You're So Wicked

Editor's Note: You should have read the title in Pointer's "You're so naughty" voice.

Once upon a time, there was this great Broadway musical called Wicked.  Maybe you've heard of it.  It told the story of a young girl and the difficulties she faced because of her unusual skin tone.  Unfortunately, I have only seen it once, but I have listened to the soundtrack many, many times.  You can imagine my delight when I learned Gregory Maguire had written a book based on the play called Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West.  I finished reading it yesterday and am not sure how I feel about it.  The book has a much darker tone than the original version.  There were many scenes and details add to the story to make it into book length, which for the most part I enjoyed.  However I thought some of the changes made to the story were unnecessary.  This was one of those rare occasions where the performance surpasses the written word.

Wicked was such a success both on stage and in print that L Frank Baum wrote a sequel to Wicked which tells the story from the point of view of one of the minor characters from the book.  He called his book The Wonderful Wizard of Oz even though the story is told, not from the wizard's perspective, but from that of a young girl who does not even appear in Wicked until nearly the end of the book.  I have not read this book, so I can't personally recommend it, though I hear it is good.

Since Hollywood is incapable of coming up with story ideas on their own, Baum's book was made into a movie.  I was disappointed that Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth were not recast in the roles they made famous.  It must be because their parts were so much smaller in the movie version, and they refused to play supporting characters.  Instead Mabel King and Lena Horne took up their parts and joined the star studded cast that included Diana Ross, Michael Jackson, Nipsey Russell, and Richard Pryor.  The Wiz was later remade as The Wizard of Oz with an all cracker cast led by Judy Garland.

While researching this post, to make sure I had all of my facts straight, I learned that Maguire wrote three more books set in Oz.  I just might have to read them also.