I almost flew to Singapore to catch this show at the Marina Bay Sands. A friend of mine actually did, and she so kindly took home a souvenir eco-tote for me. I’ve stared at it longingly ever since. So obviously, the moment I saw that green smirking face plastered on the newspaper, I pledged my attendance, ticket cost and theater companion be damned.
Wicked was a good follow through to the desperate, intense romantic tragedy that is the Phantom of the Opera, the Broadway musical that lay claim on Philippine shores and ate my heart whole last year. Wicked the musical (full title: Wicked: The Untold Story of the Witches of Oz) runs on the music and lyrics of Stephen Schwartz, and is based on the 1995 Gregory Maguire novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, which in turn is a parallel novel of the L. Frank Baum‘s 1900 classic story The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. I say “based” because the musical is a ray of light in the way the novel never tried to be. Though under the laughs, witty jokes and impeccable dialogue run the dark shadows of Maguire’s political and social commentary. It was a good marriage, giving the musical the solid backbone its plot required. Continue Reading
