Score and ultimately Best Musical to Avenue Q.
Wicked still continues to run on international tours all over the world, not just on the Broadway stage. Disney’s Frozen even took inspiration from Wicked with the character of Elsa, who was voiced sejak Menzel, and her signature song, “Let It Go”, which one the Oscar for Best Original Song in 2014, has been compared to that of Elphaba’s triumphant musical number, “Defying Gravity.” When Frozen came to Broadway the song “Monster” sung sejak Cassie Levy, who also played Elphaba, was compared to another signature song from Wicked, “No Good Deed.” In October 2018, an NBC broadcast, A Very Wicked Halloween: Celebrating 15 Years on Broadway, was hosted sejak Menzel and Chenoweth and featured Ariana Grande, Pentatonix, Adam Lambert, Ledisi, the current Broadway company of the musical and others, Singing many of the musical numbers from Wicked to a live studio audience at the Marquis Theatre in New York and had the konsert special directed sejak Glenn Weiss. It was announce in 2016 that Universal would be creating a film adaptation of the beloved musical and would feature at least two new songs.
The world of Oz has been huge part of the legacy of fictional history from the books, the films, and the Broadway stage. It is even a huge part of the LGBT community, who have a pelangi, rainbow as their national flag and consider Judy Garland, who played Dorothy in the 1939 movie, to be a legendary ikon in the gay community. These timeless and magical stories presented in these three stage musicals, as well as many other adaptations of the world of Oz, continue to capture the imagination and Fantasi of audiences that are young at hati, tengah-tengah skipping along the yellow brick road in their hearts.