The Holyoke High school musical this year is the remarkable Wizard of Oz and what better way to truly understand the full story than to go see the Broadway play “Wicked”.  The play is incredible and gives insight into the lives of the Wicked Witch of the West and Glinda before and after Dorothy arrived in Oz.

Wicked first premiered at Gershwin Theater in October 2003 and its original stars included the famous singer of the major hit “Let it Go”, Idina Menzel, as Elphaba and Kristin Chenoweth as Glinda.

The play is based on the 1995 novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West written by Gregory Maguire and is directed by Joe Mantello.  It tells the story of the Wicked Witch of the West and her friendship with Glinda the Good which is not mentioned in the 1939 film “The Wizard of Oz” and the 1900 story “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz”.

Not only has it made history as the 11^th longest running Broadway show but it also has won over fifty awards which include three Tony Awards, six Drama Desk Awards, and a Grammy Award.  The Tony Awards were for the outstanding costumes and marvelous sets while the Grammy Award was for the “Wicked” soundtrack.

Seeing the play live and in person on the Broadway stage is absolutely breathtaking.  The visual effects such as the flying monkeys that literally fly over your head and the scenes where Elphaba is floating in mid air are astonishing.  It actually feels as though you are in the land of Oz with them.  The attention to detail on the costumes with all of the rhinestones and the make up on all of the characters especially Elphaba was flawless.

The current cast features Christine Dwyer as Elphaba and Tiffany Haas as Glinda.  As expected both actresses were excellent on stage and displayed tremendous talent as they belted out some extremely high notes in some of the famous songs off the soundtrack such as “Defying Gravity”and “No One Mourns the Wicked”.  The music and lyrics in the play are by Stephen Schwartz a famous musical composer who is known for his work in “Godspell” and “Pippin”.

When the play first begins you see where the Wizard of Oz left off where the Wicked Witch of the West is dead and everyone in Oz is celebrating.  However  the truth is then revealed that Glinda and Elphaba were once friends and went to school together.  You get to see how different the witches were from one another and Elphaba really wasn’t as wicked as everyone is taught to believe.  An argument over the same love interest, a crazy sister, a wizard who is not that great of a person, and a society that is completely corrupt all lead up to Elphaba’s change in personality and appearance.  This gives you a better understanding of who she really is as a person and you even get to learn a bit more about other characters including the Tin Man, the Scarecrow, the Lion, and the flying monkeys.  Some of the secrets that are revealed will have you in shock and will definitely change the way you view the entire story that you thought you knew before.

(Spoiler Alert: the next paragraph contains some facts from the Broadway Play that can give some of the surprises and secrets away)

There were a lot of things in the play that no one saw coming.  Who would have expected the the scarecrow to be the man that Elphaba The Wicked Witch of the West fell in love with, the tin man was just a normal man that Ephaba turned into tin in order to save his life and the lion to be an animal that Elphaba met in school.

The biggest shock of them all though has to be when you find out that the Wizard is actually The Wicked Witch of the West’s father.  The Wizard is not at all who everyone is lead to believe considering he trapped all of the flying monkeys for cruel purposes.  Maybe everyone needs to rethink who actually should be considered “Wicked” in this story line.

If you are a lover of musicals or you are interested in seeing different point of view from a story many of us are familiar with then I highly suggest you either go see the play on Broadway or even watch it online.  Besides now is the perfect time with the out high school musical production of “The Wizard of Oz” coming up!