Sunday, October 17, 2004

• Currently Playing Wicked (2003 Original Broadway Cast) By Stephen Schwartz, Kristin Chenoweth, Idina Menzel see related

  - Defying Gravity

  Okay, kiddos.  Here's what I believe to be the third-best musical of all time:

  Number 3:  Wicked

  Music by:  Stephen Schwartz

  Performances by:  Idena Menzel (Rent, The Wild Party), Kristen Chenoweth (A New Brain, You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown), Norbert Leo Butz (The Last 5 Years, Songs for a New World), and Joel Grey (Cabaret)

  This one has the "wow" factor.  I think it's the vocals that does it.  I fear for the touring casts of this musical, beginning next year, because these parts are hard as hell to sing, especially that of the main character, Elphaba (the Wicked Witch of the West).  In fact, I'd be hard-pressed to think of a more difficult role to play stylistically and vocally than the great, green vixen.  (Maybe the Phantom, but as far as a female principle goes, this is certainly the toughest.) 

  Wicked is the musical adaptation of Gregory Maguire's excellent novel of the same name.  It is the story that you were supposed to hear of "the Witch", but didn't.  As the tag line on the poster reiterates, "So much happened before Dorothy dropped in."  I won't reveal too much of the plot for those of you who don't know it yet, but suffice it to say, it is brilliant how Maguire's story is told in a way that effectively alters your preconcieved perception of Elphaba without getting in the way at all of Frank Baum's original tale.  It's cliche, I know, but you'll laugh, you'll cry, and you'll feel like an ovation is in order by the time the curtain falls.  It's spectacular.

  Detractors will try and tell you that this musical is too pop for it's own good.  If this is too pop, then call me a pop fan...I just don't care.  Sometimes what's melodically simplistic is what just happens to work.  (And in the same vein, some people can go overboard with their artistic daliences and come out the other side with decent story and lyrics that have no music to back it up.  *Cough, Sondheim.)  There are only about five musicals (they just so happen to be my top five) where every single song is a show-stopper.  When it happens, you don't need to bother with how it got to be that way...you just take it happily and wait five to ten more years for the next one to come along.  I guarantee you it won't have anything to do with being in a park with a dude named George or having Passion for a guy who you would assume couldn't love you because you have an awkward-looking face. 

  Anyway...  I've learned to forgive Schwartz for Godspell and Children of Eden because this musical has, in only a year's time, become one of my favorites.  I've seen the original cast, and they are one of those groups that was put together because they are really as talented as they sound on the soundtrack, which, when you first hear it, you would have to assume was altered vocally during the production process.  It's not, and they are.  Idena Menzel debuted in the original cast of Rent, and as anyone who loves that musical will tell you, one of the best ways to find good musicals is to track that group's careers after they parted.  As a core, they are the best voices Broadway has ever been graced with, with very few exceptions.  (I'll name basically all of them when I get to number one.)  But I digress.  Looking at Wicked as a microcosm of musical greatness, I can safely say that you will never have more fun at a musical than this.  It is, without a doubt, the best musical I have ever seen live, production-wise.  The setting is breath-taking with it's gorgeous blending of greens and blacks.  The sprawling dragon above your head will make you think of the infamous chandelier from Phantom.  The costumes rival the only thing good about a Disney musical.  And "Defying Gravity" will make you swoon.

  That said, the music here is topped by only two others.  (Just keep reading...I'll tell you, I promise.)  And it begins where all other great musicals do, with it's exceptional cast.  Menzel is perhaps the greatest female vocalist on the planet (Sarah Brightman comes damn close).  Chenoweth is absolutely adorable - I just want to give her a big hug!  Butz is an incredibly talented male vocalist, and, you should know, he appeared in the second full cast of Rent just a year after it opened in 1996.  I saw him then, and he's only progressed.  Grey is one of the most storied and beloved actors in the Big White Way's history.  It just doesn't get much better than that.  The numbers in this musical that were meant to stand out do, but not much more than the others, because they are all exceptional.  The music is "big-Broadway" in style, with many pieces that feature the entire cast choralling at the top of their collective voice just to give you gooseflesh.  I hesitate to call it a rock musical, because it is stylistically pop in many places, but don't let that scare you away:  it works, it meshes, it's coherent and ineffably flawless.  At the end of act one when Elphaba rises suspended above the stage in an act of defiance to the curruption and injustice surrounding her, and when she raises her vocals to their absolute highest musical note, it is difficult not to well up because it is one of the most powerful scenes in musical history.  It is certainly at least on par with Valjean realizing he is more than merely "24601", or Roger realizing that love can quell death, or even Christine, in her own befuddlement, kissing that disastrous face because of the kindness that inherently lay beneath it.  This musical is epic in story, scope, and score, just like it's great predecessors.

  In 1986, Phantom of the Opera came out.  In 1996, Rent made it's debut.  I can only assume that Wicked happened to come out three years early, because the trend should have had it opening in 2006.  Here's hoping that we get another great two years from now, but if we don't, we'll know we had this one. 

  So if you haven't already...defy gravity.

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