Has anyone noticed that they are selling a lot of Wicked stuff at Barnes and Noble? I went today and they were selling, numerous books, t-shirts, calendars, mugs, tote bags, and so on. Updated On: 9/27/08 at 01:00 PM
I noticed it too. I figured it was meant to tie in to "Lion Among Men" being published, but I thought it was odd since the books and musical are so different.
It's a Halloween promotion. Plus B&N has some kind of exclusive hardback volume that has both Wicked and Son of a Witch. The one by Lincoln Center is also having a book signing with Gregory Macguire for the new book sometime in late October, I think the 23rd.
As others have said, BN has an exclusive Bargain-priced ($19.95, I believe) leather-bound edition of Wicked/Son of a Witch, and Gregory Maguire's latest book "A Lion Among Men" is coming out within the next month. That coupled with the fact that it is close to Halloween, and it is the fifth anniversary of the Broadway Cast Recording makes it a no-brainer to promote Wicked merchandise and discount the price of the CD.
"[Gore] was widely perceived as arrogant. If you know something, you're not smart. You're a smarty-pants. It's annoying. People get annoyed with your knowledge. It goes back to high school, to not doing your homework ... 'There's something I should know, I don't know why I should know it but someone knows it and I don't. So I'm going to have to make fun of him now.'"
-Sarah Vowell, The Partly-Cloudy Patriot
There was a giant Wicked-themed table with all sorts of junk at the Boston B&N as well. I gave the table the evil eye as I walked past it the other day.