Is Wicked or The Wizard of Oz....cursed?

[jasobres]

Posted: 6/24/05 at 4:22pm

This might seem a little creepy, but you know a lot of unfortunate events have took place in either Wicked or even its predecessor, The Wizard of Oz.

This "curse" goes way back to 1939 when the Wicked Witch of the West was just a fantasy alter-ego to Dorothy Gale's next door neighbor, Miss Almira Gulch, and the witch was just an ugly woman without a name. Anyway, the legend has it that after the Witch does her famous "I'll get you, my pretty, and your little dog, too!", the Witch, played by Margaret Hamilton, had to disappear in a puff of red smoke and fire. According to imdb: "Margaret Hamilton suffered a serious injury on the set when her make-up heated up and nearly caught fire in the scene where she disappears in a cloud of orange smoke and fire. As it was, she suffered second- and third-degree burns to her hands and face. It was later discovered that one of the key components in her make-up was copper."

Later, when Wicked opened on Broadway, Kristin Chenoweth broke her neck somehow and ended up wearing a rhinestone colored neckbrace.

Also, Norbert Leo Butz (original Fiyero) suffered a back injury and pulled out on medical leave. Kristoffer Cussick (Butz's understudy) and Idina Menzel's real life husband, Taye Diggs filled in while Butz was recuperating.

Of course, the most famous one was what was supposed to be Idina's second-to-last performance. Very similar to Margaret Hamilton's first on-screen disappearance, but at the same time, not too similar, the elevator lowered too early in the melting scene causing her to fracture a rib and causing the show to stop for 45 minutes so that they could get Shoshana Bean into the green makeup and Elphaba costume for the final scene. But Idina still showed up at what was supposed to be her last performance, but not in costume. She only appeared in a red Addidas track suit in the final scene.

So I know a lot of theaters and a lot of plays have legendary curses or anything like that, but what about this?

(Spooky, isn't it?)

[Aigoo]

Posted: 6/24/05 at 4:25pm

Well, sorry to put your dreams down, dear, but if you're working with all those "flying" sequences, trapdoors, and special effects like Wicked, you're going to expect some injuries. Some more serious that others.

Also, in theatre, nothing is predictable. Any injury can happen from a small trip because it's all live and no performance is the same. It's not really the "Wicked" curse, but more like...the "Accident" curse.

[joeyjoe]

Posted: 6/24/05 at 4:25pm

kristen chenoweth did not break her neck...

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 6/24/05 at 4:26pm

Yeah the WIZARD OF OZ is cursed all right. Every stage production based on the property has made a crap load of money, starting with the original Broadway presentation in 1902, up through THE WIZ and now WICKED.

The story in whatever medium its told in requires special effects. I'm sure if you were to go through and count the number of injuries that have happened over the years in productions of PETER PAN, they would be plentiful as well.

I don't really see any evidence of a "curse". This isn't POLTERGEIST.
Updated On: 6/24/05 at 04:26 PM

[jasobres]

Posted: 6/24/05 at 4:26pm

Then what made her wear a rhinestone colored neckbrace?

[Aigoo]

Posted: 6/24/05 at 4:27pm

Just an injury. Granted, many things have gone wrong with the bubble and the "defying gravity" scene, but you make it sound like it's some sort of haunting from another life. Accidents will happen and when dealing with technical machinery as in Wicked, you're bound to have accidents more often.

Updated On: 6/24/05 at 04:27 PM

[orangeskittles]

Posted: 6/24/05 at 4:28pm

There was a thread exactly like this about a month or so ago. Note my sig: this speculation has come up many times before.

[jasobres]

Posted: 6/24/05 at 4:28pm

Could you possibly be more specific?

[trpguyy]

Posted: 6/24/05 at 4:31pm

I guess now we'll have to say "the Scottish play" and "the one with the green girl."

[Aigoo]

Posted: 6/24/05 at 4:31pm

Chenoweth — who portrays Glinda, the Good Witch in the musical about the early life of the witches of Oz — sported a rhinestone-decorated neck collar in addition to her costumes designed by Susan Hilferty. The musical's spokesperson commented on Chenoweth's injury, explaining, "It's a reinjury. She's feeling much better, and she wore the neck brace yesterday as a precaution. She might be out of it anytime soon."

Chenoweth injured her neck during the pre-Broadway engagement of Wicked this past summer at San Francisco's Curran Theatre. The Tony-winning actress, who received rave reviews for her performance at the Curran, missed the June 4 performance due to the injury but returned to the show the following day. Melissa Bell Chait, Chenoweth’s understudy, performed the role of Glinda at that missed performance.





