Thank you for your rational comments and your castigation of those who would label with a broad brush.
Who knows what subtle musical references to Harold Arlen's msuic from the "Wizard of Oz" Mr. Schwartz may have included? And who knows how many of them may have been inadvertant or subconscious? I;ve spotted a few of them myself, including some mentioned here, and a few others. But what purpose is served by sharing them? The whole point of discovering a hidden gem is discovering it yourself!
Now--as to how this thread has become a bashing fest. My perspective on things.
I've been attending broadway shows for 44 of my almost 50 years on this good earth. I've seen lots of good shows and lots of less good shows, some mediocre shows, and some truly awful ones. On very rare ocassions, a show leaves me truly stunned and amazed (in a positive way.) One such experience was the original Man of LaMancha (at the ANTA Washington Square.) Another was A Chorus Line. To that list I now add Wicked. In between those shows were many that I have enjoyed, but none that left quite the same impact on me (at least in the realm of musicals. My list of dramas is a whole other story.)
Taste is always subjective. In my particular case, although Wicked isn't something that particularly appeals to me in terms of musical style (pop-style singing just isn't my cup of tea in a musical), and despite it's typical for Bway these days horribly over-amplified sound and significant deviation from the book on which it is based, something about it coalesces into a whole that gets me past those issues of personal taste. As a package, it works. The book, the score, the cast the set, the costumes, the lighting all come together.
A long time ago, I was a bit of a stage-struck teenager. I'm glad that my interest was nurtured and not bashed by people who have need to feel superior, or I might not have spent a good deal of my life working in the theatre.
And to those young, eager teens here--don't bother responding to those egging you on. You only encourage them when you do. Just shake your head and move on. Keep the passion. You;re going to need it later on.
And BTW--a totally irrelevant tidbit. Did you know that the same year Haorld Arlen and Yip Harburg wrote the songs for Wizard of Oz, the also wrote Lydia the Tatooed Lady for the Marx Brothers?
-Adrian
GEFTS (aka Adrian)
