Jayeeta Mazumder
If only Dorothy knew that the red magic shoes were never meant to be hers. Or that the sob stories of the Scarecrow, the Tin Man or the Cowardly Lion could have stemmed from darker secrets. Dorothy’s fantasy world would have remained a simplistic political satire, had a book by Winnie Holzman (adapted from Gregory Maguire’s Wicked:
The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West) not been written. In a musical twist to the Frank L Baum’s classic The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, the Broadway blockbuster Wicked shatters Dorothy’s imagined utopia with utmost care. In its eighth year now, the musical recently premiered in Singapore, at The Grand Theater, at Marina Bay Sands, equipped with a large orchestra pit, seat wagons, and trap rooms, complete with a traditional proscenium that can seat up to 2,155 guests over the three levels.
Wicked, winner of 35 awards including a Grammy and three Tony Awards, in its revisionist version tells the untold story of the two witches in the Land of Oz — as itunravels the perky, vain Carrie Bradshaw-y blonde Glinda (Suzie Mathers) as binary opposite to the guarded green-bodied but intelligent Elphaba (Jemma Rix). The musical essentially sets a microscope on the societal mores while transcribing Elphaba’s unfortunate transformation into a pariah. Now it’s quite pointless to sing the praises of a Broadway show’s stupendous sets.
It’s a given it’ll boggle your mind, always. But the flying witches this time take it to another level of ingenuity in setdesigning. Susan Hilferty’s costumes are effectively appropriate, ones that Lady Gaga would surely
approve of.
Glinda, the popular and pretty blonde has fans galore at high school, while Elphaba’s green skin keeps one at bay, even as Wicked tracks the tale of the two becoming unlikely friends. There are obvious references to Hogwarts, humorous punch lines, a very Glee-like performance of the song Defying gravity in Jemma’s steely voice.
In Wicked, no one is intrinsically good or bad — not the conniving Wizard (Bert Newton) or Glinda who’d bask in the glory of being ‘popular’ and simper at Elphaba’s social awkwardness. Even the bloodcurdling flying monkeys in the 1939 movie are victims of circumstances here, being toyed as ill-treated prisoners of the Wizard.
Elphaba is only a social outcast — a reformer whose sole aim to free animals leads her on to the path of being heavily misunderstood. The wedge between the witches in the form of the handsome Fiyero (David Harris) intensifies, as wickedness gets bestowed on Elphaba who eventually camouflages herself in the deep, dark woods. And where do Dorothy and her magic shoes figure in all of this? Well, they don’t. Wicked gives good reason as to why the bratty Dorothy should be chased for the shoes that never even belonged to her!
Of course, you know Elphaba would feel at home in the ‘green’ Emerald City, you even know those traits of the rebel with the broomstick. But what lingers on in the end is the friendship between the girls who’ve been ‘changed for good’ for having known each other. It’s that feeling at the back of your throat that Wicked so well evokes, that’s shooting it up the list of the blockbuster Broadways. And very rightly so.
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