(Warning to any and all readers- there be spoilers ahead! TO WICKED!!)
Well, I went to Wicked on Wednesday and it was FANTASTIC!!!!!!! To properly comment, however, on the performance and get all my obsessing out, I need to describe the story of WICKED!!! (Sorry.) But This is the ENTIREEEEEE musical, so it'll contain tonstonstons of SPOILERS!!!! WHEEEEEE!!
I'm SORRY!
In ANY case, here follows the incredibly long-winded but (hopefully) interesting and fascinating story of WICKED!!
(I'm working on it!!!)
The story begins as Glinda, that wonderful, tow-headed witch we all know and love, is leading the citizens of Oz in an almost clashing harsh celebration of that evil witch we've all come to know and hate, the Wicked Witch of the West. She explains what we already know- that by the direct result of a female child throwing a bucket of water onto the Wicked Witch, she did promptly and with much smoke, melt until very THROROUGHLY dead. ("That she's not only relly dead, she's really most sincerely dead!" OK, so that's from the original movie, but I couldn't resist!
) Glinda continues on with the explanation of how she was born with such an interesting skin tone- emerald green.
Apparently, her mother (though it's not given, her name is Melena) did not love her father as he loved her. Which is all fine and dandy, because he was the govenor of Munchkinland. (His name is Frexspar, or Frex for short, though this also is not given.) Melena had been seeing a mysterious stranger (the audience doesn't know who he is) on the side, and he let her drink a "magical elixer" that would make you erase all your troubles, much like an intoxicating drink. Well, this green liquid, in a bright, jewel-like green bottle, should not be drunk when one is pregnant, or, as the family, to their shame, found out, it can quite drastically change the growing baby.
As Glinda is telling all this, of the mysterious stranger and never-there father, the crowd continues to be cold and callous, not caring in the slightest, seeing, like normal, only our side of the story. But what if we got a brief chance to see a different definition of "wicked"- that is, the one the Witch herself would give you?
The audience gets this brilliant chance as one person in the crowd calls out angrily, "Glinda- is it true, you were her friend?!" and Glinda once again sees the past come alive before her eyes. Soon, we get to see through her eyes...
As she has admitted, Glinda did know her when she was still Elphaba, in their days at Shiz University, back when rich, popular, pampered Galinda (as she was known then) was young and innocent and thought the whole world should love her. On Elphaba's first day at Shiz, as she appears with her father and younger sister, Nessarose, who is wheelchair-bound, the students all spend a good time gawking at the strangely-colored child. And as Nessa's safety is so important to their father (who loves her more than Elphaba) the "HeadShiztress", Madame Morrible, vows to keep her safe by keeping Nessa in her personal quarters. This conpromises Elphaba's promise to her father that she would watch out for Nessa, and in fury, as Morrible is wheeling her away, she shouts angrily, "LET HER GO!!" and, to everyone's surprise including hers, Nessa's chair spins quickly out of Morrible's hand and slides easily into. Elphaba's own. Morrible sees that she might have the gift of sorcery and offers to teach her- and no one else, much to Galinda's frustration- in the sacred art of magic. She also illuminates the fascinating possibility that Elphaba just might work for the Wonderful Wizard of Oz himself as his Magic Grand Vizier! As the students finally disperse, Elphaba dreams of finally meeting the Wizard, her dream for as long as she can remember.
She finds out that her roomie, to no one's pleasure, is the stuck-up (and obnoxiously blonde) Galinda herself. Dutifully writing home to both their fathers, the children explain their predicament. Elphaba is worried that Nessa won't be able to be taken care of and that Galinda will mock her until she can't stand it, while Galinda is disgusted that she has to share a room with someone, in her own words to her "dearest darlingest Momsie and Popsical", "Unusually and exceedingly peculiar and altogether quite impossible to describe...". They angrily feud and prepare for one of their first classes.
Now is the time to quickly give an Ozian word and definition- Animal. There is a difference between Animals and animals. The one with the capital letter is sentient, having a soul and being able to talk and think and have emotions. Well, at Shiz, an Animal can be jusgt as revered a teacher as a Munchkin or Winkie can. (Winkies are the taller forms of huminoid life. As we all know, Munchkins are child-like in their stature. Usually, a Munchkin from a proud family name married into height somewhere along the line, so many Munchkins aren't as short as all that.) Dr. Dillamond is a goat, a teacher of history with a kind soul and a problem pronouncing "Galinda", preferring to call one of his least-favorite pupils (as opposed to his most-favorite, Elphaba, who is different like himself) "Glinda." As he turns the chalkboard over to pose a question, he sees that someone has scrawled in rude, red paint across the board, "Animals should be seen and not heard". Shaken and upset, he dismisses the class. Elphaba is the only one staying behind, and she eats her sandwich with his company in thoughtful silence while he chews on her paper sack. Hwever, he loses his appetite as he explains that he has heard rumours that the Animals were slowly but surely, all throughout Oz, forgetting how to speak. Elphaba is shocked and scared, especially when Dillamond is singing "Something bad, happening in Oz" and he can't finish because it turns into "Something baaaaad", much like a goat braying. Upset, he leaves the room. Elphaba, left behind and deeply worried, murmurs to herself, "It couldn't happen here in Oz..."
