Arrividerci Fiyero
So, I've finally seen Wicked. If you hold great love for this musical, I suggest you look away now...
So, it's not like I'm not a huge fan of the Oz books, I am. Or of the Judy Garland film of Wizard of Oz, I am.
And it's not like I didn't appreciate the set decoration, costumes and amazing talent of the lead actors. I do.
And it's not like I didn't go AWWW at the standing ovation and the evident adoration of the audience. I did.
I just didn't rate Wicked as a musical. The songs are okay. It's not an epic fail of the scale of Repo. But the narrative was lazy. And, really, the first half did very little for me. Lots of meta-awareness from the one-dimensional characters (don't tell me a character is wise/funny/silly - SHOW ME) and general blah.
They almost had me in the second half. As it crept closer to the tragic ending, it struck me that they were on to something genius. You know she dies. You know she becomes EVOL. It was a classic supervillian origin story but where all the "good guys" are actually tools.
(sound familiar? *cough* dr horrible did it better *cough*)
And I was thinking - okay, so you've telegraphed the stupid bloke (obviously the scarecrow) the lion cub (dur) and the guy in a silver suit who's suffering heartbreak (tinman). But for god's sake don't have her fake her own death.
Please don't throw a lovely tragic ending away in a puddle of mushy-gushy rubbish.
And guess what they did?
I wanted to hit them.
It's one of those things that makes me with I could just rewrite the last 10 minutes. I hate it when I want to rewrite things. Because it usually ends up in ultra-depressing fic.
I was wondering about the standing ovation afterwards, and having an intense discussion with Hubby. But then some people actually liked Mama Mia. So hey. Takes all sorts. ;-)
So, it's not like I'm not a huge fan of the Oz books, I am. Or of the Judy Garland film of Wizard of Oz, I am.
And it's not like I didn't appreciate the set decoration, costumes and amazing talent of the lead actors. I do.
And it's not like I didn't go AWWW at the standing ovation and the evident adoration of the audience. I did.
I just didn't rate Wicked as a musical. The songs are okay. It's not an epic fail of the scale of Repo. But the narrative was lazy. And, really, the first half did very little for me. Lots of meta-awareness from the one-dimensional characters (don't tell me a character is wise/funny/silly - SHOW ME) and general blah.
They almost had me in the second half. As it crept closer to the tragic ending, it struck me that they were on to something genius. You know she dies. You know she becomes EVOL. It was a classic supervillian origin story but where all the "good guys" are actually tools.
(sound familiar? *cough* dr horrible did it better *cough*)
And I was thinking - okay, so you've telegraphed the stupid bloke (obviously the scarecrow) the lion cub (dur) and the guy in a silver suit who's suffering heartbreak (tinman). But for god's sake don't have her fake her own death.
Please don't throw a lovely tragic ending away in a puddle of mushy-gushy rubbish.
And guess what they did?
I wanted to hit them.
It's one of those things that makes me with I could just rewrite the last 10 minutes. I hate it when I want to rewrite things. Because it usually ends up in ultra-depressing fic.
I was wondering about the standing ovation afterwards, and having an intense discussion with Hubby. But then some people actually liked Mama Mia. So hey. Takes all sorts. ;-)