Wicked's story

[puppetman2]

Posted: 4/4/08 at 5:36pm

This may have been answered on this board before, but can anyone outline the plot of WICKED or post a link to it. I'm reading the original novel and find it kind of boring. I don't see how it works as a musical.
Thanks for any information.

[BustopherPhantom]

Posted: 4/4/08 at 5:39pm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wicked_%28musical%29

The musical's plot is nothing like the book: they basically took the book and turned it into the equivalent of a Lifetime movie.

[Elphie3]

Posted: 4/4/08 at 5:55pm

SPOILERS AHEAD

They made some changes to the story for the musical.

Basic plot of the musical.

Act One

- The show opens with the celebration of the Wicked Witch of the West's death. Glinda enters in her bubble and gives a quick recap of Elphaba's history: i.e daughter of the Munchkin Governor, her mother had an affair with a mysterious man with a bottle of green liquid. Glinda is asked if "it's true you were her friend?" She gives a conditional yes, and the scene shifts back to the first day of Shiz University.

- We meet Elphaba and Nessarose (whos legs are paralyzed - she has arms in this version) as well as Galinda and Boq. In this scene Galinda and Elphaba are thrown together as roomates and Elphaba's sorcery talents are revealed suddenly making her Madame Morrible's star pupil and giving Elphaba hope of one day meeting the Wizard.

- Elphaba and Glinda can't stand each other. We see Dr. Dillimond teaching a class, Elphaba is very smart, and Dillimond confesses that "something bad is happening in Oz" - Animals are loosing the ability to speak.

- We meet Fiyero, a Winki prince who enrolls at Shiz. Galinda (followed around by Boq) takes a shining to him. Galinda passes Boq off on Nessarose who falls in love with him.

- Elphaba and Galinda become friends after Galinda is kind to Nessa and keeps Elphaba from being embarassed at a party, and Elphaba gets Galinda into Morrible's Sorcery seminar.

- Elphaba and Fiyero connect as friends as Dillimond is forced out of the school.

- Elphaba is invited to meet the Wizard. She brings Galinda (now Glinda) with her. She is tricked into making some captured monkeys into winged monkeys and realizes that the Wizard is behind the Animal descrimination. She runs away, enchanting a broom so she can fly away. Glinda on the other hand can't resist all the glamour and stays.

Act 2

- Elphaba has officially been declaired a Wicked Witch. Glinda announces that she is engaged to Fiyero.

- Elphaba seeks out Nessa's help. Nessa is now the Governor of Munchkinland and is enslaving the Munchkins to keep Boq with her. After Elphaba enchants her jeweled shoes so she can walk, Nessa thinks that Boq will finally love her. When he doesn't he tries to enchant him to fall in love with her. The spell goes awry and Elphaba must turn him into the Tin Man to save his life.

- Morrible creates the twister that brings Dorothy to Oz in an attempt to make a house fall on Nessa and lure Elphaba out of hiding. it works and Fiyero who was never really in love with Glinda sacrifices himself to save Elphaba. Glinda realizes that she is partly to blame for what has happened. Elphaba turns Fiyero into the Scarecrow to save him.

- Glinda and Elphaba have their final confrentation. They realize that they've been changed "For Good" because they knew each other.

- Melting

- Glinda realizes she must do everything she can to become "Good" like Elphaba. She truly becomes Glinda the Good

[puppetman2]

Posted: 4/4/08 at 6:01pm

Thank you very much, now I can make more sense of the CD.

[suicidalmickeymouse]

Posted: 4/4/08 at 6:10pm

Elphie3, did you copy and paste that, or did you type it up? It's excellent, and doesn't give away too much, just enough to understand.

[Elphie3]

Posted: 4/4/08 at 6:12pm

Thank you! I wrote it myself!

[blaxx]

Posted: 4/4/08 at 6:13pm

I don't see how it works as a musical.

It doesn't.

[Elphie3]

Posted: 4/4/08 at 6:15pm

I think it does.

[ljay889]

Posted: 4/4/08 at 6:18pm

It's basically a big pile of fluff as a musical.

[BustopherPhantom]

Posted: 4/4/08 at 6:18pm

It doesn't.

I think it does.

Put it this way: the book (of the musical, the one by Winnie Holzman) is perhaps the perfect example of a book that could not work without the score.

And isn't that what musical theater is all about?

