WICKED timeline question. HELP!

[virgil blessing2]

Posted: 4/7/07 at 2:19am

hi folks. quick question. i need the answer ASAP, as I am taking someone to see WICKED this Sat. nite, and I KNOW I'm gonna be asked this and I'll need the answer. The program never mentions it, and I never stopped to think about it before.

in the musical WICKED - anyone know, for a FACT - when intermission ends, EXACTLY HOW MUCH TIME has transpired between the 2 acts? obviously much has transpired in that time...Glinda is bopping all over as a good witch courtesy of the Wizard, Fiyero is now Captain of the Guard or whatever, reports are flying all over of Elphaba rescuing Oz's animals, the citizens are in an utter panic, her father's died, her sister is the new Governor, the Munchkinds are now 'enslaved', etc.

NOW - has it been a matter of MONTHS, or has it been a few YEARS between the 2 acts? I mean all these kids are no longer in Shizz. So I am assuming Glinda, Boq, Fiyero, the sister, all graduated, yes? I don't think they all just quit Shizz and were thrust into these positions of power. Or WERE they? Did the Wizard thrust Glinda into power FAST to keep her pacified and to shut her up, she got Fiyero into the military to make him happy, Elphaba's father died of fast shame, thereby necessitating the FAST need for Nessa Rose to assume her father's former office and Boq was sort of ordered by her to return?

I never really thought about it. so MUCH happens between the 2 acts - so is it about 3, 4 YEARS that pass during the intermission, before the 2 witches see one another again? OR - is it a few months later - where the kids all basically abandon Schizz because they are quickly THRUST into the roles that fate has in store for them, years before anyone anticipated? If anyone can give me a DEFINITE answer, I'd be obliged. Maybe there's a line somewhere where someone states how much time has transpired? Help! Thanks!

[virgil blessing2]

Posted: 4/7/07 at 2:21am

PS - is the key Nessa's line when her sister comes home? Doesn't she say something like 'Father died this many months ago or years ago? Should we all take our timeline cue from this? And what does she say there exactly?

[defyingravity11]

Posted: 4/7/07 at 2:24am

She just says, "Father's dead. I'm the govenor now." Anyways, time is different in Oz, so you could really make up whatever passage of time that pleases you. I always assumed it was a matter of a few years... like 4ish...

[virgil blessing2]

Posted: 4/7/07 at 2:28am

thanks defying, that makes more sense. yea, i'll run with that. a few years makes more sense, and really stokes-up the panic that has been growing among the people ("Can we all say 'amber alert'?" LOL) and also stokes-up the passion Fiyero and Elphaba feel when they finally see one another again after all that time, all that pent-up passion boiling up, etc. Thanks!

[IAMmyownMUSICAL]

Posted: 4/7/07 at 6:48am

It's been THREE years. Read the grimmerie, and I've read interviews where the cast and creative team said that it was three years.

[TWSFan4Ever]

Posted: 4/7/07 at 7:27am

I thought I read TWO years, hm...haha.

A couple of years have passed in between the acts.

[joshy]

Posted: 4/7/07 at 7:46am

Come on, Stephen Schwartz and Winnie Holzman never worried about silly things like that, why should we?!

[TWSFan4Ever]

Posted: 4/7/07 at 7:55am

Good point...I mean I guess it doesn't matter, it's not like they even attempt to mention it in the show

[vmlinnie]

Posted: 4/7/07 at 8:04am

I don't think it really matters, because everything's pretty clear cut as regards the main story lines. However, I alwasy felt that some aspects of the novel were very under-explained, like the clock of the time dragon. If they weren't going to explain it and involve it properly, they probably should have left it out altogether.