From Playbill. Doesn't really say HOW.

[orangeskittles]

Posted: 6/24/05 at 4:31pm

The Elphaba Curse

Updated On: 6/24/05 at 04:31 PM

[idinarocksmysocks!510]

Posted: 6/24/05 at 4:33pm

Um in live theater, anything can happen. sorry.

[Aigoo]

Posted: 6/24/05 at 4:36pm

I can't believe I totally killed that thread!

[orangeskittles]

Posted: 6/24/05 at 4:41pm

Heh, Aigoo, I've done that plenty of times, I just keep telling myself that I got the last word in the argument, which means that I must be right.

Of course that doesn't really apply to your closeted little brother, but still.

Posted: 6/24/05 at 4:41pm

please please please tell me that grownups really don't believe that certain plays or shows are "Cursed" and bad things happen to people involved. Some shows are certainly more dangerous (Shows with flying, and trap doors and really strenuous physical demands) and some moveis have more than their share of accidents (See above) but, really, there are no curses. There are no elves. No real witches.

[*Beautifully Tragic*]

Posted: 6/24/05 at 4:47pm

I'm in a summerstage production of the wizard of Oz currently..Last night we choreagraphed(sp) "The JitterBug".In part of the dance,the boys have to flip our 'TinMan' over so he ends up on his back and he was dropped twice during the rehersal..But nothing that caused any injury other then Jared (our tinman) not trusting the boys in the cast.I've also heard that the original Tinmans make-up was Iron dust that coated his lungs and he was sent to the hospital..Just to add to the Wizard of Oz 'accidents'.You guys are right that Wizard of Oz and Wicked aren't the only two that have accidents in theatre..but it is a little bit odd that two musicals that relate to eachother have had so many different 'accidents'..I understand where your coming from Jasobres but as everyone else said..it doesn't mean that the shows are cursed.Some are just more dangerous than others with the machienery(sp) that is used.

Updated On: 6/24/05 at 04:47 PM

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 6/24/05 at 4:49pm

this has been discussed before (many times) and is basically bullsh*t. your research conveniently neglects to include all of the stage and movie productions of OZ prior to 1939, many of which Baum had a hand in, nor does it mention any of the regional productions of THE WIZARD OF OZ that have taken place around the world since the Royal Shakespeare mounting as well as the national tours. nothing ever happened to Roseanne, Eartha Kitt, or Joanne Worley. all of whom played the wicked witch of the west in the Madison Square Garden tour. it's just coincidence...

[*Beautifully Tragic*]

Posted: 6/24/05 at 4:51pm

sry guys I had to fix my post..I didn't finish it right

[orangeskittles]

Posted: 6/24/05 at 4:51pm

And from what I hear, Miss Piggy is still doing fine as well.

[trpguyy]

Posted: 6/24/05 at 4:51pm

Yeah, it is odd that there have been three injuries in a show that's had over 800 performances.

And also odd that there was a fire when working with early pyrotechnics.

Spooooooooooky

[CJR]

Posted: 6/24/05 at 4:52pm

There actually *is* such a thing as "The Wizard of Oz" curse, but I dont think it has a THING to do with Wicked.

The WoO curse has been talked about many times...... I believe it's talked about in an E True Hollywood Story.

[PaperLantern]

Posted: 6/24/05 at 4:52pm

please please please tell me that grownups really don't believe that certain plays or shows are "Cursed" and bad things happen to people involved. Some shows are certainly more dangerous (Shows with flying, and trap doors and really strenuous physical demands) and some moveis have more than their share of accidents (See above) but, really, there are no curses. There are no elves. No real witches.

Oh, honey, Paper Lantern hears you on that one. Paper Lantern feels the same way every time Paper Lantern hears supposedly sane grown ups talking about "Jesus" or "god."
Updated On: 6/24/05 at 04:52 PM

[*Beautifully Tragic*]

Posted: 6/24/05 at 4:53pm

Orangeskittles-Haha!Even though I really didn't like that version!The shrimp was the only cool part

[*Beautifully Tragic*]

Posted: 6/24/05 at 4:55pm

CJR-There is also somthing about it on the 50th aniversary version (video and D.V.D.).Thats where I found out about the tin man.

[EganFan2]

Posted: 6/24/05 at 5:10pm

I was in the RSC version of "Oz" (but not the official mounting) and nothing happened to our Wicked Witch. I never heard of any Oz curse...I even Googled it and nothing came up. The hanging munchkin in the 1939 film is not there; that's an urban legend. I don't think any of the main Oz players, other than (sadly) Judy Garland had troubles later in life.