[FIERCEY516]

Posted: 4/4/08 at 6:32pm

Stephen Schwartz saved this show with his score. and even then, it's not the greatest score. I enjoy the majority of it though.

[uncageg]

Posted: 4/4/08 at 6:50pm

I enjoyed the show but it was hard not to fill in the gaps mentally the 1st time I saw it. I had just finished the book about 4 days before I saw it in New York. I do enjoy the music. Saw it a second time on the 1st national tour and it just didn't have the same effect. Funny this thread popped up, I just recommended the book to a co-worker and plan to pick it up and read it again in the near future.

[tazber]

Posted: 4/4/08 at 7:19pm

I agree with puppet! Why should we have to actually read? The least they could have done is made a comic or something.
Sheesh!

[karen24]

Posted: 4/4/08 at 10:52pm

I just saw the show last night, so I'm OK on the plot (although I agree, your summary was very good!) but I did have one question about that green liquid that Elphaba's mother drinks before Elphaba is born. What exactly is that supposed to be? Is that what caused Elphaba to be born green? Why would the Wizard offer the same liquid to Elphaba herself? I understand that it's partly a plot device which explains Elphaba's feeling of connection with the Wizard (don't want to give away too much of the plot here), but is there something more about exactly what it does that is perhaps explained in the book but was left out of the musical?
Thanks!

[brettystar]

Posted: 4/4/08 at 11:42pm

'Wicked' is one of my all time favorite books. I love the show as well (despite having read the book first). I think they should be viewed as two separate works.

When I first read that it was being adapted as a musical I had hoped it would be along the lines of Les Mis in that it was a musical drama rather than musical comedy. However once I got over this initial disappointment and heard the original cast recording I grew to love it.

I finally saw it on Broadway twice last May, and as much as I loved it, I wish the book (musical book not the novel) was better. There is so much potential there. Still I love it and I am seeing it in May in LA and in July in Melbourne.

[Ourtime992]

Posted: 4/5/08 at 12:09am

Winnie Holzman did such a great job with My So-Called Life. I've never understood how she failed to bring that level of honesty and humor to Wicked.

[brettystar]

Posted: 4/5/08 at 12:39am

I totally agree ourtime, much of the humor is cheesy and a lot of the sentiment is too syrupy.

[BrianS]

Posted: 4/5/08 at 3:51am

I actually think there are some changes to the end of the musical that make the musical's story more potent than the book's. Not saying the Musical is better or more fleshed out. I just liked how certain things tied together better on stage.

[Not Barker, Todd.]

Posted: 4/5/08 at 4:01am

I knew the musical. Then I read the book. It was a total WTF?!?!?!? moment. I thought, "How did THIS! become that?". The book and the musical are sooooooooo far apart. Eons, worlds, universes. It really made me reconsider what I thought about the word "adaptation". I mean, the musical is the radical kind of re-structuring you rarely see when adapting recent works. If the novel had been around for centuries, the chasm wouldn't seem so great. Normally, when adapting something so recent, you don't take such wild liberties.

[ashbash1990]

Posted: 4/5/08 at 1:22pm

I Loooooooooove the novel... the musical is "eh" with a few catchy tunes...

[MCfan2]

Posted: 4/5/08 at 1:27pm

I appreciate the summary, Elphie3. From just having the cast album, I was able to figure out some of that, but not all of it. I never knew exactly what happened to Fiyero, for one thing.

[nitsua]

Posted: 4/5/08 at 1:35pm

The novel is a million times better.
I so want to give the ending away, but I won't.

[James885]

Posted: 4/5/08 at 6:30pm

Yeah, the book is much better than the stage show. It's much darker and the main focus is on Elphaba rather than on both her and Glinda.

[Elphaba]

Posted: 4/5/08 at 11:09pm

'Thank you! I wrote it myself!'

Apparently you forgot Elphie3, the Elphaba and Fyiero end up together.....as your description doesn't have that......you just say she turns him into a scarecrow to save him.....Them ending up together is pretty big


The book is SO much better than the musical.

I saw it today at the Pantages in LA. Both Elphaba and Glinda were played by their understudies (as was Boq). I'll do a review tomorrow, but I was surprised by how good they were.

[jigblob]

Posted: 4/5/08 at 11:31pm

i read the novel, then saw the show, and i think the show was a million times better. the novel sucks.

shoot me.