Wicked: 2003 Original Broadway Cast

Purchased this because at that time the movie hadn't come out and I couldn't find a video recording of the Broadway play. Wife loved the cd.

The "Wicked" Original Broadway Cast recording sparkles with energy and emotion, and features the original performers for whom the music was specifically written. The musical version of "Wicked" differs substantially from the original novel by Gregory Maguire but the altered storyline, in which the minor character of Glinda the Good in the novel is elevated to co-star status in the musical, becomes a story of the friendship between two young women and the sacrifices they must make to be true to their ideals.While this makes the musical story completely different than the book it is arguably more compelling than the actual novel, as evidenced by the show's runaway success on Broadway, Chicago and on national tour. Add composer Stephen Schwartz's best work since "Pippen" 30 years ago and the result is a show that IMO is easily as enjoyable as "Les Miserables" and far more gripping than "Phantom of the Opera" or "Miss Saigon."Schwartz introduces the dramatic "Wicked Witch" theme (a six chord progression whose unspoken lyrics purportedly are "oh no, the witch is here") in the first moments of the overture and recalls it chillingly again moments later when it becomes apparent at the Wicked Witch's birth that something is horribly wrong. Then, when the young Witch is finally united with her true love in the second act, the love theme utilizes the exact same chord progression, but now set in a compelling ostinato figure that underscores the urgency and desperation of their fleeting moment together. The Hindemith-like antiphony of "No One Mourns the Wicked" both jars us and serves to clue us into realizing that something's not quite right during the "Ding-Dong the Witch is Dead"-like opening celebration number.The hopeful yet tragic "Unlimited" theme arcs through the story and is a clever homage to the "Wizard of Oz" movie score, using the same first seven notes as "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" and then diverging. Schwartz noted in interviews that he chose to use only the first seven notes as an inside joke because copyright laws specifically define eight notes as the point where infringement on someone else's tune occurs.The music of "Wicked" is for the most part completely dependent on the context of the musical and the individual numbers do not stand alone well, but Ms. Chenowith's "Popular" and Ms. Menzel's legitimate showstopper "Defying Gravity" are justifiably acclaimed, and the de facto finale "For Good" is already available on Amazon on two other non-Broadway recordings, one of which features the composer singing half of the duet himself.The aforementioned love song "As Long as You're Mine" also has to be heard in the context of the story to be fully appreciated; the audience at this point in the musical has been taken on a journey from the apparent celebration of the witch's demise at the beginning to the show 180 degrees to where we now understand her character and motivations to where from "Defying Gravity" onwards we are actually cheering for the witch to succeed; by the time this duet comes along near the end of the second act, the witch and her true love are being hunted across the land and we already know that our heroine is doomed to melt (and soon!) at the hands of a certain Kansas farmgirl, lending the lyrics and chord progressions, maudlin at best out of context, tremendous pathos and power akin to "The Fall of Saigon" and "The Last Night of the World" in "Miss Saigon." Only when you see the musical do you understand why Schwartz chose Fiyero's otherwise jarring verse "Maybe I'm brainless, maybe I'm wise.""Wicked" is well worth your time but you'll enjoy it infinitely more once you also see the show, and the show itself is well worth a weekend trip to the nearest city staging a production to see it.

Purchased this before going to see the show in Minneapolis

I enjoyed the CD - great introduction to the movie!

The music in it unreal. The emotion behind it. The behind it. I’m obsessed!

I am a big fan of Gregory McQuires novels, 'Wicked' and 'Confessions Of An Ugly Step-Sister' being by far the best. The way he looks at the questions of good and evil is a recurring theme. No one truely thinks they are evil, just misunderstood. And 'Good' people (bible-waving happy clappers, et al) are equally questionable. In reality everyone thinks their actions are justfied and for the best.The news that 'Wicked' would be made into a musical floored me a little. I was eagerly awaiting the mega-bucks Hollwood adaptation that has been in the works for years with Demi Moore's production company. But a musical makes sense - Oz has always been a muscal world, and the medium it lends itself to colourful fantasy. Plus the characters can speak directly to the audience and tell us what they are thinking; hard to achieve in film.Being in Australia I knew it would be years before we got to see 'Wicked' on stage, so ordered the cast recording from amazon. At first I wasn't a fan of the music. I thought it was a little too Disney, and once I discovered the composers credentials lay in 'Beauty And The Beast' and 'Poccahontas', I shuddered. Elphaba sounds more like Arial from 'The Little Mermaid' than the dark and deep creature created by McGuire. But credit to Stephen Schwartz, what seemed poppy and pretty on the surface soon turned out to have a very dark heart, which beautiflly reflects the themes. The songs get better and better on further listening, and the vocal performances are sensational, especially by Kristin Chenoweth (possibly the best name ever), who has a devilish sense of comic timing and manages the different faces of Glinda (sweet Valley Girl 'Clueless' to the operatic high As.) She is hilarious and a stand-out talent. She made this recording for me and I would hate to be another performer stepping into her role.Beautifully scored and performed, packed full of humour, and wth a story line that has been even further developed by the remarkable Winnie Holtzman, 'Wicked' is a fully realized and magical experience. Now if it would just head Down Under...