Remember, the role wasn't really written for Joel Grey. In San Francisco, it was Robert Morse -- who supposedly made the Wizard come off like Corky in WAITING FOR GUFMAN. Laughs for all the wrong reasons. Morse can sing, but is not great singer, so I doubt the music was ever intended to be more demanding. He was no dancer, however, so I suspect the soft-shoe was added for Grey (the sequence changed in previews at the Gershwin, by the way.). I suspect Morse was cast as an offbeat version of Frank Morgan in the OZ film -- he was made up to look more like him, in the pix I saw.
This role may keep evolving, as it's never really satisfied people. Even those, like me, who like the show as a whole. For my money, it's simply too...brief. Elphaba turns on him with lightning speed, in the pre-DEFYING GRAFITY sequence. I wish they had a real ... you know, scene. And when she comes back in act two, there is too little tension between them. They are far too comfortable with one another as adversaries. That feels directorial, but it gives the Elphaba-Wizard less of an arc. I've always felt he should be more ominous. Rulers who are soft-spoken and "weak" still have huge egos. The Wizard is a narcissist, and I think should have an edge that suggests high stakes in the empire he's made for himself.
"I'm a comedian, but in my spare time, things bother me." Garry Shandling
Updated On: 8/19/04 at 10:31 AM
