Musical Wicked

“Dad Dad I’ve just won Wicked tickets”. My 15 year-old daughter came running into my study to deliver this news with unrepressed excitement.

“That’s very nice dear. Tickets for what?” I replied only half listening

“Oh Dad you are such an old fogey. They’re Wicked tickets!” She said placing all the emphasis on WICKED and less on tickets.

“Yes I get the idea you like them, I’m not such an old fogey that don’t know youth-speak when I hear it, but wicked tickets in my day would have meant just the opposite because wicked means evil or bad. Really I dread to think what they aren’t teaching at that expensive school I send you to”.

“Get with it Dad wicked tickets means really really cool. In fact they are the hottest Wicked tickets around”.

“Well I’m glad we sorted that out”. I replied looking and feeling anything but enlightened.

She explained further. “Wicked tickets are tickets for the show “Wicked”. It’s the best musical in the World ever”.

“If I’ve told you once about exaggerating I’ve told you a million times”. I quipped but she just gave me that ‘du urh’ look and pressed on.

“I was listening to the local radio and they had this competition to win Wicked tickets where I had to answer a question and be the first to phone in and get it right and I heard myself on the radio and I got it right so I won two wicked Wicked tickets so you’ve got to take me to London to see Wicked”.

“Wicked!” I said with only the slightest trace of irony. “So what was this question?”

“I had to say the title of the book from which Wicked came and it’s called Wicked: The Life And Times Of The Wicked Witch Of The West. We actually read it in social studies in that expensive school you sent me to and if you haven’t heard of it then I dread to think what they didn’t teach you at that expensive school you went too ”. I really don’t know where she gets her sense of irony from but I thought it best not to rise to the bait.

So I just said. “Did they make you tap your heels together and spin around three times as well?” It was her turn to look confused so I continued. “The wicked witch of the west was the evil character in The Wizard Of Oz, another musical from another book and Dorothy the main character had to do the heel tapping routine…” My daughters’ eyes had begun to glaze over so I came back to her world.

“Social studies you say. How are Wicked tickets related to that?”

“Wicked is all about good and evil and growing up and fame and being true to yourself as a witch.” She told me.

“Ah so are you a witch and if so which witch are you?”

“Oh very funny”. She retorted without the slightest smile. “Are we going to use these Wicked tickets or shall I sell them on eBay?”

“Of course we’ll use your hard-won Wicked tickets. I’m intrigued to see this really cool, hot, wicked, witchy, social, book, musical show thingy”.

At this she stamped her foot, turned on the spot and left mumbling something about old fogeys and evil parents and lots of other stuff I didn’t catch.

Call me sad but I could never get too thrilled for Dorothy when she won out over the Wicked Witch of the West. Those sad little feet sticking out from under the cabin never told the whole story and there had to be more to her than that awful cackle. What motivated her? What strange combination of birth and social environment brought her to this sad end?

I really enjoyed Gregory Maguire’s acclaimed 1995 novel, Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West because it took me back to the land of Oz, and filled a gap for me with its parallel universe to the familiar origina written by L. Frank Baum and first published as The Wonderful Wizard of Oz in 1900.

So imagine my pleasure when I went online and ordered my Wicked tickets. Wicked is to Maguire’s book what The Wizard of OZ was to Baum’s. My Wicked tickets, when they arrived in the mail, proved to be anything but wicked tickets. Rather they were Wicked tickets to a whole new world of magic, mystery and music that recaptured my childhood wonderment before the Wizard of Oz crushed it in favor of dreary Kansas.

My Wicked tickets would let me in to the incredible untold story of a fantasy friendship between two girls who first meet at Shiz University. Shades of Harry Potter and Billy Bunter I know but the age-old literary device of separating youngsters from the adult world works for me. My Wicked tickets introduced me to the beautiful, blonde and very popular Glinda and the complex, misunderstood and bright green girl, Elphaba.

My Wicked tickets let me follow these witches through an encounter with The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, and on to where their friendship reaches a separation point and their lives take very different paths. Glinda’s real world obsession with celebrity sees her seduced by power while Elphaba’s ‘true grit’ to remain true to herself, and to her peer group, will have surprising and disturbing consequences for her future which we know is waiting for her at the end of the rainbow. Their surreal adventures in Oz will ultimately see them fulfill their ultimate roles as Glinda The Good and Elphaba the Wicked Witch of the West.

The advanced publicity that came with my Wicked tickets described the musical as ‘a rich and triumphant feat of imagination and allegory’, Gregory Maguire’s brilliant work ofimagination has been critically acclaimed. The entertainment press say ‘while weaving a seductive web of fantasy and fun, Maguire also manages to score serious points about the nature of being an outsider in our society’. I say, my Wicked tickets finally resolved some unfinished business from the Wizard of Oz.

Wicked lives up to its billing as a spectacle. It has won many awards as a stage adaptation, with music & lyrics by Stephen Schwartz and has become the most spellbinding and popular new musical in years. I definitely agree with the Evening Standard that Wicked tickets will pay you back with ‘a remarkable kaleidoscope of magical shocks, surprises and sensations, Wicked works like a dream.’