Wicked the Musical...Entertainment vs. Lecture
So Hubby got us tickets to see the musical Wicked. I was excited! We don't get out as much as we would like to, and this is one of those shows everyone is talking about. Great music, they exclaim! Great costumes! And the story! So clever!
The show purportedly tells the real story behind the Wicked Witch of the West, and her polar opposite, Glinda. These ladies, evidently, are not as they appear.
The theatre, the gorgeous Benedum in downtown Pittsburgh, was packed. Judging from the crowd, the show clearly attracted a certain demographic. Female, large, middle age. A fair number of children, though is was Saturday evening. An intellectual crowd it did not appear to be. (They say you can't judge a book by its cover, but in my experience, 9 times out of 10 the cover is the whole story.)
Hubby & I watched the show, and we were fairly entertained. The performers were talented. But something about the story was bothering me. It was getting preachy. Here's the basic plot: The Wicked Witch of the West, Elphaba, is born green. Everybody shuns her because she's different. Glinda, the Good Witch, is blonde, shallow and Miss Popular. They both meet the Wizard of Oz. Elphaba won't go along with Oz's plan to silence the animals, so Oz (and cohorts, including Glinda) casts her as "wicked", even though she's really good.
But as the story developed, one thing became very clear to me. This was not the "real" story behind the Wizard of Oz. This story was actually an allegory for U.S. foreign policy, and the message was the U.S. has an evil government and we're unfairly imprisoning all the poor terrorists, who aren't really terrorists at all. Or if they are, it's because we made them that way.
At intermission, I said to Hubby, "The subtext isn't too subtle, is it?" He didn't know what I was talking about.
"Have you been brainwashed by your family?" he asked. It is true that my family's political philosophy definitely tends right, though I consider myself more of a libertarian. "Or have we lived in our neighborhood too long?" he continued. Our neighborhood is full of right-wingers, people who make me look like Lenin.
I pondered this, and wondered if it was true. Was I reading into the story things that were simply not there? I watched the second act, and my husband didn't seem to read anything into the crack on "regime change" when Glinda tries to justify Oz's actions.
I don't want to be one of those old opinionated people who can't take simple pleasure from a Broadway musical without reading all kinds of nefarious messages into it.
"How do you know the show wasn't written before we went into Iraq?" Hubby asked as we drove the 16 miles home from the theatre.
"I guarantee it wasn't," I replied, though I really did not have the slightest idea of when it was written.
"What if it was," he asked, baiting me.
"Then I will stand corrected," I said.
This morning I googled "Wicked Musical Subtext." One of the first reviews I found, on the Bnet Business Network, said the following:
In a pretty explicit reference to the U.S.'s current penning-up of Arab suspected terrorists at Guantanamo Bay, the animals of Oz are being caged and deprived of the power of speech. When Elphaba's powers bring her to the attention of the Wizard, she's thrilled, thinking they can join forces to fight these threats to freedom. But she discovers he's a fraud who controls his subjects through fatuous happy talk. That makes her dangerous--and the campaign to brand her as wicked spreads faster than you can say Karl Rove.
So I feel vindicated. And frustrated, because I strongly suspect a disturbingly large percentage of Wicked's cult-like following doesn't have the slightest clue that this story has nothing to do with the Wizard of Oz, and has everything to do with broadcasting a political message.
Regardless of one's political persuasion and whether one agrees or disagrees with the message of this musical, just be forewarned that Wicked is nothing more than a lecture bashing U.S. foreign policy. If I wanted a lecture, I would have rented a Michael Moore DVD.
And I'm left wondering where the commentary was on terrrorists beheading people? Where was the commentary on flying jets into tall buildings in the name of Allah? I guess chopping people's heads off and murdering 3,000 people because you're mad just isn't worthy of a flashy broadway musical. Unless the U.S. is the perp. Then it's Lights! Camera! Action!
The show purportedly tells the real story behind the Wicked Witch of the West, and her polar opposite, Glinda. These ladies, evidently, are not as they appear.
The theatre, the gorgeous Benedum in downtown Pittsburgh, was packed. Judging from the crowd, the show clearly attracted a certain demographic. Female, large, middle age. A fair number of children, though is was Saturday evening. An intellectual crowd it did not appear to be. (They say you can't judge a book by its cover, but in my experience, 9 times out of 10 the cover is the whole story.)
Hubby & I watched the show, and we were fairly entertained. The performers were talented. But something about the story was bothering me. It was getting preachy. Here's the basic plot: The Wicked Witch of the West, Elphaba, is born green. Everybody shuns her because she's different. Glinda, the Good Witch, is blonde, shallow and Miss Popular. They both meet the Wizard of Oz. Elphaba won't go along with Oz's plan to silence the animals, so Oz (and cohorts, including Glinda) casts her as "wicked", even though she's really good.
But as the story developed, one thing became very clear to me. This was not the "real" story behind the Wizard of Oz. This story was actually an allegory for U.S. foreign policy, and the message was the U.S. has an evil government and we're unfairly imprisoning all the poor terrorists, who aren't really terrorists at all. Or if they are, it's because we made them that way.
At intermission, I said to Hubby, "The subtext isn't too subtle, is it?" He didn't know what I was talking about.
"Have you been brainwashed by your family?" he asked. It is true that my family's political philosophy definitely tends right, though I consider myself more of a libertarian. "Or have we lived in our neighborhood too long?" he continued. Our neighborhood is full of right-wingers, people who make me look like Lenin.
I pondered this, and wondered if it was true. Was I reading into the story things that were simply not there? I watched the second act, and my husband didn't seem to read anything into the crack on "regime change" when Glinda tries to justify Oz's actions.
I don't want to be one of those old opinionated people who can't take simple pleasure from a Broadway musical without reading all kinds of nefarious messages into it.
"How do you know the show wasn't written before we went into Iraq?" Hubby asked as we drove the 16 miles home from the theatre.
"I guarantee it wasn't," I replied, though I really did not have the slightest idea of when it was written.
"What if it was," he asked, baiting me.
"Then I will stand corrected," I said.
This morning I googled "Wicked Musical Subtext." One of the first reviews I found, on the Bnet Business Network, said the following:
In a pretty explicit reference to the U.S.'s current penning-up of Arab suspected terrorists at Guantanamo Bay, the animals of Oz are being caged and deprived of the power of speech. When Elphaba's powers bring her to the attention of the Wizard, she's thrilled, thinking they can join forces to fight these threats to freedom. But she discovers he's a fraud who controls his subjects through fatuous happy talk. That makes her dangerous--and the campaign to brand her as wicked spreads faster than you can say Karl Rove.
So I feel vindicated. And frustrated, because I strongly suspect a disturbingly large percentage of Wicked's cult-like following doesn't have the slightest clue that this story has nothing to do with the Wizard of Oz, and has everything to do with broadcasting a political message.
Regardless of one's political persuasion and whether one agrees or disagrees with the message of this musical, just be forewarned that Wicked is nothing more than a lecture bashing U.S. foreign policy. If I wanted a lecture, I would have rented a Michael Moore DVD.
And I'm left wondering where the commentary was on terrrorists beheading people? Where was the commentary on flying jets into tall buildings in the name of Allah? I guess chopping people's heads off and murdering 3,000 people because you're mad just isn't worthy of a flashy broadway musical. Unless the U.S. is the perp. Then it's Lights! Camera! Action!
posted by calabresewoman | 10:32 AM
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