My Wicked Life
Beyond that, though, I was fascinated by the idea of Wicked — a work that riffs on The Wizard of Oz (another musical favorite, albeit originally a film) but brings the characters to the fore in wholly original and unexpected ways.
I was lucky to see Wicked in its opening week on Broadway. That is now more than 20 years ago, but I still remember vividly the moment Idina Menzel took the stage with “The Wizard and I,” unforgettably defining her character Elphaba as an epic force. And the wit and bite of Kristin Chenoweth as Glinda, stopping the show with “Popular.” The historian part of me connected these two very different star performances to the golden years of Ethel Merman and Mary Martin. The audience member part just basked in the sense that Wicked was something very special.
That sense of specialness is shared by my students. I’ve now taught Wicked probably 25 times, and it never fails to be a highlight of the class. Students recognize and connect to the central themes — female empowerment; the bonding nature of friendship; the importance of living your most authentic self; the need to do good in a world where that’s not always easy.
Not every show feels as fresh today as it did a quarter century ago, but Wicked absolutely does — and the success of the current film (the first of what will be two!) has only magnified that.
So, you can imagine how excited I was when Penn Live Arts offered me the opportunity to go to Los Angeles and interview Wicked producer Marc Platt for an event! I had in fact met Marc once before — he came to a musical theater class I was teaching more than a decade ago and talked about the show. He was open, candid, wry — but it was instantly clear how much the show meant to him.
Those qualities were very much part of our recent conversation. There were great backstage stories and deep insights into the show in every sense. There were some tears — the wonderful actor Gavin Creel, who had played a role in the Wicked development process, had died just the day before — but more laughter.
It’s a bit of a blur for me, but things must have gone well. A month later, through Penn Live Arts, we repeated the program, this time in New York. I’ll take some credit for coming up with good questions — but really, it was Marc who made the event.
As I write this, I’m now back in the classroom with a particular connection to Wicked. In Fall 2023, I developed with a partner instructor, Cameron Kelsall, a new course: 21st Century Musicals. (It was an interesting moment to realize that I’d been teaching musical theater history since there was no 21st Century — and we’re now 25 years in!)
In our first go-round, we had a capacity group of 44 students and some of the most enthusiastic discussions I’ve ever had. Of course, the material helps: Hamilton, Dear Evan Hansen, Spring Awakening — so many works that really engaged the group. But it was Wicked that emerged as a special favorite.
In a few weeks, we’ll be covering Wicked in this semester’s class — and I’m confident it will again be a highlight.
David Fox is a Lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania in Theatre Arts, and Director of New Student Orientation. His areas of expertise and teaching include modern American theatre, musical theatre and opera; arts criticism; and directing. In addition to his work at Penn, David is an active arts journalist. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, Opera Quarterly, The Kurt Weill Quarterly, and others. For 15 years, he was theater critic for Philadelphia City Paper, followed by five years at Philadelphia Magazine. He now writes regularly for Parterre Box, and—along with frequent writing partner, Cameron Kelsall—maintains the arts blog, Reclining Standards. Twenty-six of his essays appear in the current edition of the International Dictionary of Opera (St. James Press).
Image credit: Sarah M Golonka
