Explaining Wicked’s meteoric success

Wicked the Musical’s spectacular rise to #1 bestselling Broadway show seems almost flukey for those who haven’t seen the show. The book is, however moving, topically relevant, and nearly orphic in its conjurations of a world’s underbelly, a bit cumbersome in detail and rather intimidating were one to attempt the translation onto the stage.

Those who have seen Wicked the Musical know how it was managed.

The Chicago Tribune’s archive article on Wicked’s Cinderella story (too much fairy tale for one article?) takes the show and the politics surrounding the professional reviewers’ world apart from the inside out, showing how the show was initially slighted by a Broadway literati before receiving its due, and why it truly does deserve to be the sensation it is.

Says the Tribune’s Chris Jones, of the climactic build for “Defying Gravity” at the end of the first act, “At that moment in the show, it feels like hundreds of teenagers are about to jump out of their seats in collective solidarity with the Wicked Witch of the West — before the cruel world made her that way. / Suddenly, it seems, everyone is an unpopular girl with a green face. / Talk about a potent metaphor.” (again, the full Chicago Tribune article on the success of Wicked the Musical is here)

And Jones is right. Just as Wicked spoke to difficult and ambiguous political problems facing the world by reinterpreting an old story that itself was very much a political work (I feel a new post coming on…), the musical brought in the anthemic feel of powerful popular music and show tunes, and gave the message a drive it didn’t have in MacGuire’s slower-paced novel. Wicked really connects to teenagers and their parents alike, with its themes of individuality and conformity.

And though the tickets are understandably as hard to get as ever, StubHub.com’s Wicked Tickets forum brings fans together to buy and sell tickets to sold-out shows all over the country.

Permalink - Posted in Uncategorized on December 10, 2006 - Post a comment

Gregory McGuire’s Wicked still a bestseller!

The Heartland Independent Booksellers’ Association (HIBA) reported today that Gregory McGuire’s novel Wicked, about the life and times of the Wicked Witch of the West as told from her perspective, hit #11 on the paperback fiction bestsellers list. This is really an impressive showing for a title that’s over five years backlisted!

Gregory McGuire’s Wicked is published by HarperCollins, and they have an incredible vanity site on Wicked and for Gregory McGuire himself. They have reviews, title info, a reading guide and audio excerpt, and a few other things to keep you entertained. They really did a top notch job on it.
For the full list of titles from the Midwest Booksellers’ Association, go to their website at midwestbooksellers.org and download their pdf file. (If you don’t have acrobat reader, you can download it on Adobe’s site.)

And Wicked Tickets are available online for their permanent shows and touring shows in North America on StubHub.com, where fans go to buy and sell tickets.

Permalink - Posted in Uncategorized on December 6, 2006 - Post a comment

Put on Your Own Wicked Production

Wicked the Musical’s music is on sale at Amazon in England, actors not included. The book has all the music and lyrics from the show, it’s adapted to be performed with a piano and guitar. A great resource for an ambitious theater troupe or any Wicked enthusiast with musical enablements, the book contains everything one needs (save the rights for an actual public performance) to put on a show, a song, or to merely fiddle and learn their favorites a bit better.

Currently selling for seven pounds sterling (roughly $10 US), it’s comprehensive for performance of Stephen Schwarz’s hit show.

And if you’d rather trained professionals do it, tickets to your nearest sold-out Wicked the Musical performance are on sale now at StubHub’s Wicked Tickets forum. Just scroll down and find your city to see when the next show will go up.

Permalink - Posted in Uncategorized on December 3, 2006 - Post a comment


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