4 posts tagged “wicked”
Remember this?
IT'S HAPPENING, PEOPLE.
Joie is going to see Wicked in Los Angeles on Thursday, May 22nd.
...Excitement cannot be put into type. Except by saying, "OMFGZ I'M SO EXCITEEEEEDDDDD!!!11!1ONEONE!!!111!"
Right after graduation and getting into USC's SMPTV program in the next 1-5 years, seeing Wicked live is pretty much the thing I hope for the most. I've been listening to the soundtrack, and I just cannot freaking wait.
It's rumored to be coming to Birmingham September 23rd through October 13th. And guess when Joie's birthday is? September 29th.
Please, Wicked! Don't let me down!!
So I finished Gregory Maguire's Wicked, which I mostly couldn't put down, if only because I was desperately wondering if it would turn out as I hoped. (It didn't.) It went pretty much as I expected it would, from reading reviews and constantly hearing about how different it was from the musical. And as much as my proud, I-pretend-to-be-deep-and-always-favor-books-to-their-film-or-musical-adaptations self hates to admit it...
I LIKE THE MUSICAL WAY MORE THAN THE BOOK.
Ok, there are obvious reasons for this. Yes, the book is much deeper, much darker, and deals with some controversial issues, whereas the musical is generally lighter, happier, and easier to take. And ok, yes, the book is the more realistic of the two stories. BUT STILL. I want to read the sequel only to see if something will be changed. But as Maguire is currently working on a third book, I doubt that will be so. Le sigh.
Even ignoring the musical, I'm not sure that I think the book was as great as so many people had told me. It is a very interesting read, and it is very good, imo. But I feel like some of the characters were a little poorly developed? I might be alone in that, but... I dunno. It seems like there were some pretty important characters that never had a lot of depth to them. And there were times when the author just seemed intent on shocking the reader. Oh, there's some bizarre orgy bar in Oz, with drinking and beastiality (er, Beastiality) and more? I'm not the sort of person to be offended by that kind of stuff just because it's there, but if you're going to put something so bold in there, you need to have more of a reason than "Tee hee, The Wizard of Oz is all sweet and children-oriented, and this isn't!" But you know. That's just me.
Still, I recommend this book if you haven't already read it (it was published in 1995... I'm a bit behind the times). And of course, I always recommend the musical.
In other news, Christmas was fantastic and I have about ten thousand Vox things to read. I'll be on my way to California in a little more than a day, and for the first time I'm actually almost entirely packed rather early. I suppose now I'll have to find a new book to take on the plane.
I'm sorry, but the Scrubs episode "My Way Home" is absolutely one of the best episodes of any television show I've ever seen. The entire episode is modeled after The Wizard of Oz, and it's just done so ingeniously. (Not to mention it has a splendid arrangement of Somewhere Over the Rainbow at the end as performed by Ted's Band, aka The Blanks.) Wikipedia has an article on the episode here, and it includes a table comparing features of the episode to their corresponding parts in The Wizard of Oz (including quite a few details that I would never have noticed on my own). If you've never watched Scrubs, you absolutely have to; then again, I'm biased, as it is My Favorite Television Series of All Time Ever.
And speaking of The Wizard of Oz, I plan on finally starting Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West tonight. I've been waiting aaaaaall semester to read this freakin' book, and now I finally have the time. I'm a huge fan of the musical, and from what I hear the book is much different (not to mention darker), so I'm eager to start it. For now, however, I must continue to indulge my laziness by watching a movie to get me feeling Christmas (it's been difficult, as the weather has been in the 60s and 70s for the past two weeks): It's time for some Love, Actually.
