#1
Posted: 10/20/05 at 10:31pm
Just got it today from barnesandnoble.com. Here are some thoughts:
The pictures are incredible. There wasn't enough Idina, I thought, and too much SJB. While on the other hand, there wasnt enough J.LA and too much Cheno. Each and every picture, however, is visually stunning and arresting. The close up of Idina with her hands on her cheeks in green makeup and the hat (one of the original promo shots) is so amazingly stunning I literally almost lost my breath. It is gorgeous here. The cover is also wonderful. I love the "worn" look on the cover of this book. My favorite picture? The green, naked infant. It was so amazingly beautiful, poignant, and really moving that when I first saw it in the book, I just sat and looked at it because of how amazingly gorgeous it is. And how simple.
I particularly enjoyed the part of the book in which Stephen Schwartz analizes each and every song in the show (besides Wicked Witch of the East). He says where the idea came from and really perfectly takes the songs apart piece by piece, explaining what (in a nutshell) the character in question is conveying through the number or what have you.
The pictures of the costumes are also wonderful (It's so spellbinding-no pun intended-to read about the technical features of this show as they are some of the best Broadway has ever seen, IMO). The sketches of the set are intriguing and its fun to see how Lee envisioned the set, and then to look at it in an actual photograph.
There are also segments about each Elphaba (Idina, Shoshana, Stephanie) and Glinda (Kristin, Jennifer, Kendra) as well as The Wizards, the Madame Morrible's, the Fiyero's, the Boq's, and the Nessa's. They all speak about their character and what they did to create their own personal version of the role. It's quite interesting.
There's also a quiz in which you can determine how much of an Elphaba or how much of a Glinda you are (right out of Seventeen magazine kinda thing) that's fun but a little cheesy.
All in all, this book is quite informative with gorgeous, all full-color pictures and information that is really and truly shocking, thrilling, funny, and intriguing. It's a good book (certainly a MUST HAVE for ANY Wicked fan) and I'd say it's definitley worth the $28 price listed on Amazon and Barnes and Noble as it will soon be going for $40. It's just incredible to see how this show came from a bunch of flashcards (literally---you see some pictures of flashcards jam-packed with ideas scribbled on them from Winnie Holtzman) to the biggest and most popular show on Broadway.
The pictures are incredible. There wasn't enough Idina, I thought, and too much SJB. While on the other hand, there wasnt enough J.LA and too much Cheno. Each and every picture, however, is visually stunning and arresting. The close up of Idina with her hands on her cheeks in green makeup and the hat (one of the original promo shots) is so amazingly stunning I literally almost lost my breath. It is gorgeous here. The cover is also wonderful. I love the "worn" look on the cover of this book. My favorite picture? The green, naked infant. It was so amazingly beautiful, poignant, and really moving that when I first saw it in the book, I just sat and looked at it because of how amazingly gorgeous it is. And how simple.
I particularly enjoyed the part of the book in which Stephen Schwartz analizes each and every song in the show (besides Wicked Witch of the East). He says where the idea came from and really perfectly takes the songs apart piece by piece, explaining what (in a nutshell) the character in question is conveying through the number or what have you.
The pictures of the costumes are also wonderful (It's so spellbinding-no pun intended-to read about the technical features of this show as they are some of the best Broadway has ever seen, IMO). The sketches of the set are intriguing and its fun to see how Lee envisioned the set, and then to look at it in an actual photograph.
There are also segments about each Elphaba (Idina, Shoshana, Stephanie) and Glinda (Kristin, Jennifer, Kendra) as well as The Wizards, the Madame Morrible's, the Fiyero's, the Boq's, and the Nessa's. They all speak about their character and what they did to create their own personal version of the role. It's quite interesting.
There's also a quiz in which you can determine how much of an Elphaba or how much of a Glinda you are (right out of Seventeen magazine kinda thing) that's fun but a little cheesy.
All in all, this book is quite informative with gorgeous, all full-color pictures and information that is really and truly shocking, thrilling, funny, and intriguing. It's a good book (certainly a MUST HAVE for ANY Wicked fan) and I'd say it's definitley worth the $28 price listed on Amazon and Barnes and Noble as it will soon be going for $40. It's just incredible to see how this show came from a bunch of flashcards (literally---you see some pictures of flashcards jam-packed with ideas scribbled on them from Winnie Holtzman) to the biggest and most popular show on Broadway.
Updated On: 10/20/05 at 10:31 PM