While the other students are milling around, having nothing to do since their class was ended early, Galinda notices the famous Prince of the Winkies, Prince Fiyero, showing up with his personal coach. Having a reputation of being thrown out of more schools than anyone could count and being dangerously cool, Galinda falls hard and fast for him- not at all noticing the wishes of a Munchkin named Boq (that's pronounced "Bock", just so you know, though she nevers pays attention nor remembers and always says "Bick"). Fiyero is shocked at the amount of boring, studious work that's going on (that Elphaba and Boq are very comfortable in) and tells his life philosophy of "dancing through life". He tries to liven up the joint by planning a party at the most "swankified" place in town, the Oz Dust Ballroom. Boq nervously asks Galinda to dance at least once with him, she deflects his wishes by pointing out Nessarose and suggesting he ask her, because any boy who did that would "be her hero". He goes and nervously asks Nessa instead, freeing the girly blonde up for a dream date with her dream prince, Fiyero. (As they comment, "Youre perfect" "You're perfect" "So we're perfect together!") Nessa rushes off to tell her sister, and Elphaba starts to think that, perhaps her roommate isn't such an awful person if she's finally gotten Nessa one night of happiness. Meanwhile, as Galinda (in a pretty, frilly pink dress) and her friends are getting ready for the party, one of them discovers an ugly, pointed black hat among their popular friend's things. Being basically mean by nature, they dare Galinda to offer it Elphaba to wear to the party. As the two bump into each other and the green-skinned girl thanked her for doing something so kind for her sister, the other interrupted, offering up the hat and dashing away, leaving Elphaba, to seriously reconsider whether she is really a bad person or not.
Galinda and Fiyero show up at the party and are the centre of attention, especially to Boq, who is miserable with Nessarose, whom he doesn't even love. He finally feels guilty about asking her when he doesn't love her and tries to fess up, but when he mentions the reason isn't fair, she says she knows why- because she's in a wheelchair and he felt sorry for her. Not being able to finish what he was going to say without feeling so cruel, he finally bursts out, "Because you are SO BEAUTIFUL!" giving her a false idea that he loves her. In a burst of kindness, he starts wheeling her around the dancefloor in a dancing pattern, moving alone but seeming to have a great time, all the more making Nessa completely smitten with the kind Munchkin. Suddenly, Elphaba (who, as you must remember, is bookish and doesn't know much about style) shows up at the party in a black frock and the pointed black hat and immediately becomes the centre of attention. She notices immediately that the hat is a prank but keeps her eyes fixed straight ahead and goes to the centre of the dancefloor and listlessly begins to dance alone. Fiyero stares wide-eyed at Elphaba (who is pretty, despite being green, just no one can notice because of that), though Galinda doesn't notice because she's too busy feeling overwhelmingly guilty. At that moment, Madame Morrible comes in and walks up to the tow-headed student and tells her that she had better show up at the sorcery seminary the next day. Confused, because she had just said she would only accept Elphaba, she asked what she meant, and the HeadShiztress explained that Elphaba had insisted that Galinda be put in the class too just a few minutes ago, or she would quit immediately. She wanted Elphaba so much, she was willing to accept. As she walked away, Galinda was left behind with an even deeper sense of complete guilt. After watching Elphaba resultely and sadly do the same dance moves over and over, she slowly walks up to her and joins in the dancing, adding her own dance move. Elphaba slowly copies, and they quickly form a dancing group of their own, and the party resumes (now that cool Galinda thinks it's OK) and they dance the night away.
Back in their dorm room, Galinda and Elphaba (who has been nicknamed "Elphie" by an overly-perky Galinda) stay up and tell their deepest secrets. Galinda asks why Elphie always sleeps with a green little bottle under her pillow, but she refuses to say why, only stating that it was the only thing her mother left her before she died. Finally, Galinda declares that Elphaba is her new friend AND her new project. Though the one protests, the other pushes it aside and cheerfully tries to give her "popular" lessons, which include such things as being able to toss your hair. Elphie, however, doesn't exactly feel comfortable with these "Galinda-fying" new style suggestions, and she leaves in a hurry.
