WICKED: FOR GOOD

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In this sequel to 'Wicked' we get to enjoy the unfolding of the dramas which were set up in that film, with the music taking a bit of a backseat in that the individual songs are not as strong.

We pick up with Glinda enjoying herself as the centre of attention in the Emerald City, especially since she now has a magic bubble to float around in, and that she is going to marry handsome Prince Fiyero.  

Elphaba on the other hand is stuck out in the woods, singlehandedly trying to fight a propaganda war against the combined forces of the Wizard and Madame Morrible.

It's a war she can't win, so thankfully we move onto a more intimate scene in which Glinda successfully plays peacemaker between Elphaba and the Wizard.  Unfortunately (and for no very good reason that I could see) the peace deal breaks down almost immediately and this leads Madame Morrible to come to the fore. 

She creates a tornado in order to drop a house on Nessarose, killing her.  This doesn't make a whole load of sense except as a necessary contrivance so as to shoehorn this story into that told in 'The Wizard of Oz'.  Under this heading see also the fates of Boq, and of Prince Fiyero himself (the male characters really do come off badly).

Since we think we know the ultimate fate of Elphaba it is very much Glinda who now has to take centre stage.  She makes the shattering discovery that Fiyero loves Elphaba, not her, yet she's able to rise above this, forgive Elphaba and take matters into her own hands in a stirring conclusion.

Once the tornado appears, Dorothy herself is now present in this story, albeit always offstage or in the background.  Whilst this is fine and dandy up to a point, for those of us brought up on 'The Wizard of Oz' it's disconcerting to have Dorothy become a minor character or pawn in a larger narrative.  To add insult to injury we can't now even say that she kills the Wicked Witch of the West.  

But putting these quibbles aside, whilst I'm not sure that the stage musical absolutely needed to be expanded to some five hours, the two films are very entertaining in their own right, which can't be a bad thing.

And it'll be fun to now rewatch 'The Wizard of Oz' with the new perspective provided by these films even though I'm not sure that everything fits smoothly together, no matter how clever the source novel, by Gregory Maguire.  

But hopefully a new generation of young people will now seek out and be enchanted by the story of Dorothy, and Toto, and their companions.  Altogether now, "We're off to see the Wizard, the Wonderful Wizard of Oz..."

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