Joined: 12/31/69
Scarecrow: And you werent around when I was stuffed, and put together.
I am only referrng to the incositancies between the Movie The Wizard and oz and the Broadway Musical Wicked.
Wicked cannot hold a candle to the Wizard of Oz
Exactly. I think it's slightly hysterical (and scary) that this thread is in existance to begin with. I feel REALLY bad for the person that created this thread - it's really tragic. And I'm so glad that other people notice the inconsistancies between THE WIZARD OF OZ and WICKED. I actually can't enjoy WICKED after seeing THE WIZARD OF OZ - they have all their "facts" wrong, nothing comes together like it should, and they try to create this really creative, shocking story - but none of it makes sense with the original to begin with.
Right, which is why you have to look at them as completely different, pretty much unrelated stories. They have the same characters, yeah, but that’s about it. You can’t mesh them together without losing some sanity.
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/23/04
I agree with Theaterguy. Its the parts in Wicked that dont match up with The Wizard of Oz that make me mad. Dont get me wrong, I loved Wicked, but there are just too many holes in the plot. With that said, I do watch the Wizard of Oz a little differently now. By no means am I upset about it, but I have a little sympathy for the witch.
Broadway Star Joined: 9/28/04
***SPOILER ALERT***
I assumed Fiyero and Elphaba planned all along to have him go with Dorothy to keep an eye on her in an attempt to get back the shoes. I also assumed they plotted together to stage Elphaba's death...that she would set Fiyero on fire so Dorothy would throw the bucket of water, "accidentally" melting her, and they could run off together at the end without anyone knowing.
When you think about it that way, it actually fits into the events of THE WIZARD OF OZ pretty well.
I could easily watch The Wizard Of Oz without batting an eye - it is far superior to that drek playing on Broadway.
Chorus Member Joined: 12/5/04
I have always loved The Wizard of Oz... but I find it strangely fake now... the scenery turns into a drawing. I dunno, I paid more attention to details to figure out how alike Wicked and the Wizard of Oz really were.
By the way... Elphaba IS supposed to be ugly, though that didn't happen in the play. In the book she has this long crooked nose and a wart.
I was pretty much obsessed with The Wizard of Oz when I was a little girl. I watched the movie about 6 times a day, and I still think it's one of the best movies out there. I, however, didn't see the true ending for the first 7 years of my life. My mom would fast forward the whole Flying monkies, Dorothy being held, and the Witch being melted---so about 4 years ago when I was watching it on television, I was totally surprised by the ending. After seeing Wicked and then watching the Wizard of Oz, I realize how hysterically funny the movie. However, it also makes me notice how stupid some of the ideas were that are in the musical. The book--Wicked--is completely different then the musical. So technically, we have all these stories with the same character, all doing different things:
The Wizard of Oz--Movie
The Wizard of Oz--Book
Wicked--Book
Wicked--Musical
not to mention The Wiz--Musical
and The Wizard of Oz--Play/Musical
I am a big fan of all these things, and I have been in both The Wiz and The Wizard of Oz in the past. I think you should look at each thing seperately, and appreciate each for what they are. I mean after all, can't we argue this same theory about all the different versions of other stories there are out there? Peter Pan? etc.
Seeing Wicked has not changed the way I enjoy Wizard of Oz, but I did see it while I was playing the Wizard so it gave me a whole other character plot to interpret.
Well, I have always rooted for the Wicked Witch of the West, and have always found the good witch to be annoying - so for me, nothing has changed :)
I loved Maguire's big, messy, flawed, ambitious novel so much that when I finished reading it I really thought I would have a very hard time watching the Wizard of Oz the same way again. I was so looking forward to seeing the musical. Then I saw it. Now I have absolutely no trouble watching The Wizard of Oz. That whiny, indecisive green busy-otch deserves everything she gets and more. And her bubble-fying friend, too.
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/18/03
why the hell should wicked, the musical or the book, have to line up with the mgm film that varies a LOT from the original wizard of os story -- moreso than wicked the book and wicked the wicked the musical vary?? They are COMPLETELY seperate entities.
I'm sory, but to me in it kind of friegtening that wicked alters your perception and affects you THAT much.
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/8/04
Wicked (the musical) actually holds fairly well with WoO, the book - in which the the Wicked Witch never lit the Scarecrow on fire at the end.