The next day, in Dr. Dillamond's class, Fiyero sees her tossing her hair and is surprised by the Galinda-fying. He points out that she didn't need it just as the professor walks into the room with terrible news. It had just been decreed that Animals were no longer allowed to teach! The students were shocked and surprised, and as officials walked in and took Dillamond away (as he shouted hurridly, "You don't know all the truth! Remember that!"), one of the officials took over the class. He introduced a new renvation- the "cage" with a lion cub in it, able to keep young Animal cubs imprisoned so that they never learned to speak and became only dumb animals. Elphie, furious, casts a spell on the entire class except for herself and Fiyero. She employed his help while the class was busy and took the cub out into the outdoors to let it free so it could learn and not be cruelly locked up. For a brief moment while they're arguing (Elphaba's first impression was that Fiyero was a mindless, pampered prince but she's having second thoughts; Fiyero, however, is proudly and stubbornly saying, "Excuse me- I happen to be genuinely arrogant and truly self-obsessed, thank you! There is no acting here!"), their hands touch and eyes meet, and in that moment, they both realise they love each other. Nervous, Fiyero rushes off to free the lion, leaving Elphaba behind to remind herself that Fiyero had been claimed by Galinda (the secret Galinda had told her last night was that she and Fiyero were getting married... even though he didn't know it
) and that she had to stop having any fantasies about she and him, him and she, them... sorry, Captain Sparrow moment.
Finally, the news comes in that the Wizard wants to hold council with Elphaba and perhaps hire her as his Magic Grand Vizier, so shes off to the Emerald City so quickly. Galinda confides in her that she's worried about Fiyero (he's beeing THINKING lately... and that worries me!" Remember, she's a bit of a mindless flake), and he suddenly shows up to see Elphaba off. Galinda is reminded of the day Dr. Dillamond was forced to resign, and seeing it meant so much to them (though why she didn't know because she was bewitched by Elphaba at the time) and not wanting to be left out of anything, proves it was important to her too by "officially" hanging her name from "Galinda" to "Glinda" because he could never pronounce her name. Fiyero leaves, upset that his actual true love is leaving, and Glinda breaks down, sobbing, on Elphie's shoulder. To make her feel better, Elphaba asks her to accompany her to the Emerald City in consolation. Excited and greatly cheered, Glinda does indeed accompany her new "best friend" (for once, meaning it) to the wonderful city of green, which greatly excited Elphaba because for once, she fit right in.
Finally, they're called to the company of Oz. As soon as he realizes that it's Elphaba in his midst, he drops the whole "fake Wizard" thing (remember, the giant "I... AM... OZ!!!" green head? Well, in the musical, it's a giant mechanical head, but same thing.) and rushes out from behind the contraption, calling in his "new Head of Secretary". When she presents herself as Madame Morrible herself, they are both surprised, but she brings out with her The Grimmerie- the ancient book of spells that even she, a master sorceress, can only read a few spells out of. The Wizard then explains that he has always wanted a family, so he has vowed to treat each citizen of Oz as his own child, so he would love to help Elphaba with her magical powers. He then proposes a challenge. He shows her his monkey, Chistery, who has been watching the birds with a great deal of interest and wishes that he could fly. Before Morrible could help her, Elphie is already chanting from the ancient book, and soon, Chistery has sprouted a pair of fantastic, feathery wings. However, in the pleasure and excitement of her successfully doing the spell, Morrible and the Wizard reveal what their ulterior motive was- Chistery was to be a spy for the Wizard to stop the Animals from speaking forever! The cunning man offers a position for Glinda, who forgets her morals and rushes up quickly to accept the years of fame and glory that were soon to follow, but Elphaba, furious and heartbroken, declines. She rushes away, Grimmerie and Glinda in hand, causing the Wizard to send out a call for his guards to catch the runaway at all costs.
They go and hide in thew attic, where the two girls overheard Morrible prclaiming to all of Oz their new enemy- the Wicked Witch, just ommitting the information that her name is Elphaba and that she really isn't the Wicked one in this equation. Elphaba, bent on never going back into Oz until she has cleared her name and saved the Animals, enchants a broom and readies to fly away. She and Glinda are first angry at each other, but quickly realize that they only have this one chance to say goodbye, so they quickly do so, apologizing and Elphie running away.
OK OK OK, Act Two later. I'm TIREDTIREDTIRED!!!