Popularly Wicked Political Satire

Amy and I were privledged to go see the "Broadway Across America" performance of the musical hit Wicked at the Capitol Theatre in Salt Lake last week. This is a charming retelling of the Frank Baum classic, The Wizard of Oz, that fills us in on the details of the relationship between Elphaba, the wicked witch of the west, and Glinda, the good witch of the north.

Like its inspiration, Wicked is a political satire masked as a fantasy musical. Where the original was a parody of government meddling with the prices of silver and gold. (Dorothy's slippers are silver in the book, and the name of the magical place, Oz, is the abbreviation for the word ounce.)

In this telling of the story, the wizard isn't so wonderful. In fact, he makes up false enemies of Oz to build fear to make him appear "wonderful." Glinda is also not quite as "good" as her title would have her. Though she is not a bad witch, she is not completely innocent either. Elphaba is not wicked at all, but is made to appear so, along with all of the talking animals in Oz, to further the political agenda of the Wizard. I couldn't help but think of George Bush's claims the Iraq had weapons of mass destruction to justify an invasion a few years back as I watched the show.

Listen to the lyrics in this video clip, and you'll get a bit of a sense of whereof I speak.

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