Thanks so much for posting the notice. I’d never read it.
Wow.
I would suggest that Brantley didn’t miss the point, he just didn’t like the point. He takes issue with what he sees as a heavy-handed political slant on the Oz story. Feels it doesn’t successfully integrate the ultra-serious point of the Elphaba story with the operetta-fizz of the Galinda story. Fair enough. Those of us who like Wicked so much like, I daresay, the dark elements a lot. He made fun of them (he says to imagine « Weathermen! » the musical; wittily dismissing the book’s aspirations.)
Anyway, he didn’t like it, but I think he did accurately describe its trajectory and the feel of it. And, yes, he didn’t predict its success. I wonder if he would’ve liked other message-y musicals (« South Pacific » comes to mind) when they first appeared.
But the man can write. |
