How Wicked Defy Broadway's Popularity

Twenty-one years ago, Wicked became the highest-grossing Broadway show surpassing the box office records better than The Phantom of the Opera and The Lion King. The musical adaptation has broken records, received accolades, and huge cultural popularity impact. Before it was a billion-dollar successful Broadway musical, it was based on a novel written by Gregory Maguire telling the story of the Wicked Witch of the West. With Wicked Part One starring Cynthia Ervio and Ariana Grande premiering in November (six months away). Let's look back on how this "wickedly" story became a Broadway fanatic hit.

The Author

The musical story starts with a story

Gregory Maguire was born on June 9, 1954, in Albany, New York to Helen and John Maguire. His mother died from complications suffered giving birth to him which prompted his father to send him to live with an aunt. His aunt relinquished him to a local orphanage when he was six months old. He was reclaimed from the orphanage at age two after his father's remarriage. Throughout his childhood, Maguire became obsessed with the Wizard of Oz and would arrange theatrical events in his backyard.

In 1995, Maguire published his first adult novel, Wicked: the Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West. Maguire presented the story as the Wicked Witch of West's biography. Around the time Maguire wrote "Wicked", he was living in London during the early 1990s, he noticed that while the problem of evil had been explored from many different perspectives, those perspectives were seldom synthesized together.

"Everyone was asking: how could those boys be so villainous? Were they born evil or were there circumstances that pushed them towards behaving like that? It propelled me back to the question of evil that bedevils anybody raised Catholic. No one says how The Wicked Witch of the West became as she was. She’s just bad. I decided to tell her life as if Dickens was doing it. My novel would start with her birth, end with her death and have a 19th-century moral urgency. Within the first couple of days I got her name. I wanted to pay homage to The Wizard of Oz novelist L Frank Baum: LFB – Elphaba! It’s clean and simple, but not pretty, and with connotations of otherworldliness."

Maguire told The Guardian, September 27, 2021

The novel wasn't a success until it sold 500,000 copies by the time the Broadway adaptation opened in 2003. In 2005, ten years after its publication, Wicked spent 26 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list.

The Story of "Wicked"

The story tells about two witches: Elphaba (Bad Witch) and Glinda (Good Witch) before Dorothy came down to Oz. Elphaba and Glinda enroll at Shiz University and become roommates. Throughout their time at Shiz, Elphaba and Glinda struggles through their corrupt government, opposing personalities, viewpoints, and same love interest until the two were invited to meet the Wizard at the Land of Oz.

Adaptations

Grammy Winning Composer and lyricist Stephen Schwartz discovered Maguire's 1995 novel while on vacation and saw its potential for a musical adaptation. However, Wicked was planned for a film adaptation and actress Salma Hayek had plans to adapt Wicked as a miniseries unfortunately the plans were scrapped. In 1998, Schwartz persuaded Maguire to release the rights to a stage production while also making what Schwartz himself called an "impassioned plea" to Universal producer Marc Platt to realize Schwartz's own intended adaptation. Five years after Schwartz persuaded Maguire to a musical adaptation finally gained rights for Wicked. The musical was produced by Universal Pictures and directed by Joe Mantello, with musical staging by Wayne Cilento, book written by Winnie Holzman, and Schwartz writing the music and lyrics for the musical. The musical starred Idina Menzel who had previously starred in Broadway's Rent in 1996 as Elphaba and Tony Winner Kristin Chenoweth as Glinda. The musical premiered in San Francisco as a tryout at the Curran Theatre in May and June 2003. The tryout closed on June 29, 2003, and after extensive retooling. The musical began previews on Broadway at the Gershwin Theatre on October 8, 2003, and made its official premiere on October 30. Most of the original production team and cast members remained with the show. The musical received mixed reviews however Chenoweth and Menzel were praised by critics and audiences.

The musical was nominated for ten Tony Awards in 2004, including Best Musical, Book, Orchestrations, Original Score, Choreography, Costume Design, Lighting Design, Scenic Design while receiving two nominations for Best Actress. Wicked won three Tonys including Best Actress for Menzel for her performance as Elphaba.

The show won 6 Drama Desk Awards out of 11 nominations, including Outstanding Musical, Book, Director, and Costume Design. The musical spawned many national tours, worldwide productions, and long-running West End productions. The West End production received five Laurence Olivier Award nominations and later won the Audience Award for Most Popular Show at the 2010 award ceremony. The original Australian production received six Helpmann Awards out of 12 nominations, including Best Musical. Wicked was named the Best Musical of the Decade by Entertainment Weekly magazine and hailed "a cultural phenomenon" by Variety magazine.

In 2021, Film director Jon M. Chu is set to direct the two-part film adaptation of Wicked for Universal Pictures. The cast stars Tony Winner and Academy Award Nominated Cynthia Ervio as Elphaba and Grammy Winner Ariana Grande as Glinda along with the cast: Michelle Yeoh, Jeff Goldbulm, Ethan Slater, and Jonathan Bailey. The Film trailer has been released on May 15, 2024.

The first one set to be released on November 27, 2024, and the second part on November 26, 2025.

The Popularity of Wicked

Wicked has been mentioned in movies, TV shows, other Broadway musical productions, and music. Lea Michele’s character Rachel sang "Defying Gravity" in the first season of Glee along with Chris Colfer character's Kurt. In the fifth season of Glee, this time Michele, Colfer, and Amber Riley's Mercedes sing the song Defying Gravity. Mika and Ariana Grande (before she was cast as Glinda) sampled "Popular" for their song "Popular Song".

The end of the song "Killer Instinct" in Bring It On the Musical parodies the closing notes of "No One Mourns the Wicked" but that's not the only musical that parodies Wicked. At the end of the song "What's Up Duloc (Reprise)" in Shrek the Musical parodies the closing notes of "Defying Gravity".

Source

YouTube

Wikipedia

theGuardian