Nearly all of us are familiar with The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Perhaps you’ve read the book published in 1900 by L Frank Baum, maybe you were lucky enough to have your grandfather read it aloud and record it on cassette tape so you could listen to it over and over again. You may have seen stage adaptations of the story, or read one or more of the forty sequels, but almost certainly you’ve seen The Wizard of Oz, the award winning 1939 film starring Judy Garland. Haven’t we all grown up singing “We’re Off to See the Wizard” or “If I Only Had a Brain” and definitely “Over the Rainbow”? Then in 1995 Gregory Maguire published “Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West” followed soon after by the 2003 stage premier at the Gershwin Theater on Broadway. It’s been on “Our List of things we want to do” since then. This afternoon we had the distinct pleasure of being spellbound by this prequel to “The Wizard of Oz”, the untold story of the witches of that realm unfolded before our very eyes in the Apollo Victoria Theater production of ”Wicked The Musical” in London’s West End. It’s an incredible story of friendship, of overcoming limitations, of self-discovery, of standing up for one’s beliefs. This powerful production left us in incredible awe. It’s no wonder it’s been in nearly continuous production here at the Apollo Victoria Theater since 2006. It’s a fabulous epidose in our personal search of Oz History. Next up, the movie Wicked is due to be released in November 2024, further embedding the fantasy of Oz into our collective conscious.
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