Wicked

Of the many live performances I have been able to see, by far my favorite is Wicked. I have always been drawn to plays that are fantasy-based versus those that focus on realism. Wicked is a complete fun-ride of fantasy from beginning to end. From it's variety of outrageous characters to it's musical score, each aspect of drama is clear and defined in this play. Theme, music, and spectacle will be the focus in this essay, but that is not to say each aspect does not have a role in the show. Wicked presents the aspects of drama in a way that an audience remembers.

The first prominent aspect of Wicked is the thought, theme, and/or idea behind the story. It follows the girl who was to be known as the Wicked Witch of the West. The main idea is to prove to the audience that the Wizard of Oz got it wrong; the Wicked Witch of the West, as expressed in Wicked's version, was actually the most "goodly" character around. We see her struggles to prove herself to her family and peers, and the horrendous outcomes of her struggles. One theme I took from the play is that not everything is as it seems. I grew up knowing one side of the story of Oz, and Wicked presents a whole new idea. It teaches that there is always more than one side to a story and the only way to decide what is right is to listen to both sides.

Another strong theme is the conflict between good and evil. In most melodramas, good and evil usually have the same characteristics, and Wicked certainly holds a lot of those same characteristics, but at the same time, it shows the audience that the evil may come from an unexpected source. A clear example is the Wicked Witch of the West (her actual name, as we discover in Wicked, is Elphaba) is not really wicked at all. She has been branded Ð''evil' by her peers because of her looks and she can almost do nothing to escape it. It is a tragic idea, but all is satisfied in the end, as any melodrama should be.

The second main aspect of drama presented in Wicked is the music. I chose to discuss the music of this play because, even before I saw the play this summer, I had grown to love the soundtrack some two years before. One side of the music is the many uses of slap-stick sounds. Things such as crashes, screams, wayward laughter, boings and so on are a large part of the play. It's quirky nature is expressed in the characters of the show, but the sounds used to highlight those personalities really add a good dimension to the whole show.

The other side of the music in Wicked is the actual score. I already knew a good deal of the songs in the play, but there is nothing like hearing and seeing a song performed versus listening to it on a CD. For example, one of the biggest numbers is Defying Gravity. This is the end of the first act when Elphaba decides she will no longer let others hold her back from her own power. She wants to