Wicked

I never saw the live play. I don’t know the story and I had no idea what to expect. When I saw that the running time was two and a half hours, I assumed it was full coverage of the musical. When the “to be continued” popped up at the end, I was flabbergasted. I guess you gotta make money to pay for all of those beautiful sets and steam-punk trains and stuff. You can’t deny that the music talent is stellar. As there should be, there are several big music numbers that blow the roof off. The dichotomy of the nerd and the princess works really well, and I sensed why this might appeal to young women and theater nerds with the acceptance/discrimination themes. There’s a crowd-pleasing, fan-service aspect to this that I can’t quite describe. Filmmakers build-up to and forecast big entrances and musical numbers with almost a wink and a nod to the rabid fanbase. “We have an inside joke…” I have no objection to this. You have to play to the fans, not the randos. But it felt a bit exclusive to THIS rando; cluelessly trying to interpret a secret language.