Wickedly Good

Are you the good witch or the bad witch?

 

That's the question painted on one end of my Wizard of Oz lunch box, a collectible item I kept on my office window sill at school for years.  No doubt, that question could be answered either way by my former students.   Indeed, I often wondered myself whether I was the good witch or the bad, especially on those days when my temper frayed. 

A view from the Kennedy Center's Terrace

That question is at the very heart of Wicked, the musical by Steven Schwartz that my husband Tim and I were fortunate to see at the Kennedy Center last night. 

With a mechanical-looking set that mimics the internal pieces of a clock, the giant mechanical head of the Wizard, flying humans decked out as monkeys, and 200+ costumes in a style called "twisted Edwardian,' Wicked is a feast for the eyes.


Wicked takes The Wizard of Oz story published by Frank Baum in 1900 and turns it on its end by asking which witch was truly good.  Along the way, it also asks you to consider whether good intentions with bad results are the same as bad intentions with bad results.

Surely all of us have seen the 1939 Wizard of Oz movie starring Judy Garland as Dorothy, the Kansas farm girl who is trapped inside the farmhouse when a cyclone carries it off to the Land of Oz.

Wicked's frontispiece
Is frontispiece the right word to describe this map hung in place of an opening curtain?

As Dorothy comes to her senses, Glinda, the Good Witch of the North, descends within a bubble to inform her that Dorothy's house landed directly upon the Wicked Witch of the East, killing her.  Next, who should arrive but that frighteningly Wicked Witch of the West, demanding the ruby slippers right off the feet of her newly deceased sister.  Instead, Glinda magically transfers the ruby slippers to Dorothy's feet and summarily reminds the Wicked Witch of the West that she has no jurisdiction in Munchkinland.  The Wicked Witch of the West exits but vows to get her revenge against Dorothy, saying "I'll get you, my pretty...and your little dog, too!" 

Yikes!  That's scary stuff!  The Wicked Witch of the West haunted my nightmares in childhood and beyond.

Wicked's billboard

Wicked begins with Glinda repeating her bubble-enclosed descent to the stage, only this time, she reflects back on her friendship with Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West, who was once her childhood friend.  Glinda, of course, was the bubbly, blonde, popular girl at Shiz University while shunned, green-skinned Elphaba was sent there only to watch over her wheelchair-bound younger sister, her father's favorite, to whom he gave a bejeweled pair of slippers.  How these two unlikely girls became confidants is a story of friendship's triumph over their opposing personalities and even their rivalry in winning the affections of Prince Fiyero.  My favorite song, "For Good", describes their friendship:





"Like a ship blown from its mooring
By a wind off the sea
Like a seed dropped by a skybird
In a distant wood
Who can say if I've been changed for the better?
But because I knew you
Because I knew you
I have been changed for good.

And just to clear the air
I ask forgiveness
For the things I've done you blame me for
But then, I guess we know
There's blame to share
And none of it seems to matter anymore

Like a comet pulled from orbit
As it passes a sun
Like a stream that meets a boulder
Halfway through the wood
Like a ship blown from its mooring
By a wind off the sea
Like a seed dropped by a bird in the wood

Who can say if I've been
Changed for the better?
I do believe I have been
Changed for the better
And because I knew you...because I knew you...because I knew you
I have been changed for good."


Sadly, Glinda chooses the popularity of becoming the Wizard's press secretary while Elphaba seeks to reveal the corruption of the Wizard's governing of Oz.  To say more will spoil your own enjoyment of this musical, if you have not seen it yet. 

And see it, you should...for this musical is wickedly good!

Tim enjoying the fountains on the west side of the terrace