Wickedly Good

Damn it, I did it again. To be fair, I don't even think I turned my laptop on yesterday, and today has been busy. I'm only just getting around to the blog now.

Anyway, I promised a post about Wicked, didn't I?

All I can say, is that it was amazing. Even my dad was raving about it, and he doesn't generally care for musicals. Of course, we were sitting all the way up in the nose bleeds, but it was still great. When more than four people sang together, it was hard to understand the lyrics. I'm not sure if that was just where we were sitting, or if it was the sound system. Maybe the signers were just out of sync. It's hard to say. Luckily, when it's only a few people, it was a lot easier to hear, and it was great. I'm not much for musicals either, but I enjoyed at least half the songs.

The main reason why I wanted to see the play was because I had read, and loved, the book it was based on. Now of course, since it was a live production, not everything followed the book. However, it did follow it better than most movies follow their books. It was severely downplayed on the violence and romance parts to make it family friendly, but that was okay. Those parts from the book I wasn't much interested in watching anyway.

Now, this list will include spoilers, as I'm going to point out the differences. (what I can remember, at least)

Book- Nessarose was born without arms, and therefore could not balance enough to walk
Play- Nessarose was born without the use of her legs
Book- Elphie and Nessarose have a younger brother, named Shell. He isn't too important, as far as I can remember
Play- Their mother dies giving birth to Nessarose, and therefore there is no son
Book- Elphie goes to school before Nessarose and proves herself as a very smart, capable and head strong young woman. Nessarose arrives later, and becomes the darling of the school
Play- Elphie accompanies Nessarose to the school to take care of her. It's implied that she would never have gone to school had it not been for her sister
Book- Fyrio (probably spelled wrong), is a Winky (also might be wrong), so as far as I remember, he had blue skin and diamond tattoos... or something like that
Play- Fyrio is a dashing young man that looks perfect human
Book- After something happens (I can't remember what), Elphie runs away from the school. She later goes back to see Mrs. Morrible, and finds her dead on the floor, beaten to death with a blunt object. She is found here and is accused of murder. It's later found out that it was actually Galinda that did this
Play- Elphie is tricked into giving wings to the monkeys, and after refusing to aid the Wizard, she is blamed for this mutilation and labelled as Wicked. At the very end, Galina has Mrs. Morrible arrested
Book- There is a large time lapse between when Elphie and Fyrio run away together, and when Elphie is found living in an abandoned castle. There is another time lapse between Fyrio leaving her, and her moving into said castle
Play- No time lapse. A day or two at most
Book- When she sees Dorthy coming for her, she also sees the Tin Man, the Cowardly Lion, and the Scarecrow. She scares the lion, rips the scare crow apart, and I can't remember about the Tin Man. She does not try to kill them
Play- Dorthy is accompanied by the Tin Man and the Lion
Book- At some point, Elphie has a son
Play- No son, or even pregnancy. I suppose the ending leaves it open for those possibilities though
Book- Elphie dies
Play- Elphie hides under a trap door, and is later found by Fyrio. They live happily ever after


Now there is a very good possibility that I was wrong about several things, or left other things out. It's been at least three years, probably closer to five, since I read the book. My memory is far from perfect, and I can't remember everything.

All in all, a beautiful musical. The costumes and props were the best part. Absolutely stunning, from the massive dragon above the stage, down to the simplest background. There were just so many details in everything. Unfortunately, we were so far away that the only way we could see the details was with the binoculars that my parents brought. Binoculars are hard to use with glasses...

I would definitely suggest anyone see this, as long as they have a hundred dollars or more to spare.