Day Seven: Wicked

Today's post is a musical featuring your favorite female singer, and the singer has to be none other than Idina Menzel!

So, let me explain Wicked first. It's similar to The Wizard of Oz, but it's told in the perspective of the Wicked Witch of the West, Elphaba (Idina Menzel in the first Broadway debut). The show shows a side of the witch that is good, not evil, as The Wizard of Oz once demonstrated.

The show starts off at the end of The Wizard of Oz, with the Wicked Witch being melted and everyone rejoicing about it. Glinda recalls that Elphaba was conceived between the Munchkin Governor's Wife, wh and a mysterious stranger with a bottle of green elixir (who is discovered to be the great wizard Oz, whom everyone knows is human). 

The next scene shows that Glinda (whose actual name is Galinda) and Elphaba met at Shiz University and were roommates. Elphaba goes to college only to take care of her disabled younger sister (confined to a wheelchair after being born without arms.) Nessarose. Elphaba was excluded from Madame Morrible's Sorcery Seminar, but after discovering Elphaba has magical powers, she lets her in and thinks she can be useful for the wizard. 

Part of the show discusses how Animals (notice how I capitalized the word) can be considered people too and shouldn't be considered as just animals. (Animals are animals that can talk and feel and think and act as human beings.) 

Fiyero, a Winkie Prince, is introduced to the story, as well as a Munchkin named Boq, an old childhood friend of Elphaba. Boq tries to ask Glinda to this fancy party, but turns him down and tells him to ask Nessarose instead, her feeling as though her and Fiyero would be a better match. Glinda gives Elphaba a black-pointed hat, and when she wears it, she's at first ridiculed. Glinda ends up feeling remorse for what she did and the two start a strange friendship.

Back at the dorm room, Elphaba explains that her sister was born disabled because her mother, wanting her second child to not be born with green skin, was fed milk-flowers, which resulted in Nessarose to be born prematurely.  Glinda decides to give Elphaba a makeover to make her more admirable and appealing to the other students.

A Shiz professor, Doctor Dillamond (who is an Animal) is taken away by Ozian officials. The new history teacher brings in an Animal cub in a cage and suggests that if Animals were born into cages, they would lose their speech. Elphaba and Fiyero are outraged by this, so they let the cub go free after class. Elphaba thinks she might have feelings for Fiyero but is unsure.

The Wizard requested a presence with Elphaba. Boq doesn't show much interest in Nessarose, so when Glinda questions that, Nessarose answered that maybe it is herself that's not right. Glinda tries to impress Fiyero, which fails miserably, so Elphaba invited Glinda along with her to see the Wizard.

Elphaba is taken personally to the side to have her  powers tested, which she did by having monkeys grow wings, but then discovers that both Madame Morrible and Oz has been behind the troubles in Oz with the Animals and creating cages for them. The Wizard tries to convince her to join his side, as her powers would be very useful for him and his army. 

Elphaba runs out with the spell book (written in this strange language that only certain people can read) and her and Glinda run to the attic of the palace. Morrible turns the townsfolk against Elphaba and she decides to do what is right and not join the Wizard. Glinda, however, decides to follow behind him and become a public figure. She leaves the attic on a broomstick she encharmed, earning her nickname created by Morrible, "The Wicked Witch of the West."

Time has passed (20 years, maybe?). Elphaba has hidden from Oz and is no where to be found.  Yet Glinda, now the Wizard's assisstant, has announced she's engaged to Fiyero. Elphaba returns to Munchkinland, where Nessarose became the new Governor after their father died due to shame from Elphaba defying the Wizard. Elphaba turns the silver slippers Nessarose had gotten when they were younger into ruby red slippers, giving her complete mobility of her legs and being able to walk. Nessarose has restricted the Munchkinlanders from leaving the area, including her crush Boq. Nessarose tries to read from the spell book that Elphaba stole, which results in Boq literally losing his heart and Elphaba turns him into the Tin Man, so he can live.

She returns to the Palace and tries to free the winged monkeys. The Wizard tries to convince her to join him,  but after seeing the speechless Doctor Dillamond among the monkeys, she refuses. She runs into Fiyero and the two proclaim their love to each other. Glinda discovers this and tells Madame Morrible that Elphaba will come to Nessarose's aid, should she need it. Morrible conjures up a tornado with Dorothy's house landing in it and landing right on top of Nessarose, killing her instantly. 

Elphaba arrives just as Glinda send Dorothy and Toto down the Yellow Brick Road. The guards capture her, but Fiyero gives himself in to give time for Elphaba to escape. He gets dragged into the woods and was threatened to be killed if he didn't give up her whereabouts. Elphaba tries casting spells to save Fiyero, but fears it was no use.

Dorothy, the Scarecrow, the Tin Man (Boq) and the Cowardly Lion are sent by the Wizard to kill Elphaba. The Cowardly Lion is the cub that Fiyero and Elphaba had released at Shiz. She captures Dorothy, refusing to let her go until she takes off the ruby slippers that belonged to Nessarose. Glinda tries to convince Elphaba to let Dorothy go, but she won't do it. The two forgave what the other had done and realized that their lives would be different if they hadn't met. Elphaba gives her the spell book, providing she takes control of Oz. Dorothy throws a bucket of water at Elphaba, who then starts to be mysteriously melting away. Glinda sees that all that is left of Elphaba is her hat and a vial of green elixir, which the Wizard has an identical. (Here it's officially revealed that Oz is Elphaba's father and she is part Oz and part human).

Fiyero, it's discovered, was turned into the Scarecrow when Elphaba was casting spells to save him. It is revealed that Elphaba didn't die but descended down a trap door, convincing everyone that she was dead. The two leave Oz as the city is celebrating Elphaba's death. Glinda and Elphaba look up at the night sky, appreciating their friendship and that both "have changed for the better."

(I swear, these describings are getting longer and longer.)

I love Idina Menzel. She is my absolute idol. She debuted in Broadway as none other than Maureen Johnson in Rent, Sheila in Hair, Amneris in Aida, Elphaba in Wicked (duh), and recently, Florence in Chess (in Concert.) I love listening to her voice. I think it's great no matter what singing technique she uses! (If those shows aren't familiar to you, she was Nancy in the Disney movie Enchanted.)

I'm choosing the song she sings when she first realizes that she has feelings for Fiyero after they free the cub, I'm Not That Girl.