Yet another post about Wicked

[zannafan]

Posted: 6/11/04 at 8:39am

I was perusing amazon.com and looking at the "Wicked" reviews and just had a few comments.

First, a while back I had used the term soundtrack when referring to cast recordings, and someone politely corrected me.

I would like to thank that person. I saw the term soundtrack used on probably 70 percent of the reviews and it kinda drove me crazy.

Second, I have found that most of the people who hated the show were die hard fans of the book.

It's fine that they weren't happy that the show was "sugar-coated broadway fluff" (even though I disagree) but they act as if the show is making fun of the death of their grandmother. I mean there's no reason to get THAT offended.

Thirdly, someone wrote a review that I was wondering if someone trained in music could put into laymen's terms for me.

Here is the passage: "Truly, it was a wicked thing indeed to take such a darkly imaginative book and turn it into a banally scored, unflatteringly camp piece of musical theatre goo. Unlike the scores of, say, Sondheim's playful fairytale 'Into the Woods' or Lucy Simon's ethereal 'The Secret Garden' this show has virtually NO musical texture or distinction. Those aforementioned shows have evocative, ambient melodies and atmospheres both whimsical and dark- 'Wicked' has nothing like that to recommend."

I am totally curious to see what that loquacious review means in everyday language.

Thanks for whoever takes the time to read this.
Nick

[joeyjoe]

Posted: 6/11/04 at 8:52am

basically, the review is saying stephen schwartz wrote wicked...

[zannafan]

Posted: 6/11/04 at 9:03am

HAHA. That is too funny. Interestingly enough, I was viewing some more reviews and came up with one about Rent that included the phrase "I hated every single audience-insulting moment of it."

I thought to myself, "self, that phrase sounds familiar". Upon closer examination, I found that the same person has used that phrase in more than one review. I thought it was funny.

To whomever you are, as much as you complain about a lack of variety in musicals, I'm complaining about a lack of variety in your shoddy, unimaginative reviews.

(I will admit that I'm being totally passive-aggressive, but everyone can be that way at least once in their life)

Nick

[redhotinnyc2]

Posted: 6/11/04 at 9:14am

joeyjoe - yet another reason I adore you - you spoke my mind!

[joeyjoe]

Posted: 6/11/04 at 10:03am

Zanna... i remember seeing some reviews by a certain Amazon customer once and thought to myself, "this person hates everything" because he didn't have one positive review about anything he wrote about, which were quite a few! and i thought that maybe he should just not listen to music at all... in my own little defense of stephen schwartz, alot of his music can stand on it's own as pop songs, but, as i listened to the OBC of wicked again, i like it much better outside the context of the show itself, much as i do with Godspell and Pippin...

[SMichaelK]

Posted: 6/11/04 at 10:33am

There are people out there, and I used to be one of them untill I was reeducated, that thought all broadway was cheesy and campy. I think if people would take more time to look indepth at a piece instead of just being a sinical A**H*** they would find that really there is a lot of interesting things. Not just the world of Andrew Llyod Webber that many people envision (not that he isn't talented, just often what novices know).