Broadway Review: Fantastically Wicked
09/09/2006 10:59 AM by Gretchen Schauffler
I just saw the musical “Wicked.” It is a play that takes you behind the personal motives, passion, and beauty of Oz, as in “The Wizard of Oz.” The colors are amazing.
Susan Hilferty’s original sketches for Wicked the musical costumes were done in gouache – a kind of paint or pigment suspended in water that resembles a rough watercolor.
Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West, is emerald green. On stage she is surrounded by colors that makes her green skin more beautiful as her passion rises and ignites action and her life changes.
Susan was influenced by Dr. Seuss for the design of Oz costumes, especially for the Emerald City. “The vocabulary and tone came partly from the Denslow illustrations from 1900,” Hilferty says, referring to the drawings by W. W. Denslow in the original The Wizard of Oz books.
Elphaba’s emerald green becomes the perfect accessory to Glinda’s (the Good Witch) beautiful outfits. The color contrast reflects the complicated lives of these two witches—their hearts challenged by their powerful friendship and opposing destinies.
“Not everyone gets to fly in and out of a bubble,” Elphaba says, holding her broom. Both accept Glinda’s bigger and better future. They know Elphaba will be remembered by Glinda as the one who made it possible, although no one else will. “She was not wicked, just misunderstood.”
I knew the singing was going to be outstanding (since I have the CD). And I knew the story was phenomenal (since I read the book). What I didn’t know was how the colors would make me cry happy tears!
Gretchen Schauffler
Artist and Founder of Devine Color®
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cool ! Now you make me really wanna see it ! Myb friends saw it but I never did. Well thx fur helping me make up my mind
— kristie 02/11/2008 05:54 PM #