If you want to look at the inconsistencies, fine:
for now we shall call the Wicked Witch Elphaba - so we can compare it to Wicked.
1) Elphaba wanted to get the shoes back. Let's assume Fiyero knew this. He would want to get in good with Dorothy to steal the shoes, no?
2) Elphaba but a "spell" on Fiyero to save his life. Nothing, therefore, could kill him (fire included; remember the flying monkeys pulled out his stuffing, "well, that's you all over.")
3) Why did Elphaba only pick on "the Scarecrow?" (like when she throws the fire at the Scarecrow.)
4) After Glinda leaves Dorothy, they sing Follow the Yellow Brick Road. In the movie, there was no corn field near the actual scene of the crime (aka Dorothy's house). Therefire, Glinda may have floated off to the corn field - with the house in the distance (remember this is OZ).
5) Elphaba went away in a blast of fire - maybe to her castle. Remember her crystal ball? Maybe she saw Glinda crying on that and decided - time to teach that blonde _________ a lesson!
6) In comes Fiyero ---
7) Meanwhile, Boq has been the tinman. He was on his way from Munchkinland to the Emerald City - following the Yellow Brick Road - when Mme. Morrible conjured up the tornado, rusting him on the side of the road.
Boq comes to and does not recognize Dorothy. or Toto - is it a plot of Elphaba? Let me pretend to have been here for a while (just as Fiyero did).
9) Between the time Elphaba turns Fiyero into the scarecrow (No Good Deed) and the March of the Witch Hunters, perhaps some time has passed. Sometime on the journey, Boq and the Lion sneaked off from Dorothy and Fiyero - to go to the "March."
10) Dorothy gets kidnapped and Boq, Fiyero, and the Lion are outside the castly waiting to find a way in. This is when Glinda comes in (For Good).
11) Elphaba goes off and gets herself "melted."
I can't see TWOO the same way. Judy will always be my first love though.
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/3/04
sure, when i see margaret hamilton in her green make-up i can't help think of idina in the same, but twoo was one of the first musicals i ever saw and made me love them and im not a huge wicked fan anyway so i can still think of them in thier own lights.
Stand-by Joined: 12/5/04
as I said, everyone is entitled to their opinion. No need to freak out over a message board people.
Broadway Star Joined: 7/24/04
After seeing "Wicked", everytime I see "The Wizard of Oz", I can't help imagining Margaret Hamilton belting Defying Gravity and Billie Burke doing Popular..... o wow, good times!
I grew up with the Wizard of Oz books
To answer the title question - Yes.
Yeah, I remember when I watched it on TNT..or was it TBS..., I made out all the differences. My friend, who is the BIGGEST Wicked fanatic actually yelled at the TV when Dorothy melted the Witch..she went "ELPHIE NOOO!!!!!!!!!!"
it was rahter sad, but very funny
because though I love Wicked, I really like The Wizard of Oz and the differences I made out, and the connections, were big..but I think I mostly made those to the book.
Broadway Star Joined: 9/18/04
I was watching it and I was like watching the TV and making all the connections. I was like theres Elphaba!! and it was realy cool seeing all of them and it put like things together but made othersconfsing.
I actually bought the DVD of The Wizard of Oz recently, and watching it, I honestly didn't have a hard time watching it, or relating it too much to Wicked. I guess I also realized that they are different stories, and many of the concepts don't match up between the two at all. I'll enjoy both separately. I still felt for Dorothy, and didn't look at her as an evil Kansas girl. The original movie was always my favorite as a kid, and Its so interesting watching it when you're older and not 6 years old, and seeing all the incredibly obvious foreshadowing that goes on during the scene on the farm at the beginning--all those lines by the actors who play the Lion, Tin Man and the Scarecrow are so great. "someday there'll be a statue errected to me!" So silly and fabulous!
Featured Actor Joined: 12/31/69
Im not a Wicked lover. In fact. I dont even really like the show at all. OBVIOUSLY the public audiences Wicked gets, go in thinking "This is a prequal to the Wizard of Oz movie with Judy Garland." So I think it would have been WISE to make them consistant. If they arent going to be consistant, why on earth didnt they just make Elphaba blue, and the emerald city, the Saphire city. Why are they KIND of consistant, but not consistant. They needed to make up their mind on what they wanted to be, but this wishy washy thing just does NOT work.
Broadway Star Joined: 9/18/04
Dorothy and evil Kansas girl?
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