Theological (And Other) Reflections on WICKED *SPOILER ALERT*

I've long wanted to see the musical WICKED and last night I finally got my chance. I found it was good grist for the theological and aesthetic mills. So I am doing my 'milling' here, intellectually speaking. These are not meant to be systematic reflections, so excuse them if they are disjointed.

Aesthetically speaking, the play exceeded my expectations, which was difficult because my expectations were high. I generally try not to let 'hype' get my hopes up but in this case I couldn't avoid it. Some of the people I most respect rave about this play and so I had high hopes. They were not dashed. This was the single most amazing thing I have ever seen on a live stage. I am including in that list all 100+ concerts, all plays and all musicals. This takes the cake. Every aspect of it wowed me. The story line was different and engaging, the straight dialogue was funny and evocative, and the music was entertaining and poignant.

It didn't seem like anything all that unique until it got to the scene in school with Elphaba and Galenda at the school party. From that moment on it engaged me at every level. The main actress who played Elphaba outshone everyone else. It is hard for me to imagine a better performance of this play, given how good it was. The singing by the two main actresses was unparalleled, the singing by the actress to played Elphaba was one of the most beautiful auditory experiences of my entire life. The play generally took me in directions I never expected.

I am a big fan of the original WIZARD OF OZ film, and one of my favorite comics is a re-imagining of the story using western themes, LEGEND OF OZ: THE WICKED WEST. WICKED is far different from either the original film or the other re-imaginings I have encountered. It really stands on its own, and rightly so. Ladies and gentlemen, if anything is a must-see, it is this musical. I remember at the end of the first act when Elphaba sings "Defying Gravity" and is lifted up and the lights hit her a certain way, darkening the back. It really looks like she is flying (what they can do with stage effects today astonishes me) and that song, sang the way it was...when it was over I just couldn't see where they could possibly go from there. Yet, the second act at least on an emotional level dwarfed the first. I was crying by the end.

Theologically, there was a lot that struck me about the show. The play's central themes all spoke to me and were presented expertly. First and foremost I was struck by the scapegoating theme. The powers that be have sought to turn the people of Oz against the animals, who are intelligent. They seek to enslave animals and remove from them the power of speech. The idea is to create enemies that can bring people together. You pick out someone who is different, and use them as a scapegoat to make a better world for everyone else. Rene Girard would've had a field day with this play.

Elphaba fights for the animals who are the victims of this scapegoating plot even while she herself experiences the evils of scapegoating patterns. Her unique powers and freakish green skin make her a target for scapegoating by her family and later her school mates. But her conviction to do what is right eventually changes the hearts of some, opening them up to the importance of difference, and a deeper kind of connection based on mutual respect and love. One particular scene is when the man who has fallen in love with her, Fiyero, is essentially crucified.

But the love story between Fiyero and Elphaba takes a back seat behind the frenemyship-turned-friendship of Elphaba and Glenda. The exploration of how simple respect changes them and their relationship is stunning to behold. It helped make for a more original story, and leads to some of the most moving scenes in the play. Beyond the scapegoating theme, there is the simple theme of the power of friendship and how simple kindnesses can change the world.

Another important juxtaposition is that of the Wizard and Elphaba. The Wizard plays a villainous role in this version of the Oz story, setting it apart from most others. In the original movie, I always took the Wizard to play a kind of false-god role. The idea is that we go off on journeys to find what we need from some higher power, finding that instead the power to accomplish all we need is within us the whole time. It is, then, a kind of secularist fable, at least from a certain point of view. I saw WICKED as a trampling upon this original theme. For Elphaba sees the Wizard and all the tricks by which he 'empowers' people to be little more than frauds. She is connected to real power, real magic, and that magic plays a rather salvific role in her life, helper her and Glenda to reach heights they otherwise wouldn't have been able to.

The Wizard makes explicit relativist arguments, explaining that all of history is nothing more than 'interpretation', and who is wonderful and who is terrible is a matter of point of view. But Elphaba's access to real power gives her a confidence in truth that the Wizard lacks. In the end the secularist schema is dissolved in a relativistic picture of the world that doesn't match genuine human experience. Elphaba, who commits herself to being free of any bounds set on her by the world, has access to the magic the Wizard can only pretend to have. So the secularist fable is inverted, and the final message is one of a transcendent force making way for genuine human connection, and thereby providing a path to salvation both individual and social. This is combined with a self-sacrificial story line that could hardly have come from a culture not steeped in Christian imagery or something very much like it.

So all in all, it was a wonderful experience. I, for one, couldn't have hoped for more. I highly recommend it.