LISA THALHEIMER
Arts Writer

I’ve had three different people tell me with great excitement that the acclaimed musical Wicked is coming to Saskatoon next year. As a person who lives, breathes and eats musical theatre, most people thought I’d be over the moon about the announcement.

Frankly, I don’t really care.

One way to understand my lack of excitement is to see that Wicked is to musical theatre as Twilight is to literature. Both are popular with the masses, but most of the people who study and follow musical theatre or literature closely are fed up with the attention they get because, compared to many other Broadway musicals or novels, they’re just not that good.

Obviously I haven’t seen the show, but I’ve done more research into it than I like to admit. I’ve read the script, I own the cast recording and I’ve found out what I can about the set and physical appearance of the show.

Wicked tells the story of Elphaba, a.k.a. the Wicked Witch of the West, and how she became the wicked (or misunderstood) character we see in The Wizard of Oz. The novel of the same name by Gregory Maguire is fantastic, but the similarities are few.

Winnie Holzman, who adapted the book for the musical, takes a mature and wonderful novel that questions the roots of good and evil and turns it into something almost childish. As an English major and musical theatre fanatic, this makes me angry. Since the novel was tamed for the stage (which is a crime in itself), Wicked only furthers the false stereotype that musical theatre isn’t a proper medium to discuss serious or deep issues.

Also, the lack of creativity displayed by the composer and lyricist, Stephen Schwartz, makes me want to cry. Music and lyrics are the two things that a musical has over a regular play, so obviously they should be utilized to bring forth another layer of emotion to the characters and musical as a whole. Schwartz fails to do this. Almost every song he wrote for Elphaba is a power ballad with overly simplistic lyrics. This blatantly shows Elphaba’s anger and how much of an outcast she is, but not in a creative or meaningful way. She might as well be screaming “I don’t fit in; I’m so misunderstood.”

I’ve only scraped the surface of my problems with the show, but despite my objections, I’ll probably be going. I’ve done my research into the show and I don’t like what I see, but part of what makes musical theatre so great is that you have to see something live and in its entirety to truly appreciate it. For all I know, every problem I have with Wicked works in harmony together to create a musical that is as wonderful and intriguing as the novel that it is based on.

I really hope it does.