Although best remembered for the classic 1939 film The Wizard of Oz,
L. Frank Baum
's series of early 20th century novels about the fairyland Oz have inspired a number of theatrical and cinematic adaptations, beginning with a Broadway musical version of
The Wizard of Oz
for which
Baum
himself provided the libretto and lyrics that opened in 1903, only three years after the first publication of the initial book, and including the 1975 all-black Broadway musical
The Wiz
. In an era rife with sequels and "prequels" to successful properties that has reached back retroactively to include authorized and unauthorized re-imaginings of works such as Gone with the Wind,
Gregory Maguire
's 1995 novel
Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West
purported to depict the back story of the villainess of The Wizard of Oz and her counterpart, Glinda the Good. Of course,
Maguire
's retelling was a revisionist interpretation in which the Wicked Witch turned out to be a misunderstood character with lots of justifications for turning "bad" (one of them being prejudiced reactions to her green skin color), while Glinda was made into more of a goody-goody than actually good, not to mention being something of a dumb-blonde cheerleader type. Theatrical composer
Stephen Schwartz
(
Godspell
,
Pippin
) saw the obvious stage possibilities, and his musical version,
Wicked
, opened on Broadway on October 30, 2003. In the adaptation, Glinda's role has been beefed up, the better to employ the talents of Tony-winning Broadway star
Kristin Chenoweth
, though the story still primarily concerns the young Wicked Witch (
Idina Menzel
), with Broadway veteran
Joel Grey
as the Wizard, and the story line has been softened, the better to attract a young audience conditioned by the
Disney
hits Beauty and the Beast and The Lion King. On disc, the score will have a familiar sound to anyone who knows previous
Schwartz
efforts and their combination of traditional show music with '70s-style soft rock music and choral music. Soprano
Chenoweth
and alto
Menzel
are given very different kinds of songs to sing;
gets the Broadway belting material,
the more adult contemporary-type ballads. This is appropriate to the their characters. Glinda is superficial and showy, Elphaba (the Witch) so earnest that she is eventually embittered. The score is tuneful and the lyrics often witty. This is not great music, but it is craftsmanlike and certainly efficient for this somewhat questionable project. ~ William Ruhlmann