Wicked !

Wicked was definitely an interesting version of The Wizard of Oz, but for a musical it was pretty good. Elphaba was definitely a strong character, I think. She despite everyone looking down on her because she’s not pretty enough, she’s still not let down. For someone that has to put up with all that hatred, she’s still willing to help people. It’s really ironic though, that the more she tries to help, the more hatred she’s gaining from everybody. She’s never appreciated, but still she stands strong and seems to not care of what anyone thinks, and sticks to being a good person.
I kind of had mixed feelings about Galinda. It took me a while to really know whether or not she actually liked Elphaba. She’s the one who gave her that witch’s hat in the first place, but then again, when she shows up at the party and everyone is staring at her, she goes up to her and starts dancing with her so everyone else can accept her. I guess deep down, she’s a good person, but she lets her popularity get in the way of her friendship, which shows she isn’t a strong character at all because unlike Elphaba who doesn’t care what people think, Galinda certainly does. I did like the fact that Fiyero, who happened to be the handsome guy, fell for Elphaba than Galinda, who was pretty and popular. I guess this was a message that beauty is only skin deep.
I also had mixed feelings about Elphaba’s sister, Nessarose. At first I felt bad for her for being in a wheel chair and not being able to walk. And I especially felt bad that she actually thought Boq liked her, when he only hung around her to impress Galinda. However, when Nessarose becomes governess, she starts taking advantage of her power by making Boq her servant. I still don’t understand why she would do that, if she liked him. He would obviously hate her even more. If she wanted him to stick around, she could have gave him a different less demeaning job.
The Wizard was also portrayed differently in this play than how we knew of him in the traditional Wizard of Oz play. In this play, he seems like he’s just there. He has no power what so ever, and he chooses to act through someone with powers. This obviously doesn’t make him a strong character at all.