Wicked - not so wicked cool

I don’t think I’m difficult to please, as far as entertainment goes (musicals, films, books, etc). But I must say I was let down by the musical Wicked last night. I rushed to finish the book before the show though I did realize the show would have to be different than the book. The book is a decent length; it was going to have to be summarized. But the show was nothing like the book – it was an entirely different version of things. Personalities were not the same . . . sometimes characters were merged to create a single character, but in doing so the character was not true to the book at all and a little insulting to the rather well-developed character I came to care about in the book; other times the characters were just blatantly changed. Events were different of course and the ending was different. Now that’s just not right – that’s messing with the book AND the movie and I assume the original book(s) too. I need to read those.
I think I was also a little sad because I could relate to Elphie in the book, but not really Elphie in the musical. There is definitely a part of me that can be quite a bit like Elphie . . . dark, moody, isolated, sad, and confused. I try not to be this way, but I have a penchant for negativity and a gloomy outlook on things (think Debbie Downer). I was annoyed that the musical messed with her character, her character’s character I mean. They turned her into something she was not – that would have made her very mad and nearly wicked.
Rather than summarize the book, I think the musical’s creators looked at the idea the book was trying to relay about the existence of good and evil. Then they worked towards that, adjusting the content accordingly to get the audience thinking. I don’t mind that. I can see what they were doing. I just feel that surely there could have been a way to stay a little truer to the characters at least. Also, the book was rather dark and the musical wasn’t at all. Are there dark musicals though?
The main idea in the book or a main idea is good and evil. Does evil exist? Is it something you are born with, something you become, or something you can be pushed into even? Is it black & white or are there grey areas? How much of what we call evil is merely perception? If we changed the way we looked at it; if we got another point-of-view would we still call it evil? The musical used history as an example . . . on one side you have an invader, but to the other side they are crusaders, which is correct? The one that sticks ends up shaping our collective view. Genghis Khan invaded many parts of Asia; Europeans explored & settled North America; and the Catholic Church crusaded into the Middle East – right? What about the other side of the story? What about what Khan’s tribe thought, or the Native Americans, or the Moors and Middle Eastern peoples? Did they, would they, do they agree with the labels and the implied good/evil attached?

In summary, the only way you’d probably not like the musical is if you don’t like musicals, or you’ve already read the book (and liked it). If you like musicals and you haven’t read the book you should be good. I don’t think you even need to necessarily like the Wizard of Oz movie to like the musical.