Wicked: the Musical
Wicked: the Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West is a book written by Gregory Maguire. The title explains itself; it is the story before Dorothy came to place. This was a popular book but what made it supremely popular was when it was made into a Broadway musical.
A friend of mine saw it in New York and fell in love. She would play the soundtrack over and over, and I thought “what’s the big deal” at first. But there was this one song that always sent a chill down my back, thanks to the fantastically powerful voice of Idina Menzel. Those of you who have seen the musical could probably guess that the song was “Defying Gravity.” So I asked my friend to tell me what it was about and she did. I thought it was great that someone would write a story behind the story.
Spring Break came last week and I downloaded the song. I was really bored and had nothing to do so I managed to find a bootleg video of the play! Yes, a guy with a video camera! And I was so lucky that it was of a showing that had the original cast. Yes, sadly, Idina Menzel after three years is not playing Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West anymore. Anyway, I can honestly tell you that the whole thing was brilliant. Even with the quality of the video, I felt it all. The “Defying Gravity” scene just made me say “wow” like 37 times afterwards. You don’t understand how sorry you feel for Elphaba. I also researched Idina for quite a while as the video was downloading and found that she is a super nice person according to fans who’ve met her and stuff, so that added to the sympathy as well. It’s a sad sad story but had funny parts too. And the music is amazing. I downloaded the whole album right away.
The story is basically about how Elphaba was misjudged all her life. And how she was actually a good person and was best friends with Glinda, the Good Witch of the East. It very smartly explains the comings of the Cowdrly Lion, the Scarecrow and the Tinman. The Ruby Red slippers and Elphaba’s obsession with them, the hurricane and the melting are explained as well.
A fantastic experiance I must say. I actually don’t want to go see a showing in person because I don’t want my appreciation of Idina Menzel to be tainted. I might read the book in the summer though.
Idina Menzel won a Tony Award for Best Actress as Elphaba in Wicked. You can see her acceptance speech here. She was also in the movie Rent, playing Maureen. Rent is a Broadway musical that was made into a movie, Idina was also Maureen in the original cast on Broadway. So many of you have already heard her amazing voice, but in Wicked, it’s just jaw-dropping. You can find many videos in YouTube of her singing “Defying Gravity” on talk shows and award shows and such. You can also see her in her latest movie, Ask the Dust, with Colin Farell and Salma Hayek.
Wicked, the book
Wicked, the soundtrack
Wicked, bootleg video torrent updated
March 25th, 2006 at 2:45 am
That is onen of my favorite books.
March 25th, 2006 at 11:38 am
then it should be pretty good
people say it starts off slow but then gets awesome once the story starts heating up..
March 26th, 2006 at 6:05 pm
Snookie-
Loved your most excellent review, your fascination was infectious
I have always very much wanted to read this. Now I really will! And thanks for the links 
MsB
March 26th, 2006 at 8:35 pm
aww thanks MsB!
you are just too nice
maybe now you should review the book after you read it..
May 2nd, 2006 at 8:50 pm
They should really look into making Wicked into a movie. Kristen and Idina would be key into making it work as a movie though. They could so pull it off. It would be a hit, and would be phenomonal. I would love it! Any word on if it is in the works or not?
May 3rd, 2006 at 10:20 am
yeah they should but not too soon.. it would be great if they themselves reprised their roles
i do not know if there are any talks of it.. i will post any movie news if i find any..
May 12th, 2006 at 4:34 am
Well cool! I have only seen a pirated broadway dvd, the picture was not at all what it could be. I felt kinda bad when I watched it, but I was so desperate to see anything of it. I had listened to the soundtrack over and over again for months, and I had read the book TWICE! But I live in Utah, so I am just out of luck. Have you seen it live on broadway? I bet it is extraordinary, phenominal, and inspirational. What did you think?
May 14th, 2006 at 12:23 am
nope i saw it on bootleg too, after spending time listening to the soundtrack over and over.. and i did not yet read the book.. but i think it would have been 10x greater than it was watching it on bootleg..
i suggest making a trip to london this fall season.. idina is playing elphaba in london from september to the end of december.. and tickets are selling out FAST
August 4th, 2006 at 6:38 pm
I managed to see it live, and it was AMAZING. It wasnt with Idina or Kristen, sadly. Even without her though, defying gravity was incredible live. I can’t imagine how good it would be with her. If it was this good with Victoria Matlock, then how amazing would it be with Idina?
Where did you find that bootleg with the original cast members? Your link doesnt work. Even though I’ve seen it, I’d love to see it with Idina Menzel.
August 6th, 2006 at 9:55 pm
I know you can see a bootleg version of wicked from limewire.com, just go on there, download the free trial version of limewire, and after that is downloaded onto your computer, you can search for video clips of wicked. you can see idina’s and Kristen’s performance at the tony’s of defying gravity, their performance of Popular on the today show, as well as the OBC bootleg version. Hopefully you have a fast computer, becfause it does take a while. Hopefully this helps a little:)
September 13th, 2006 at 4:20 am
I saw opening preview in London last thursday (7th September) and it blew me away. I had been a fan since first hearing the soundtrack a good 2 years or so ago but to see it live was just phenomenal. Idina has improved so so much…I mean, she was good to begin with but now she’s upped her performance by 110%. If you get the chance to see this show anywhere then go with it…it’s undoubtedly the best show I’ve ever seen in the history of ever! x
September 13th, 2006 at 5:28 am
oh my God :O u saw it with IDINA?? ur reeeeally lucky.. she’s only doing this fall season in london and thats it
October 9th, 2006 at 11:38 am
I just want to say I am disapointed in you. At least I went to SEE the actual performance (twice) and only downloaded the expectually low quality video due to the shere emotional power of the story.
Note to future broadway pirates, don’t be an idiot and record with crapy cameras and distribute with undergrate compression schemes and move the camera around focusing in on a single character because you want to play into your fantasy. Yeah, the video is horid, I have the feeling that the idiot who distributed it purposly reduced the size to the horid 200mb to simply make it easier on others who apreciate good broadway proformances, not for the songs, but for the emotional power that the actors and orchestra can place upon you.
October 9th, 2006 at 6:10 pm
good for you..
i guess you were an even bigger idot for encouraging the pirates to continue by downloading the video
January 6th, 2007 at 5:50 am
Well put Snookie.
February 25th, 2007 at 6:43 am
Hi I’m Alex Cud you burn me a coppy of Wicked And I will pay you $20.00
And I will NOT call the cops….No i’m kidding about the cops but if you cud burn me a copy that wood be cool e-mail me at Rummiepup@aol.com
March 21st, 2007 at 11:13 pm
Your link to the bootleg version of the play doesn’t work. I kind of had the same idea as Alex before me. If you could burn me a copy I’d pay you.
March 22nd, 2007 at 9:05 am
thanks for letting me know about the link.. i updated it.. and sorry i cant send u a copy, thats too risky.
August 28th, 2007 at 3:30 am
I will tell you.. the book is dramatically different from the musical… i personally prefer the musical but i think thats because i like to perform… and i would LOVE to perform on broadway as Elphaba, Glinda, or Nessarose… or any character in the musical, actually.. but i do love defying gravity.. th song that actually got me into Wicked was For Good… first my section leader sang it in our concert then my drama teacher played it as a goodbye song for the seniors in our class.. all of us seniors cried.. and then she gave me the cd.. which pretty much caused my TOTAL obsession with this musical.. i just wish i could see it live.. Idina Menzel or not..