Wicked is a Tony award-winning American musical. This prequel to “The Wizard of Oz” is loosely based on Gregory Maguire’s book, “Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West” and stars Idina Menzel as the Wicked Witch of the West, Kristin Chenoweth as Glinda, the Good Witch of the North and Joel Grey as the Wizard.

This Broadway show is big and highly impressive with its incredible set of twirling gears, cables and platforms that fill the Gershwin Theatre. Director Joe Mantello has put together a phenomenal cast, which includes Kristin Chenoweth and Idina Menzel. Writer Winnie Holzman figured out a way to tell most of Maguire’s story of what happened in Oz before Dorothy dropped in.

The storyline is Glinda (a.k.a. “The Good Witch”) and Elphaba (a.k.a. “The Wicked Witch of the West”) were roommates in college at Shiz University. The musical then goes on to explain how that came to be, why Elphaba was green and scared of water, what the Wizard’s reign was really like and how three characters came to be the tin man, lion and scarecrow. The musical also explains how Elphaba’s sister, Nessa, becomes known as the Wicked Witch of the East and how the monkeys got their wings.

The score by Stephen Schwartz sounds exactly like something we would expect from the composer/lyricist of Godspell and Pippin who teamed up with Disney on songs for “Pocahontas” and “The Hunchback of Notre Dame.” They are folk-rock flavored pieces with a tendency to have luxuriance in the melody, pop influence in the rhythms and spirituality in the lyrics. Once upon a time it was also necessary to consider whether any “hits” would come out of a show, but it has been a long time since Broadway shows generated hit songs - now it seems to be the other way around. These numbers do have the integrity of making effective scenes for the show. They provide the cast with plenty of chances to shine.

Get your tickets today if you would like to see this cast shine in this highly impressive, often moving musical!