(Kristin Chenoweth) and Elphaba - Camera Obscura: Feminism ...

42 • Camera Obscura
Galinda find out that the Wizard of Oz masterminded the anti-
Animal plot, Elphaba becomes an Animal activist and is labeled a
dangerous enemy of the state. Parting ways with her best friend,
Galinda drops the a from her name and pursues a career as a
public figure, Glinda the Good. She also becomes (temporarily)
engaged to Fiyero, a pretty boy who first likes her but later falls in
love with Elphaba. In the second act, the girls find and lose each
other several times, and public hysteria around Elphaba’s power
mounts, until she willingly takes on the role of the scapegoat.
Elphaba forces Glinda to promise not to clear her friend’s name,
and she stages her own death to preserve the community’s peace.
Glinda becomes the governor of Oz, believing that Elphaba has
killed herself, but Elphaba is alive, and she leaves Oz with Fiyero
to go to another land.
Wicked’s music and lyrics were written by Stephen Schwartz,
who also wrote Godspell (1971) and Pippin (1972). Its musical style is
hummable pop, and its lyrics are clever and contemporary. Winnie
Holzman, the creator of the short-lived and vocally mourned ABC
television series My So-Called Life, wrote the libretto. 5 The tone of
the show is at once clever and sweet, earnest and witty, sentimental
and perky; its message is humanist and feminist. The original cast
of Wicked featured Kristin Chenoweth, Idina Menzel, and Joel Grey
as the Wizard, and women who have since played the leading roles
include Shoshana Bean, Stephanie Block, and Eden Espinosa as
Elphaba, and Jennifer Laura Thompson, Megan Hilty, and Kendra
Kassebaum as Glinda. In both content and form, the musical
values unique, singular femininity, honors female friendships, and
represents women as socially significant. Wicked lets women take
up space on stage. What Salman Rushdie observes in his astute,
charming book on the movie The Wizard of Oz (dir. Victor Fleming,
US, 1939) is true here too: “The power of men . . . is illusory; the
power of women is real.” 6
In spite of receiving decidedly mixed reviews when it
opened in October 2003, Wicked was nominated for eleven Drama
Desk Awards and ten Tony Awards, and it won three Tonys, including
best actress for Menzel. 7 Soon after its premiere, the musical
caught on and gained momentum, primarily fueled by word of