“Wicked” endures on stage. I saw it on Broadway this week, and I enjoyed it anew .Yes, it is now inescapably viewed through the lens of the 2024 movie version. But a movie has always hovered over the Broadway musical. It wouldn’t exist without the 1939 movie “The Wizard of Oz.”  

The character in that movie known only as the Wicked Witch of the West is, in “Wicked,” given a name (Elphaba), a sympathetic backstory (not wicked at all as a child, but just green-tinted, taunted,  misunderstood), a best friend/rival (college roommate Glinda, the Good Witch of the North, who is still more or less good but now also a comically insufferable narcissist and opportunist) and even a love interest (the dashing Fiyero, a newly invented character.)  

Gregory Maguire came up with this twist in his 1995 novel “Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West,” but it’s Broadway’s (watered-down) adaptation of that (dark) novel by librettist Winnie Holzman and songwriter Stephen Schwartz that has lodged it in the public imagination since October, 2003, the third longest running show currently on Broadway (and the fourth longest ever.)

In seeing it on Broadway for the first time since the Wicked movie came out, what most struck me is how palpable it is. The first characters we see are the flying monkeys in the flesh (and fur and wings.) The dense cloud of little bubbles that wreathe around Glinda as she descends in her big pink bubble somehow seem solid even as they quickly disappear. The imposing (Tony-winning) sets are sturdy enough to climb up on, which those monkeys do. When Elphaba offers to share her lunch with her professor Doctor Dillamond, who’s a goat, it’s somehow funnier that he eats the sandwich wrapper rather than the sandwich because the wax paper is so visibly and noisily chewed up.   Everything looks so tangible, touchable, that that in and of itself turns the production into an argument for live theater.

What also struck me is how inventively it plays with our knowledge of the story. “Wicked” is not just Elphaba’s origin story, but also that of the Cowardly Lion, the Tin Man and the Scarecrow (the latter two only evident in Act Two, which will be covered in the second of the two Wicked movies.)  

We also get Dorothy as an off-stage, peripheral character. I would have preferred that “Wicked” be a genuine prequel. There is something jarring about the overlap with Dorothy’s story, and it leads to what’s weakest about the overly complicated plot — the ludicrous contortions necessary to tack on a happy ending. I had mercifully forgotten the details. They are forgettable, but also forgivable, given the overall experience of the show. 

 I’ve revisited long-running stage shows where much of the cast seemed to be performing in their sleep: No missteps, no wrong notes, just no spark. That is not the case with the current cast of “Wicked,” who felt fully engaged — which shouldn’t be surprising since the principal performers all joined the production only this year.

On the other hand, only Brad Oscar, as the Wonderful Wizard of Oz, seemed to be giving a fresh interpretation of his character, which is to say, noticeably different from what I remember about the Wonderful Wizards of Oz whom I’ve seen. I don’t actually know if it’s actually “fresh,” because I have seen few of the 35 other performers who have portrayed the Wonderful Wizard of Oz on Broadway, starting with Joel Grey.

 There have also been 40 Glindas, starting with Kristin Chenoweth, and 48 Elphabas, starting with Idina Menzel, who won a Tony for her performance. I can’t know which of these made the role their own, but I suspect there has been little variation, because what the producers want is consistency (and maybe the audience wants this too.)

The latest Elphaba, Lencia Kebede —  making her Broadway debut and billed as the first Black actress to play the role full time on Broadway — towers over the latest Glinda, Allie Trimm. I mean this literally; she’s much taller. This makes sense for their characters; it’s as if it’s not just her green skin that makes Elphaba feel awkward and out of place. As it turns out, Menzel was also much taller than Chenoweth (5’6” to 4’11”). Is this just a coincidence, or part of that effort at consistency?

I don’t want to turn this appreciation of the stage musical into a comparison with the movie (I did that already) but I couldn’t help looking up the heights of the movie Elphaba and Glinda: Cynthia Erivo 5’1”, Ariana Grande 5’2; nearly the same height; Grande is even an inch taller. Of course, a movie can manipulate such things as relative heights (or even our awareness of heights)

Schwartz’s score for Wicked has become embedded in popular culture, three of the songs covered by numerous recording artists — “Popular,” “For Good” and especially “Defying Gravity.”  Many people like these songs; I suppose others have tired of them. What makes them work well when Kebede and Trimm sing them on stage is not just that they have the vocal chops for them, but that they are performing them in the context of well-staged musical numbers that tell a story. The numbers are also beautifully orchestrated; it might be worth pointing out that “Wicked” was the first musical with music arranged by Alex Lacamoire, who went on to win Tony Awards for his orchestrations in “In The Heights,” “Hamilton” and “Dear Evan Hansen.” (The other two members of the team are also Tony winners.)

It’s bracing to look back at the original 2003 reviews of “Wicked,” which were mostly negative, and harshly so: “boring,” “banal,” “charmless,” “pandering,” even “hideous.”  But one critic wrote: “It isn’t perfect, but it’s more than good enough to run for a decade or two..It’ll make a great movie one of these days.”  Which feels (depending on your point of view) at least half-prescient.

What accounts for the discrepancy between the tepid take on the stage musical and the raves for the movie adaptation? Is it because the movie is that much better?

“Don’t make me laugh!
…Please!
It’s all about popular
It’s not about aptitude
It’s the way you’re viewed
So it’s very shrewd to be
Very very popular.”