Wicked

[MrWestEnd]

Oh dear! Oz is quite!!!
Ooh for any of you listening to Elaine Paige today you will of heard Kerry Ellis
She said that in the next year they are going to make Wicked a movie!
She doesnt know who is going to be who though!
KERRY FOR ELPHABA!

[Alex]

Can't really see Kerry getting the part of Elphaba, to tell you the truth. They'll get someone American who can barely sing, I expect. It was always inevitable that it was going to become a film - the rights are owned by Universal Studios and they were going to do a film before Stephen Schwartz approached them - but I'm curious as to what format the film will take. Most likely, I guess, will be a musical version. Probably like how Chicago was done, or the Rent film, as opposed to CATS!. But I'd kinda be interested in how a version of the book (which is excellent) would be transformed into a film. I hope they do that as well.

Well, thought I'd throw this into the discussion. I was thinking after my last visitation about the similarities (and differences) between Wicked and Billy Elliot (because, you know, when you're stuck in a lecture, and there's an hour left, it's funny how your mind starts to wander). They both have extremely different strengths (Billy = a dancy show, Wicked = a singy show) but there are also several scenes and indeed lines that seem to crop up in both of them. For example:


Billy
DAD: I've been thinking.
MRS W: Must've come as a shock to the system

Wicked
FIYERO: I've been thinking -
ELPHABA: Yes, I heard.

Billy
MINERS/POLICE: Solidarity, solidarity. Solidarity forever!

Wicked
GALINDA: In solidarity, and to express my outrage . . .

Billy
During Express Yourself, Michael puts on a hairband with a pink flower

Wicked
For the Ozdust ball during Dancing Through Life, Galinda wears a hairband with a pink flower, which she later slips into Elphaba's hair during Popular.

POPULAR/EXRESS YOURSELF are both lighthearted, involving one person trying to change the image/perspective of the other -
MICHAEL: See! There's nowt wrong with dressing up in woman's clothing!
GALINDA: I'll show you what shoes to wear, how to do your hair.

In a similar vain, NO GOOD DEED/ANGRY DANCE are both loud expressions of how devastated and angry Billy and Elphaba are -
BILLY: Mam would've let us! ARGH!!
ELPHABA: No good deed, will I do . . . AGAIN!

The same is true for ELECTRICITY/DEFYING GRAVITY. Yay for characters proving to the ones who doubted them what they are capable of! Isn't that what Billy does, to both Dad and the panel of examiners? And Elphaba, to the wizard and Glinda, with all her billowing cape and belting anthams? With plenty of dramatic lighting, smoke, and general amazingness to boot, both songs tend to be the ones that people walk out humming.
BILLY: And suddenly I'm flying, flying like a bird. Like electricity.
ELPHABA: To those who'd ground me, take a message back, from me! Tell them how I am defying gravity.

There are even similarities in character traits. Elphaba is certainly an outcast at school, and it's hinted that Billy is as well, to some extent:
BILLY: Spend enough time being bashed in at school (the boxing scene)
SHIZ STUDENTS: (about Elphaba) She's a terror, she's a tartar

And talking of school, Billy and Elphaba both accidentally fall into their chosen fields of expertise, encouraged by their teachers:

Billy
MRS W:Well you are coming again, aren't you?
BILLY: You've gotta be joking! To this crap?

Wicked
MADAME MORRIBLE: Have you ever considered a career in sourcery?
ELPHABA: ... Not really
MADAME MORRIBLE: I shall tutor you privately!

Family-wise, both characters lose their mothers at young ages. They also start out having fathers that don't respect them for their talents and abilities, (the difference being here that Billy's father comes around to respecting him, whilst Elphaba's remains shamed until he dies).
DAD: I've been busting my guts out, trying to find you the fifty pees, and you're running around here like a fruit!
FREXSPAR (Elphaba's father): Elphaba. TAKE CARE OF YOUR SISTER! And do try not to talk so much!

There are others that I've noticed. Both Big Davey and Doctor Dillamond have slightly odd eating habits. The Wizard and Mister Braithwaite are both seriously afraid of physical confrontation. Whilst Fiyero and Mrs Wilkinson have remarkably similar philosophies regarding life (Born to Boogie or Dancing Through Life?) But what are these similarities down to? Well, some of them can be put down to being shared in the 'musical formula', which is the idea that all successful musicals follow the same basic recipe. Things that go into this formula include the traditional 'I want' number (The Wizard and I/Shine), the eleventh hour song (For Good/The Letter Reprise), the dramatic angry part (No Good Deed/Angry Dance), the One That Everyone Remembers (Defying Gravity/Electricity) and the closing Finale (Finale: No One Mourns The Wicked/Finale: What We Need Is Individuality). As for the rest of the similarities - were they down to inspiration? Accidental? I can't see them being delibrately stolen. Who knows?

Can anyone point out any significant differences/similarities between the two musicals? And can anyone possibly tell me how I can pump out nearly a thousand words on the subject of similarities between Billy and Wicked, but struggle to get past the title for my latest English assignment, Discuss How Location Has Changed And Affected Early English Theatre.

[MrWestEnd]

I agree some big Hollywood star will probably get Elphaba.
One is that both Musicals start with a big number
The Stars look down and No one mourns the wicked.
I know its a bad similarity but it is a simalrity

[chocchipcookie26]

Pretty much all Musicals start with a big number :L
x

[MrWestEnd]

Pretty much all Musicals start with a big number :L
x

Well thats true!
Ok forget what i said
Lets say....
Ooh at end they both leave their best friend behind!!

[ITK]

I'm pretty sure you can draw similarities from a whole load of musicals and other shows about themes in Wicked/Billy.

[Alex]

I'm pretty sure you can draw similarities from a whole load of musicals and other shows about themes in Wicked/Billy.

Hence the 'Musical Formula' theory.

What?? Just a bit of fun . . .

[MrWestEnd]

Britians got Talent fans
MEEEEE

Tonight watch Britains got More talent, well actually watch every one of them.
As I dont know which it is.
BUTTTT


Wicked is going to feature in Britains got Talent on Britains got more talent.
I know that Dianne Pilkington is on it. Not sure which other cast members!
But if you watch closely one of the videos its Steves blah blah or something.
And the second image is of the Wonderful Wizard of Oz as his robot self!

[Alex]

Had an email this morning informing me that (ex) Wicked superstar Kerry Ellis, known to some (well, me) as the Sexy Skirtless Seductress of Song has added a fourth date to her songbook concerts in June. She's now performing Saturday the 20th, which I'm attending, Sunday the 21st, Thursday the 25th, and now Friday the 26th. Tickets go on sale tomorrow (27th May) at 11am.

Initially, I was just going for the one performance on the Saturday, but I'm now going for the Friday one as well. I was sorely tempted when she added the extra Thursday one, but didn't go for it because I was poor at the time. So the fact that she's added the Friday one just looks like the Almighty Theatreland God wanted me to go to more than one! That's my justification, and I'm sticking to it.

Just need to book tickets for the Friday and stalk the Shaw Theatre to locate the stage door now . . .

[MrWestEnd]

Arghhhhh!
I cant go to that one either!!! My sisters at a Wedding! And I dont know my way round London!
I could go on the 25th but its my Nans birthday!!!
KERRY DO ANOTHER ONE!!!!

Anyway back to Wicked.
I think we should make a Kerry Ellis topic.