Regarding the score:
I actually like most of the melodies in Wicked, but the lyrics are pretty atrocious. Stephen Schwartz sacrifices natural speech patterns for strange and forced rhymes in Wicked and Pippin. If the lyrics don't rhyme, they are repetitive gems like this -
"And goodness knows the wicked's lives are lonely. Goodness knows the wicked die alone. It just shows when you're wicked you're left only on your own."
The show as a whole is... okay. It's definitely not as horrible as something like Scandalous, but it isn't nearly as good as the classics - Gypsy, Cabaret, etc.
There have been a couple of REALLY talented cast members over the years who elevate the material. Donna Vivino knocked it out of the park when I saw her as the standby for Elphaba. She made me forget how "okay" the material is. She was my favorite Elphaba out of the three I've seen.
"The city seen from the Queensboro Bridge is always the city seen for the first time, in its first wild promise of all the mystery and the beauty in the world." - F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby