#1
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?)
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?)
"Ev'ry-buddy wants ta get into de act!"
- Jimmy Durante
"Breathe from your hoo-hoo."
-Kristin Chenoweth
