Wicked

What is it about Frank L. Baum's Wizard of Oz that engages people year after year? After watching the classic movie with my kids, I checked out the original book. I was surprised at the differences, most notably how Dorothy is a much stronger, more self-reliant character who has to use her wits to get out of many more troubles than the movie character.

I also picked up The Wizard of Oz: Shaping an Imaginary World and discovered that after the success of his book, Mr. Baum lost money in several theatrical/film ventures and wound up having to write 14 sequels to the Oz books (usually coming out right before Christmas time). The sequels continued after Baum's death and some librarians/children's literature scholars dismissed the entire series as having any value to children 30 years after the Wizard of Oz was first written. However, the 1939 film version kept Oz and its characters part of the American landscape.

I'd heard of the broadway show, Wicked and knew songs such as "Popular" were from it. I didn't realize the 2004 musical was based on another book about that magical kingdom written in 1995. Author Gregory Maguire created a story for the grownups in Wicked: the life and times of the wicked witch of the West. Just as you may be surprised when Lady Chatterley's lover reads more like a political manifesto than a juicy romance, so does Wicked explore weighty issues such as the nature of evil, while exploring political and religious holds on people who live under the dictatorship of the Wizard. I found myself slogging through the story of Elphaba (also known as the Wicked Witch of the West), her sister, friends (including Glinda) as they grew up in Oz during the earlier years of Oz's rule. I was enchanted with the story, though, and found the parallels to the book really interesting -- a talking lion makes perfect sense, the power of the glass prism shoes (not Ruby red) is explored, even the flying monkeys are explained. Elphaba is a complex, meaningful character in this book who seems to wreck havoc in the lives of those close to her-- without meaning to. Throughout her life she seems blessed and cursed at the same time. Because she didn't survive to give her side of the story and happened to be born with green skin, she became a nightmare character for generations of children.

Kristen