Wicked

This is the green edition of Adventures in the Midwest. (Don't worry, I'm not going to preach environmentalism. Except for one little thing: RECYCLE!) I just have a few comments to make about the Broadway smash Wicked. Mike and I saw the musical last weekend in St. Louis and it's such a fabulous, smart, and funny show, I couldn't resist a little commentary.

First, a brief synopsis of the show (you can read more -- and hear some sound clips -- here): Long before Dorothy dropped in on the land of Oz, two other girls met there. One, born with emerald-green skin, is smart, fiery and misunderstood. The other is beautiful, ambitious and very popular. Wicked: The Musical is the story of how these two unlikely friends end up as the Wicked Witch of the West and Glinda the Good Witch.

The musical is, in large part, all about spin. About how a person is assigned a simplistic label and then, in the eyes of the public becomes that quality. (i.e., the Wicked Witch of the West). In a song called "Popular" that Glinda sings she says:

When I see depressing creatures
With unprepossessing features
I remind them on their own we have
To think of
Celebrated heads of state or
Specially great communicators
Did they have brains or knowledge?
Don't make me laugh

They were Popular - please
It's all about Pop-u-oo-lar
It's not about aptitude
It's the way you're viewed
So it's very shrewd to be
Very, very Popular
Like me!

This may seem like a non sequitur, but I'll go for it anyway: Since the Iowa caucus results blew all predictions of an "inevitable" race between Clinton and Giuliani out of the water, we have a bit of a chance to look at candidates with a (slightly) fresh perspective. Sure, Clinton has been labeled the "experienced" candidate, Obama the candidate of "change," Huckabee the "Christian leader," McCain the "maverick." But what does that really mean? Those one-word labels (like Wicked or Good) are completely meaningless when decontextualized, as they generally are in the press. In order to get any substantive information about policy plans, I think the best place to go is to a candidate's website to find out what is behind the carefully crafted look and message that is released through the media. It's not about who is "popular" or "wicked" or "good" or anything else. To participate in the process in a meaningful way, we need to know more than the brief and superficial descriptions we get from the media.

Ponder on one more lyrical example of how smart this show is. The Wizard sings the following lyrics:

A man's called a traitor - or a liberator
A rich man's a thief - or philanthropist
Is one a crusader - or ruthless invader?
It's all in which label
Is able to persist
There are precious few at ease
With moral ambiguities
So we act as though they don't exist. . .