Wicked (musical)

Wicked: The Untold Story of the Witches of Oz is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz and book by Winnie Holzman. It is based on the 1995 Gregory Maguire novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, an alternative telling of the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz and L. Frank Baum's classic 1900 story The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. The musical is told from the perspective of the witches of the Land of Oz; its plot begins before and continues after Dorothy's arrival in Oz from Kansas and includes several references to the 1939 film and Baum's novel. Wicked tells the story of two unlikely friends, Elphaba (the Wicked Witch of the West) and Glinda, who struggle through opposing personalities and viewpoints, rivalry over the same love-interest, reactions to the Wizard's corrupt government, and, ultimately, Elphaba's public fall from grace.

Produced by Universal Studios in coalition with Marc Platt and David Stone, the Joe Mantello–directed and Wayne Cilento–choreographed original production of Wicked premiered on Broadway at the Gershwin Theatre in October 2003, after completing pre-Broadway tryouts at San Francisco's Curran Theatre in May 2003. Its original stars included Idina Menzel as Elphaba, Kristin Chenoweth as Glinda, and Joel Grey as the Wizard. The original Broadway production won three Tony Awards and six Drama Desk Awards while its cast album received a Grammy Award. It celebrated its tenth anniversary on Broadway on October 30, 2013, and played for over 5,100 performances, making Wicked the 10th longest-running Broadway show in history. A typical performance runs for approximately two hours and 30 minutes, plus a 15-minute intermission.

Defying Gravity

Defying Gravity may refer to:

In film and television:

In music

Kristin Chenoweth

Kristin Dawn Chenoweth (/ˈtʃɛnoʊwɛθ/; born Kristi Dawn Chenoweth, July 24, 1968) is an American actress and singer, with credits in musical theatre, film and television. In 1999, she won a Tony Award for her performance as Sally Brown in You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown on Broadway. In 2003, she received wide notice for originating the role of Glinda in the musical Wicked, including a nomination for another Tony. Her television roles have included Annabeth Schott in NBC's The West Wing and Olive Snook on the ABC comedy-drama Pushing Daisies, for which she won a 2009 Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series. Chenoweth also starred in the ABC TV series GCB in 2012.

Chenoweth sang gospel music as a child in Oklahoma and studied opera before deciding to pursue a career in musical theatre. In 1997, she made her Broadway debut in Steel Pier, winning a Theatre World Award. Besides You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown and Wicked, Chenoweth's stage work includes five City Center Encores! productions, Broadway's The Apple Tree in 2006, Promises, Promises in 2010 and On the Twentieth Century in 2015, as well as Off-Broadway and regional theatre productions.

For Good

"For Good" is a musical number from the hit musical Wicked. It is sung as a duet between Elphaba (the Wicked Witch of the West) and Glinda, as a farewell to each other. The song's music and lyrics were written by composer Stephen Schwartz.

Context

The song is performed towards the end of the musical. In it, the two are singing farewell to one another. Just prior to the song, Elphaba gives Glinda the Grimmerie and tells her that it is now up to her to continue Elphaba's cause. After this song, Elphaba leaves and is supposedly melted by Dorothy (it later turns out that this was an elaborate set-up to fool the citizens of Oz into thinking she was dead so they would stop hunting her). In the end, she and Fiyero, turned into "The Scarecrow" by one of Elphaba's spells gone awry, run away together.

It is the climax, and one of the most well-known songs of the show. It is reprised as part of the show's finale.

Lyrics

The song's lyrics concern how both Elphaba and Glinda have been changed by their friendship with each other. Glinda starts out by saying that, while she doesn't know if it is true that people come into each other's lives for a reason, "I know I'm who I am today because I knew you." Similarly, Elphaba tells Glinda that "whatever way our stories end, I know you have rewritten mine by being my friend." Elphaba also asks Glinda to forgive her for anything she might have done wrong, to which Glinda replies that "there's blame to share", but both agree that "none of it seems to matter anymore." Schwartz said after the show premiered that to begin the song, he asked his daughter what she would say if she would never see her best friend again, and her answer became the first verse of "For Good".

Wicked

Wicked is generally used as an adjective to mean, evil or sinful.

Wicked may also refer to:

Films

Novels and comics