Feeling ‘Wicked’ for the first time
“Wicked” plays in the Gershwin Theatre six days a week since 2003. // Megan Naftali / In Sheer Magazine.
I dreamt of emerald green. I woke up early on a Saturday morning to ride the tornado that is the Long Island Railroad to New York.I walked the yellow brick road… okay, you caught me, the gray concrete sidewalk -- all the way to the Gershwin Theater. I was about to watch a show that I had wanted to watch for years. The anticipation was overwhelming and I grew fainterwith every stair I climbed up to the second to last row in the theater. I can’t tell whether it was because of excitement or because of a fear of heights.
My mom and I at the Gershwin Theatre.//Megan Naftali/In Sheer Magazine.
“Wicked” has been playing on Broadway since 2003. My mom and I have always wanted to watch it together, but always put it off due to the cost of the tickets. About a year ago, my mom was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. After almost a year of chemotherapy, she needed to get a potentially life-threatening surgery. I scoured Ticketmaster and found that if we sat in the second to last row, I could afford the tickets for us. Thankfully, the surgery was successful, but I will never forget the day we went to go see “Wicked.”
The lights dimmed, performers filled the stage and music began to play. Even though I was so far away that I couldn’t see the performers’ faces, except maybe that one was green, it didn’t matter. The power behind their voices elicited an emotional reaction. It was like I got my hands on some ruby red slippers and I was finally home.
I’ve always loved the “Wizard of Oz,” and I knew that “Wicked” was the prequel to it, but I didn’t know the story until I saw it. In the “Wizard of Oz,” the Wicked Witch of the West was evil and went after Dorothy Gale because she accidentally killed the Witch’s sister, the Wicked Witch of the East, and took her ruby red slippers when Dorothy’s house landed on her in a tornado.
In “Wicked”, we learned more about the Wicked Witch of the West: her name is Elphaba, and maybe she wasn’t so wicked after all. All her life people judged her and hated her because of her green skin, which I found odd since they have a whole city named after the color. As it turns out, Elphaba had a kind heart and was framed by the Wizard of Oz because she didn’t want to help him fulfill his wicked plans.
Elphaba was an immensely powerful witch who was able to read spells like no other. As a viewer, you can see and hear that the most powerful characters had the strongest voice parts. You can especially hear it when Elphaba, played by Talia Suskauer , is singing “Defying Gravity.” It is known to be one of the hardest songs to sing. Performers who play Elphaba are typically mezzo-sopranos and the highest note in the song, the high F, is the highest in a mezzo-soprano’s register.
The character’s voices could also convey a loss of power. When the Wizard of Oz is first introduced, he has a loud scary voice projecting out of a machine that he’s in. The fake voice is a metaphor. The Wizard is believed to be one of the most powerful people in the land of Oz, but we soon learn that, just like his ersatz voice, he isn’t powerful enough and needs Elphaba’s powers to follow through with his evil plan to control the animals of Oz, who once were able to speak and had free will.
Surprisingly, I enjoyed Wicked more than the Wizard of Oz. The storyline was fantastic because it humanized Elphaba. It showed that there was a whole story going on behind the scenes of the Wizard of Oz, and even though there were some plot holes between the two, watching Wicked made me appreciate the franchise more.
Talia Suskauer will reprise her role as Elphaba; however, Johnson announced on Instagram that her last performance as Glinda will be on Feb. 12, 2023. It has not yet been announced who will replace her as Glinda.
A movie adaptation is set to be released in 2024, with Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba and Ariana Grande as Glinda. Jon M. Chu will be directing the film. Erivo is a Tony, Grammy and Emmy Award winner, and Grande is a Grammy Award winner. I am excited to see the direction that the film will go, especially since Chu announced it will be split up between two movies. My one fear is when famous artists are cast in movies and television shows, it distracts from the main focus of the film. Regardless, Grande must have used her witchy powers to land this role after she was featured in a song by the artist MIKA, where she sang parts of the song “Popular,” which Glinda performs in “Wicked.” No doubt, my mother and I will still watch it repeatedly.
Though it won’t have the emotional impact of a live performance, a movie will be accessible to so many more people. Until then, if you are lucky enough to be able to afford a ticket, the show is on six days a week, including a 2 p.m., 7 p.m. and 8 p.m. timeslots.
