I'm going to this tonight. It benefits Bette Midler's NY Restoration Project, so I hope she's there. That would be ah-mazing. I think it's going to be pretty great anyway. Now, I've railed and ranted about how I refuse to go to Wicked on Broadway. That's because the tickets are way too expensive and are never available on my discount site or at tkts, I've been listening to the music for 5 years and I think I wore it out, and I saw the touring company and was slightly disappointed (not with their performances so much as the show itself). I still feel this way, and I will not pay my own money to go sit through a regular performance alongside every crazy 14-year-old fangirl who thinks she can sing "Defying Gravity" well enough to get her big Broadway break and will argue about which Elphaba is better, and who is rude to fans at the stage door. (Those crazies do exist, sadly.) However, I am so excited about this event, because it's all about the music. And let's face it, that's what I love the most anyway. I am very excited to hear the popular songs in their early incarnations, and to be privy to music that got cut from the show. I'll report back on it (as well as the rest of my recent Broadway outings) soon.
Yellow Brick Road Not Taken Will Celebrate Wicked's Fifth Anniversary
By Andrew Gans
August 21, 2008
The Yellow Brick Road Not Taken, a selection of scenes and songs cut from early drafts of the hit musical Wicked, will be presented Oct. 27 at the Gershwin Theatre, the home of the Stephen Schwartz-Winnie Holzman musical.
A portion of the proceeds from the 7:30 PM concert, which celebrates the fifth Broadway anniversary of Wicked, will benefit the New York Restoration Project. An all-star cast will be announced shortly; Matt Lenz will direct.
In the upcoming concert, press notes state, "Wicked composer/lyricist Stephen Schwartz and book writer Winnie Holzman will share some of the scenes and songs from early drafts of the musical blockbuster. . . .Featuring never-before-seen material performed publicly for the first time, as well as songs cut during the show's development and pre-Broadway engagement, this one-night-only event will tell the story of Wicked the way it's never been told before and will illuminate the various paths the writers took in creating what has become one of the most popular Broadway musicals."
 Buy this Limited Collector's Edition |
Based on Gregory Maguire's novel, which turned every Oz myth inside out, Wicked explores the early life of the witches of Oz: Glinda and Elphaba. The two main characters meet at Shiz, a school where both hope to take up sorcery. Glinda is madly popular and Elphaba is, well, green. By a misunderstanding, they wind up roommates and, after an initial period of mutual loathing, begin to learn something about each other. Their life paths continue to intersect through a shared love, entry into the Emerald City and interaction with the Wizard himself. Eventually, their choices and convictions take them on widely different paths.
Wicked features a score by Stephen Schwartz, a book by Winnie Holzman, direction by Joe Mantello and musical staging by Wayne Cilento. The creative team also includes scenic design by Eugene Lee, costume design by Susan Hilferty, lighting design by Kenneth Posner, sound design by Tony Meola, projections by Elaine J. McCarthy, wig and hair design by Tom Watson, music supervision and arrangements by Stephen Oremus, orchestrations by William David Brohn and dance arrangements by James Lynn Abbott.
For more information visit www.wickedthemusical.com.
1 comment:
You are very right. I am so proud. Annnnnnnnnd, I still want to see Wicked. It's lame I know.
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